Centre-Periphery relations and European Jazz Identities

The evolution of jazz in Europe is inseparable from its interactions with the cultural heritage of the nation-states where it first appeared following WWI. Currently, the European soundscape of jazz is characterised by cross-national cultural exchanges through which local and transnational identities are negotiated within essentially multicultural contexts. This contribution explores the specificities of European jazz diasporas by analysing the collective strategies and the formal and informal networks of jazz musicians, promoters, festival organisers and policy experts to provide a nuanced view on how musicians with multi-ethnic backgrounds negotiate identities through jazz. By introducing the notion of ‘virtual diaspora’, this work also examines the crucial role of remote communication channels in the organisation of European jazz networks after the 1990's and thus contributes to expanding our understanding of transnational circulation of jazz.