From Clubs to Concert Halls: The Influence of Performance Venue on Collective Identity Formation in Jazz

As a jazz educator and musician, I have often experienced an incongruency between the formalized customs found in many educational jazz performances and the more informal conventions emblematic to the art form. As jazz music has historically migrated from clubs to concert halls, a renegotiation of musicians' and audiences' social behaviors has followed suit. Framed partially through Christopher Small's critique of the symphony hall's implicit power over participants' behaviors, I utilized the theory of collective identity to explore the influence of the performance venue on musician-audience dynamics during a formal jazz performance. Through this case study, I explored how meanings are generated when audiences and musicians interact within a musical tradition that may, at first glance, appear incongruent with the implicit customs of the venue (i.e., jazz music within a traditional concert hall). I concluded that characteristics of the performance venue could potentially impose some influences on musician-audience relationships, but the development of a welcoming and intimate climate is ultimately of greater salience when establishing a sense of interconnectedness between musicians and audiences. Framed through these findings, I offer implications for jazz educators seeking to uphold the participatory ethos central to the jazz idiom by prioritizing a genuine and intimate connection with their audiences.