Norman Meehan
Programme Leader – Jazz
Associate Professor in Jazz
BMus MMus Massey, DipExMus WP
Norman Meehan teaches historical and critical jazz papers.
An active jazz pianist, Norman Meehan has performed original music at festivals and in concerts around New Zealand, and on radio for Radio New Zealand Concert. His most recent CD Sun Moon Stars Rain (Attar Media, 2009) sets poetry by North American poet E.E. Cummings. It is a theme that is continued on his forthcoming CD Buddhist Rain (Attar Media, 2010), which features song settings of poems by New Zealand poet Bill Manhire. Earlier releases include Modigliani (Ode Records, 2007), which was a finalist for Tui Jazz Album of the Year, and The Bells (Yellow Eye Records, 2004).
His research interests include improvisation and its relationship to composition, New Zealand popular music, and creativity in jazz. Publications include Time Will Tell: Conversations with Paul Bley (Berkeley Hills Books, 2003), an extensive article on Paul Bley for The Annual Review of Jazz Studies (Vol. 12), articles on Paul Bley and Wayne Shorter in the IAJE Research Proceedings Yearbook, articles on improvisation and composition for the Jazz Educator’s Journal, and an extensive series of articles on improvisation for Downbeat (USA). He has contributed chapters to Just Like Us (forthcoming), a primer on New Zealand music, and Home, Land and Sea (Pearson Education, forthcoming) on New Zealand popular music.
He is a regular contributor to Radio New Zealand Concert’s Composer of the Week series, writing and presenting extensive histories of jazz musicians Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman and Dave Brubeck.
Current projects include a biography of expatriate New Zealand jazz pianist Mike Nock that will be published in 2010 by Victoria University Press, and articles discussing saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s improvisational strategies, and the various forms creativity may take in jazz performance contexts.
In 2009 Norman’s teaching was recognized by Massey University with a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, and a national award from AKO Aotearoa for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching. He was made an Associate Professor of Massey University in 2011.
Contact details
phone: +64 4 801 5799 ext 62497
room: 1D44, Mt Cook Campus
email: norman.meehan@nzsm.ac.nz
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Last Updated:
January 25, 2012
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