Becoming a Follower of the Merseysippi Jazz Band: An Approach from Ethnography, Autoethnography and Social World Analysis - A Study in Resocialization

Abstract

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, 1845IntroductionThis article is set within two main sets of substantive literatures, namely that of the literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK, from academic popular music and jazz studies perspectives, and that on the elderly and music, from the standpoint of ethnography and participant observation (Atkinson and Hammersley 1994). More generally, it may be seen as a contribution to the role of popular music in the everyday life of elderly people (Unruh 1983; Bennett 2001; Smith 2009); and to a social worlds approach to sociology, cultural studies, and popular music and jazz studies (Becker 2008; Finnegan 2007; Martin 2005, 2006; Unruh 1979, 1983).The relevant literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK has grown remarkably in the last few years. From a very small base up to 2007 (Goodey 1968; Frith 1988; McKay 2003, 2004, 2005; Moore 2007), we can now add Shipton (2012), those of the Equinox popular music history series edited by Alyn Shipton (Heining 2012; Gelly 2014; Chris Barber with Alyn Shipton 2014), as well as my own studies (Ekins 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). The narrative turn in contemporary social sciences and cultural studies has ensured that life history, ethnographic and participant observation studies have become a major feature of studies of music and the elderly. Work on ageing, nostalgia and popular music (Bennett 2001) has become more nuanced as the ethnographic turn has predominated, and it is noticeable that in special journal issues such as 'As Time Goes By: Music, Dancing and Ageing' (Fairley and Forman 2012), it is the ethnographic component that predominates.However, it must be said that the ethnographic component in the academic literature on New Orleans revivalist jazz is often very thin. Moreover, in both of the relevant literatures being considered-on New Orleans jazz revivalism and on ageing and music-theory and methodology are undeveloped at best and non-existent at worst. It is these gaps in the literature that I address in this article.The theoretical contribution of this study is an exploration of selected interrelations between ethnography (Stock 2004; Hammersley and Atkinson 2007), autoethnography (Ellis and Bochner 2000; Anderson 2006) and social world analysis (Strauss 1978, 1982, 1984, 1993; Clarke 2005; Martin 2006) as set within a social interactionist (symbolic interactionist) approach (Becker 2008; Blumer 1969; Prus 1996, 1997) to popular music studies (Cohen 1993; Stock 2004; Hesmondaigh and Negus 2002) and jazz studies (Martin 2005). The more recent substantive focus of the study is ethnographic/participant observation work I carried out at a public jazz 'event' (Stock 2004), namely the weekly residency of the Merseysippi Jazz Band (MJB) held at the Liverpool Cricket Club, Aigburth, Liverpool, UK, on Monday evenings, between 8.30pm and 11.00pm.This public jazz event is sponsored by the Liverpool Cricket Club which provides a room, filled with tables and chairs-together with the use of an adjacent club bar room (see Appendix 2). The band provides its own microphones, amplification and speakers. At the very occasional special event, such as the band's 62nd anniversary party that I attended, the band has the use of an additional adjacent room where free Lancashire hotpot may be served. I attended as a participant observer at seventeen of these sessions between November 2009 and May 2010, and on eight occasions between January 2011 and May 2011. I followed up my reflections on these observations in email and Facebook communication with a number of relevant key informants in the period spanning 2011 to 2014.3The Merseysippi Jazz Band (hereafter, MJB)-see Appendix 1-has been a fixture of the Liverpool jazz scene, indeed, the Liverpool music scene, for so long that few older Liverpudlians would be unaware of their existence; similarly, for those familiar with New Orleans revivalist jazz in the UK. …