Biography and CV

Tom Perchard developed a strong interest in music just in time for hip-hop's so-called ‘golden age’, following which he began exploring the African American music tradition in retrograde, becoming fascinated at first by soul and then by jazz. His interests have subsequently expanded to include various European art musics. Tom took his BMus, MMus and PhD degrees at Goldsmiths, University of London. After completion of his PhD he taught and was programme director at the University of Westminster, before returning to Goldsmiths to take up the post of lecturer in 2008.

Current research interests

The European reception of jazz in the 20th-century; jazz and European theories of modernity; music and race, especially as construed and constructed by European commentators on jazz; hip-hop and sampling; jazz and popular music historiography.

Current teaching

Popular Music: History, Style, Technique; Analytical and Contextual Studies; Approaches to Contemporary Music (all Level 1); Topics in African American Music; Indeterminacy and Improvisation; Research Essay (all Level 3); Encounters in African American Music (Masters level).

Winner, Goldsmiths Peake Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, 2010.

Scholarly publications

Article. ‘Hugues Panassié Contra Walter Benjamin: Bodies, Masses and the Iconic Jazz Recording in Mid-Century France’. Popular Music and Society. In press (2012).

Article. ‘Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s’. American Music. In press (2011).

Article. ‘Thelonious Monk Meets the French critics: Art and Entertainment, Improvisation and its Simulacrum’. Jazz Perspectives. In press (2011).

Article. ‘Tradition, Modernity and the Supernatural Swing: Re-Reading ‘Primitivism’ in Hugues Panassié’s Writing on Jazz’. Popular Music. 30/1 (2011). 25-45.

Article. ‘Writing Jazz Biography: Race, Research and Narrative Representation’. Popular Music History. 2/2 (2007). 119-145.

Book. Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture. London: Equinox (2006). Italian translation published as Lee Morgan: La vita, la musica e il suo tempo. Bologna: Odoya (2009).

Selected reviews of scholarly books

‘Robin D.G. Kelley: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original’. Jazz Research Journal. 3/2 (2009). 212-9.

‘Eithne Quinn: Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap’. Popular Music. 24/3 (2005). 459-462.

‘Emily Thompson: The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933. The Wire. 227 (January 2003). 82.

‘Russell Reising [ed]: Every Sound There Is: The Beatles’ Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll’. The Wire. 225 (November 2002). 91.

‘John Sobol: Digitopia Blues: Race, Technology, and the American Voice’. The Wire. 223 (September 2002). 80.

Selected Papers presented

‘Re-reading “Primitivism” in Hugues Panassié’s Writing on Jazz’. Jazz and Race, Past and Present Conference, Open University. November 2010.

‘Hugues Panassié and Readings of Primitivism in Early French Jazz Criticism’. Invited lecture, University of Sheffield. December 2009.

‘Thelonious Monk Meets the French Critics: Improvisation and its Simulacra’. Mediating Jazz Conference, University of Salford. November 2009.

‘Too Clean to be Messed With’. International Leeds Jazz Conference, Leeds College of Music. March 2005.

‘Eddie Prévost’s Friday Night Workshops’. Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, University of Guelph, Canada. September 2001.

Broadcasting

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Clifford Brown. Transmitted 31 October 2010.

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Booker Little. Transmitted 13 June 2009.

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Lee Morgan. Transmitted 11 July 2008.

Writer and presenter, Resonance FM. Memoir City: Oral Histories of Londoners’ Musical Lives. Transmitted January-March 2006.

Reviewing posts

Editorial board member, Jazz Research Journal.

Regular referee, Popular Music.

Contributor, The Wire, 2001-2007. Monthly reviews and articles on hip-hop, jazz and improvisation, contemporary composition, electronica and experimental work; also reviews of concerts and scholarly books.