Dr Peter Elsdon

Peter Elsdon is a musicologist. jazz musician. and improviser. His research interests are wide-ranging, and include jazz studies, improvisation, popular music, sound studies, and studies of recorded music. His publications cover a similarly broad area, from work on Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, to chapters on John Coltrane, theorising improvisation, viewing jazz performance, and music and gesture.

He is currently working on a book entitled 'Finding One: Metering Practice in Contemporary Jazz'. This project re-evaluates the use of so-called 'complex' or 'advanced' rhythmic techniques in jazz, and through interviews with musicians seeks to understand how these practices unfold, and how musicians conceptualise rhythm and metre in their own practice.

In 2013 Oxford University Press published Peter’s book on Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert, a seminal recording which is now seen as one of the cornerstones of the German ECM label’s output. Peter has been invited to speak about his research on Jarrett at the National Library in Oslo, Norway, on German radio. and was invited by the US Library of Congress to author an entry on The Köln Concert for their National Recording Registry.

In 2010/11, he worked on an AHRC-funded research project on the use of Audiovisual Resources in Jazz History with Björn Heile and Jenny Doctor. This project resulted in a conference, and the collection Watching Jazz, published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Peter has also worked extensively as a jazz musician in the local region, performing in small groups and big bands, and working with many nationally recognised musicians. He also directs a jazz ensemble in the University, who have played at the Hull Jazz Festival alongside the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and supported Snake Davis at the Coastival Festival in Scarborough. Peter has also brought professional musicians to the University to work alongside students, including songwriter/keys player Oli Rockberger, and guitarist Niko Tsonev.

Peter also works as part of the School's Hidden Sounds project, developing improvised electronic performances using field recordings at venues around the region and as part of local festivals.