The twentieth century jazz piano trio: the rise of an iconic jazz paradigm

Considerando a gravação de 1947 The Bud Powell Trio como a gravação referência de trio de piano de jazz moderno, esta tese centra-se no surgimento e evolução do trio de jazz moderno cujo líder é pianista. Começando por apresentar, uma resenha dos estilos e técnicas para piano de da época pre-Powell, esta tese investiga a génese dos trios de piano jazz e examina três dos mais influeciais pianostas de jazz e lideres dos mais legendários trios de piano jazz modernos: Bud Powell, Bill Evans e Keith Jarrett. Esta tese também abordará o paradoxo inerente a um sistema democrático - a expressão própria do individuo, em justaposição com a responsabilidade para com o todo – e a sua inequivoca analogia com o gestalt do trio de piano de jazz moderno. Desde a primeira gravação de um trio de jazz com pianista como líder em 1935, o trio de jazz moderno, evoluiu tornando-se um exemplo de democracia – um contexto de igualdade em que as funções rítmicas, harmónicas, e melódicas estão igualmente distribuídas entre os três instrumentistas, que são ao mesmo tempo solistas e acompanhadores. Esta tese sublinha a eficácia do trio de jazz moderno – o seu início, e porque subsiste – baseado na sua força e beleza estética; ABSTRACT: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY JAZZ PIANO TRIO – The Rise of an Iconic Jazz Paradigm by Susan Muscarella Designating Bud Powell’s 1947 recording, The Bud Powell Trio, as the modern jazz piano trio benchmark, here, this thesis traces the emergence and evolution of the pianistled, piano-bass-drums-comprised modern jazz piano trio. Beginning with a general overview of pre-Powell jazz piano styles and techniques, this thesis investigates the earliest, most salient pre-Powell jazz piano trios, and examines three seminal modern jazz pianists and leaders of legendary modern jazz piano trios, Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. This thesis also brings to the fore the paradox inherent in a democratic system – individual self-expression juxtaposed with responsibility to the whole – and its unequivocal analogy to the modern jazz piano trio gestalt. From the earliest recording of a primarily piano-dominated piano-bass-drums-comprised jazz piano trio in 1935, the modern jazz piano trio has evolved to become a paragon of democracy – an egalitarian playing field in which rhythmic, harmonic and melodic roles are evenly distributed among all three instrumentalists who have come to serve as both soloists and accompanists.

The 'rotiferologist' effect and other global correlates of species richness in monogonont rotifers

Global biodiversity patterns are often driven by diff erent environmental variables at diff erent scales. However, it is still controversial whether there are general trends, whether similar processes are responsible for similar patterns, and/or whether confounding eff ects such as sampling bias can produce misleading results. Our aim is twofold: 1) assessing the global correlates of diversity in a group of microscopic animals little analysed so far, and 2) inferring the infl uence of sampling intensity on biodiversity analyses. As a case study, we choose rotifers, because of their high potential for dispersal across the globe. We assembled and analysed a new worldwide dataset of records of monogonont rotifers, a group of microscopic aquatic animals, from 1960 to 1992. Using spatially explicit models, we assessed whether the diversity patterns conformed to those commonly obtained for larger organisms, and whether they still held true after controlling for sampling intensity, variations in area, and spatial structure in the data. Our results are in part analogous to those commonly obtained for macroorganisms (habitat heterogeneity and precipitation emerge as the main global correlates), but show some divergence (potential absence of a latitudinal gradient and of a large-scale correlation with human population). Moreover, the eff ect of sampling eff ort is remarkable, accounting for 50% of the variability; this strong eff ect may mask other patterns such as latitudinal gradients. Our study points out that sampling bias should be carefully considered when drawing conclusions from large-scale analyses, and calls for further faunistic work on microorganisms in all regions of the world to better understand the generality of the processes driving global patterns in biodiversity.

The Evolution of Norms in Trade and Financial Networks in the First Global Age: the case of Simon Ruiz's network

In the 16th century, merchants and bankers gained a social influence and political relevance, due to their capacity of ‘faire travailler l’argent des autres’ (Benassar 1972:50). For the success of their activity, they built evolving networks with cooperative partners. These networks were much more than the sum of all partners. In the case study of the Castilian merchant Simon Ruiz, the network functioned in an unique way and independent from any formal institutional control. Its functioning varied in how different partners were associated and the particular characteristics and contents of these social ties. Being a self-organized network, since the formal institutions of trade regulation and the Crown control didn’t influence the network functioning, the Simon Ruiz network was deeply embedded in the economic and financial performance of the Hispanic Empires, in two different ways. The first, purely commercial. The monopolistic regime which was applied by the two crowns in the trade of certain colonial goods was insufficient to the costs of imperial maintenance. In such manner, particulars tried to rent a contract of exploration of trade, paying an annual sum to the crown, as in the Portuguese trade. Some of these agents also moved along Simon Ruiz’s network. But others were involved in relations with the imperial crowns on a second way, the finance. Maintaining Empires implied a lot of human, technical but also financial means, and most of the times Kings were forced to recur to these merchants, as we will demonstrate. What were the implications of these collaborative relations in both parts? The main goal of this paper is to comprehend the evolution of informal norms within Simon Ruiz’s network and how they influenced cooperative behavior of the agents, particularly analyzing mechanisms of sanctioning, control, punishment and reward, as well as their consequences in different dimensions: future interactions, social repercussions and in agent’s economic health and activity. The research is based in the bills of exchange and commercial correspondence of the private archive of Simon Ruiz, located in the Provincial Archive of Valladollid, Spain.

Genetic signature of the northward expansion of the Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon (Herpestidae) in the Iberian Peninsula

In the last three decades, the range of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) has increased in the Iberian Peninsula. A panel of microsatellites was used to confront the patterns of genetic diversity of the species with the scenario of its recent northward expansion in its Iberian range. Evidence of substructure and significant genetic differentiation within the studied population were recorded, with a central-northern subpopulation (CNorth) and a southern subpopulation (S). Northward range expansion was supported by the observed allelic frequencies, diversity parameters, and observed heterozygosity of the studied loci, with S showing a higher allelic diversity and a higher number of private alleles than CNorth. Patterns of isolation-by-distance and isolation-by-barrier as a result of the Tagus River were demonstrated, suggesting that the river acted as a semi-permeable barrier, possibly leading to genetic differentiation of the studied population. The observed individuals from CNorth in southern locations and individuals from S in central/northern areas might comprise evidence for long range dispersals across the studied range. A bottleneck event after population expansion was supported by a significant heterozygosity deficiency in CNorth, which is in agreement with a scenario of founder events occurring in recently colonized areas after the crossing of the Tagus River.