Jazzy Nerves, Aching Feet, and Foxtrots: New Zealand's Jazz Age

The Team from Alexander Turnbull Library

The Public History Talks are hosted by the Ministry for Culture & Heritage History Group at the National Library of New Zealand. They are usually held on the first Wednesday of the month March to November.

Talks in this series are recorded and will be available online on the Ministry for Culture and Heritage website.

Date: Wednesday, 2 May, 2018
Time: 12:10 to 1:00pm
Cost: Free. Booking is not required.
Location: Programme Rooms, Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon

Come and hear Dr Aleisha Ward, the 2017 Douglas Lilburn Research Fellow, explore facets of ‘jazz’ in New Zealand’s Jazz Age. Contrary to popular belief, 1920s New Zealand was not a quiet, staid society that ‘closed at 5’. Hear about, a flourishing, vibrant, urban landscape and a burgeoning jazz scene.

New Zealand's 1920s burgeoning jazz scene
The 1920s were a period of musical and cultural turmoil around the world. In cultural histories of New Zealand, much of this is absent. In fact, reading many of these histories you might wonder if New Zealand even had jazz, let alone a Jazz Age.

Dr Ward will explore facets of ‘jazz’ in the Jazz Age, including how:

jazz as both music and dance, were imported and propagated in New Zealand
jazz was conceived of extra-musically, and
the extra-musical concepts of jazz affected New Zealand society in the inter-war period.

About the speaker
Dr Aleisha Ward is the 2017 Douglas Lilburn Research Fellow and a recipient of the 2018 Ministry of Culture and Heritage New Zealand History Research Trust award investigating the Jazz Age in New Zealand.

Aleisha is an award-winning writer, freelance editor, and lecturer in music history. She writes about jazz in New Zealand for a number of publications including audioculture.co.nz, New Zealand Musician and on her own blog NZ Jazz.


Image: Ace-High DAnce BAnd. Ref: PAColl-1729-1