Author Archives: ajkluth

In early January I had the flash of realization that this year’s NYC Winter Jazzfest occurred the weekend immediately before classes began at CWRU. This meant that if I was quick about it, I could actually get to NYC for a few days to check out this amazing event for the first time in years,Continue reading “Still Processing NYC Winter Jazzfest”

It’s been a week since the record release party for RA Washington and Jah Nada’s recent album, In Search of Our Father’s Gardens. I’m still buzzing. It was a great party with a good sized listening crowd. Cleveland’s lucky to have a spot like Crobar to host this kind of scene. The band was ledContinue reading “Record Release Recap”

I was digging through a hard drive looking for some stems from an old recording session and came across something unrelated I hadn’t heard in a while. While living in Erfurt, Germany a few years back I became friends with Philipp Hermann, an excellent pianist and composer. We used to play duo a lot, justContinue reading “A 2018 Recording With Philipp Hermann”

Two new records I was fortunate to contribute to are seeing release this season: Soothsayer by Kyle Kidd and In Search of Our Father’s Gardens by RA Washington and Jah Nada. So much love for these folks. So much gratitude to be in this community of artists. Kidd’s Soothsayer (American Dreams 2022) is a bangerContinue reading “Guested on a few recent records: Kyle Kidd, RA Washington & Jah Nada”

Read a transcript of this presentation HERE View a PDF of the presentation slideshow HERE Please join the CWRU Department of Music this Friday, September 9th at 4:00 PM EST in the Harkness Chapel classroom for our first installment in this semester’s Colloquium Series. Our very own AJ Kluth will be presenting a talk entitledContinue reading “CWRU Colloquium: “What is this Revenant Called Jazz?””

I’m stoked to talk with Kyle Kidd about life, art, and everything next week. Come through at 4pm, April 14 if you’re in Cleveland! This talk is part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival and is generously funded by the Center for Popular Music Studies at CWRU.

As the academic semester winds down I’m choosing to feel good about the work I get to do as a scholar in critical music studies. In these last few years my teaching and mentorship opportunities have become increasingly important to me as modes of praxis; being part of a community that’s responding to the receivedContinue reading “Let’s keep going.”

Abstract: This essay takes seriously the assertion that our intentional practices of stillness change us – often for the better. Developing the idea of stillness-as-listening, various theoretical perspectives from the humanities are offered to support the idea that an intentional cultivation of a listening practice might productively augment a subject’s horizons of understanding. Such aContinue reading “On the Efficacy of Stillness-as-Listening: Perspectives from the Humanities”

Hey – do you love clipping.? Yeah, me too. They’re…amazing. So, I’m excited that something I wrote about their 2016 record, Splendor & Misery has recently been published. Here’s an abstract: ABSTRACT: Upon first listen, clipping.’s record Splendor & Misery (2016) is a strange document: an Afrofuturist record that is as much Euro-American avant-garde as it is hip hop.Continue reading “New clipping. essay published (!)”

Yet another opportunity for a public-access style conference video! I was grateful to share this talk as part of a panel called “Music, ‘Art’ and the White Racial Frame: Aesthetics and Critical Race Theory,” organized by the Royal Music Association’s Music and Philosophy Study Group. My talk, entitled “Decolonizing Ontological and Epistemological Assumptions of InstitutionalContinue reading “RMA – Music & Phil Study Group: A Conference Paper”