“Straight Life”: The Jazz Journey of Art Pepper

This chapter examines the haunting autobiography of Art Pepper, one of the leading jazz saxophonists of the postwar period, reading it against recent work on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue and West Coast jazz, more generally. Pepper’s account of his experiences with Black music and culture reprises some of the central themes of this study, including a white jazzman’s early recognition of the Black roots of jazz, his desire to belong to that world, and the euphoria and limitations of jazz interracialism. As the only autobiography in this book coauthored by a woman, Straight Life opens pathways for considering women’s resistance to the misogyny and rigid gendering that has dominated jazz culture. Laurie Pepper’s account of her central role during her husband’s final decade illuminates the authority and influence of a jazzwoman in a study of texts in which women’s voices are generally on the periphery or absent entirely.

Theory and praxis of the professionalisation of the Portuguese navy: The navy officer corps, 1750-1807

During the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, the most important European monarchies carried out reforms of their navies. Naval officers, who underwent a thorough process of professionalisation – training, education, functions, missions, promotions – were the best exponent of the new idea of the navy being put forward. Portugal was an eminently maritime monarchy, but the professionalisation of the navy did not begin until the second half of the eighteenth century. The reforms culminated in the 1780s and the 1790s, when naval officers and cadets were organised according to a different structure and new regulations were issued. By applying a comparative approach, the central avenue of analysis will be twofold: on one hand, reviewing the theory behind the process; and on the other hand, examining the praxis, in order to determine if these theories were effectively implemented.

Influence of Contextual Factors on Soundscape in Urban Open Spaces

The acoustic environment in urban open spaces has played a key role for users. This study analyzed the different effects of contextual factors, including shop openness, season, and commercial function, on the soundscape in two typical commercial pedestrian streets. The following observations were based on a series of measurements, including crowd measurements, acoustic environment measurements, and a questionnaire survey. First, the number of talkers in Central Avenue was greater than the number of talkers in Kuan Alley in cases with the same crowd density, while there was no significant difference in the sound pressure level. When the crowd density increased, acoustic comfort trended downward in Kuan Alley, while the value of acoustic comfort in Central Avenue took a parabolic shape. Second, there was no significant difference between the number of talkers in summer and the number of talkers in winter; however, when crowd density increased by 0.1 persons/m2, the level of sound pressure increased by 1.3 dBA in winter and 2.2 dBA in summer. Acoustic comfort took a parabolic shape that first increased and then decreased in both winter and summer. Regarding commercial function, as the crowd density increased, the number of talkers and the level of sound pressure both increased, while acoustic comfort decreased in three zones with different commercial functions. In addition, a cross-tab analysis was used to discuss the relationship between the number of talkers and the level of sound pressure, and it was found to be positive.