Credit: Rebecca W. K. Sroka

Porter, center, with students from the jazz master's program, who come from as far away as Finland, Israel, and Taiwan. American jazz is undergoing a metamorphisis as musicians from other cultures contribute new interpretations.

It’s been called America’s greatest cultural achievement, and for more than a century, the sounds of American jazz have been transforming music around the world.

But over the last couple of decades, “America’s music” has been picking up foreign accents from European and Asian nations.

“It’s the globalization of jazz,” explains Lewis Porter, founder and director of the master’s program in jazz history and research since fall 1997 and a music professor on the Newark Campus. As a jazz scholar and acclaimed jazz musician, Porter has followed the evolution of jazz and teaches his students about it. Jazz in the 21st century, says Porter, is an art form that has transformed music globally and is itself being transformed by its overseas fans.

That internationalization is reflected in the jazz history and research program – the only one of its kind in the world. During its first semester, the program’s handful of students included one from Korea. Since its inception, about 17 of the program’s 90 graduates have been from overseas, according to Porter, hailing from nations including Spain, New Zealand, Taiwan, Israel, Japan, and Cyprus.

Regardless of their homelands, all bring to class a respect for traditional American jazz combined with a jazz tradition from their own nations, influenced by their own folk and traditional music. In some countries, the jazz sound incorporates electronic sounds, such as synthesizers, and the use of computers, Porter says.

Some of Porter’s overseas students come to the program determined to do more than simply play jazz; they want to write new music and in the process create a national form of jazz for their homelands. Porter cites a current student whose goal is to create “Finnish jazz,” apart from American jazz. Until recently, “Europeans were rarely considered jazz innovators,” despite their long love affair with jazz dating back to the days of World War II, Porter says.

“European musicians approach jazz like classical music, in an analytical manner; jazz education in the United States approaches jazz in the same way, partially,” says award-winning jazz trumpeter Gregory “Gershon” Rivkin, one of Porter’s students.

Born in Russia, Rivkin migrated to Israel as a teenager, and in both nations, the jazz he first heard and loved was classic American jazz. But, says Rivkin, “your cultural background always comes through in your music.” Many European jazz musicians, he notes, “don’t sound American” because they have incorporated native musical styles into their music. He considers it a natural evolution of jazz, an “inevitable assimilation of jazz into other cultures.”

Taiwan native Grace Weng, a pianist, notes that, in comparison with other Asian countries, jazz in Taiwan is still in its early stages of development, though growing in popularity. “Given the positive responses from all the jazz that has been happening in Taipei recently, there is much to look forward to,” she says. Jazz musicians in Taiwan are finding enthusiastic interest and support from local audiences, and that is helping “to propel the local music forward and spark innovative ideas.”

Porter has always sought to give his graduate students an international perspective, since the trend toward globalizing jazz began years before Rutgers’ master’s program. But in recent years he has seen a sharp uptick in both new jazz compositions from abroad and serious jazz scholarship by international scholars. Modern technology, Porter notes, makes it easy for any jazz musician or scholar in any nation to listen to music from anywhere, download it, or debate about it in chat rooms.

“This isn’t some fad,” Porter says. He points out that American jazz musicians, who used to perform frequently in Europe, are no longer in as much demand; they have been replaced by European-born jazz musicians. The worldwide interest in jazz, he says, is only going to grow.