Abstract
This article explores the representations of Portuguese jazz musicians about the synergy (and asynergy) of the actions of different jazz art world actors. We analyse musicians’ perceptions about these actors’ contributions and impacts, both positive and negative, in maintaining and transforming the art world. We also explain how musicians use do it yourself and do it together practices to circumvent or add up to meanings created by others. Through this lens, we will demonstrate the tensions between different individuals and how a musicians’ DIY ethos emerges as a way of maintaining the art world whenever the remaining art players fail to secure their roles. We use data gathered through 45 semi-structured interviews to jazz musicians.
About art worlds and doing it… yourself?
We have seen, on a study within the framework of same research project, that the maintenance and development of the jazz art world (Becker, 2008) in Portugal depends largely on the collective actions of the musicians, and that musicians credit themselves as the main legitimisers of jazz music, mainly due to persistent fragilities within the art world (Baptista, 2024). This reality brings us to the concept of do it yourself (DIY). According to Guerra (2021), DIY cultural manifestations emerged in Portugal after the Carnation revolution, symbolizing greater freedom of action and the transition to a more urban and cosmopolitan lifestyle. However, unlike other countries in Europe and North America, these DIY manifestations were not associated with an anti-conformist and reactionary ethos against the commodification of music. 1 Instead, they were necessary steps towards the creation and evolution of a cultural foundation that had not existed until then. Jian (2018) tells us that DIY cultures in the 1990s gradually became practical ways of establishing musical careers, independent alternatives to professionalization, i.e., smaller-scale repetitions of the model based on the music industry. For Guerra et al. (2024), DIY is seen as a necessary strategy for building a musical career in the context of neoliberalism, as DIY careers imply the need to guarantee sustainability and define a paradigm that replaces notions such as lifelong employment or regular salary.
Oliveira (2023), focusing on the context of Portuguese independent music, denounces the need for musicians to develop strategies that guarantee the sustainability, viability and development of their careers. The author also makes use of the DIY concept and lists a series of strategies mobilized by Portuguese musicians such as playing as much as possible (often booking their own concerts) and having several music projects, assuming several roles in the art world, combining music-related activities with non-musical activities, teaching, composing for others, networking, planning all idiosyncrasies related to the musical activity and budget management, applying for funding, self-promoting and strengthening ties with gatekeepers. Musicians also materialize the DIY ethos through the need of developing values of dedication and perseverance, flexibility, resilience, dealing with risk and uncertainty, crucial values for the musicians represented in this study, since jazz has difficulty competing for funding, sponsorships, audiences and media coverage when compared to other musical genres (Dias, 2019).
This article will focus on the representations that musicians have of themselves and the other intervening individuals in the art world, analyse their roles and how their actions enhance or limit the scope of possibilities inside the art world, while also aiming to understand the musicians’ need to build DIY and do it together (DIT) alternatives in order to create or develop their professional careers. We pose the following questions: according to musicians, which actors have—or should have—the biggest impacts within the Portuguese jazz art world? What are the musicians’ representations about the actions of these actors? How impactful are them? What DIY and DIT manifestations are present in the jazz art world in Portugal?
Methodology and socio-demographic profile of the interviewees
Following a large sociological tradition of producing sociological knowledge based on the representations of social actors, we built an empirical base comprising a set of 45 comprehensive interviews, conducted throughout Portugal 2 with jazz musicians. The interviews allowed us to collect socio-demographic data on the musicians, their backgrounds, support networks, relationships with music, life trajectory, education, profession and representations about the recognition of jazz, the various players in the art world, social impacts, social and territorial inequalities. 3 Musicians were selected using the snowball method, 4 supported by the contacts given by the interviewees themselves and, in an initial phase, by interviews applied to privileged informants.
The interviews were carried out between October 2021 and July 2022 via video calls made on the Zoom platform. The online format was selected due to the need to interview musicians dispersed throughout the country and as a way of circumventing the limitations imposed by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. The interviews were subsequently transcribed, and a categorical analysis of the data was carried out using MaxQDA software.
Regarding the sociodemographic profiles of the interviewees, we found that the average age of the interviewees was 39 and that there was a preponderance of young adults (30 interviewees were aged between 20 and 40). This scenario is partially conditioned by the use of the snowball method and the unavailability of some older musicians who were identified. They are highly educated (33 are attending or have completed a degree in higher education), particularly specialized in the field of jazz and trained through formal education. Regarding profession, 17 interviewees make their living exclusively from music as performers, 12 have another main occupation, mostly associated with music teaching, 5 consider themselves to be only music teachers, another 5 work in non-related areas, 1 is unemployed and 1 is retired. Less than half of musicians make their living exclusively from musical performance, and it is common for them to have parallel activities that guarantee income, which brings us back to the need for DIY career and the precariousness of this jazz art world.
The number of women musicians identified within the art world is mirrored in the disparity in the number of interviewees by gender (30 men and 15 women). This is a result of the gender imbalance of the Portuguese jazz artworld (Dias and Nunes, 2021), a reality that is transversal to the Portuguese musical field (Guerra, 2013) and not exclusive to jazz. This inequality was identified in the statements of 36 interviewees. Furthermore, the snowball method and the time invested in the field did not allow us to identify and interview people of a non-binary gender, which is why we use the male/female dichotomy. The same number of interviewees (36) also mentioned the lack of ethnic representation in jazz in Portugal. Our sample is quite homogeneous in terms of the nationality and ethnicity of the interviewees (of the 3 interviewees who were born in a country other than Portugal, only 2 are not of Portuguese descent) due to the difficulty in finding musicians from diverse backgrounds.
Finally, interviewees have a markedly urban profile, especially centered in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, a reality also found when analyzing individuals in the artistic and cultural field more broadly (Guerra et al., 2024).
The contemporary Portuguese jazz art world panorama
The jazz art world in Portugal has a history of progress through the joint initiative of musicians and/or aficionados, from the first jam sessions (Cravinho, 2019) and the first clubs/associations (Cravinho, 2011; 2022), to the beginning of informal jazz music teaching and the first record labels. These milestones relied heavily on the effort of these individuals since jazz remained largely marginalized in the Portuguese cultural sphere until its late phase of consolidation of the art world (Baptista, 2024).
To contextualize jazz in the contemporary Portuguese cultural field and to better understand how (or if) jazz found its way into the Portuguese imaginarium, we asked the interviewees about their perception of the recognition of jazz in Portugal and how this recognition affects their musical careers.
Most of the interviewees said that the last few decades have seen a process of progressive recognition on the part of Portuguese society. According to the musicians, this recognition manifests itself through a range of structural changes such as an increase in the number of musicians and greater institutionalization and consolidation of the professionalization and development of the jazz musician's career. Other factors mentioned by the musicians are the increase of jazz infrastructures (Dias and Nunes, 2021) such as the number of specialized schools, the exposure of jazz on public information channels such as radios, newspapers and television, the interest of public institutions that provide funding and infrastructures such as theaters, cinemas or auditoriums; the upturn in the number of specialized and general festivals that program jazz concerts; the intensification of the international recognition of Portuguese jazz musicians; the crossovers and inter-influences between jazz and other musical genres, particularly through links to pop music and traditional Portuguese music; greater acceptance, interest and respect for jazz and the recognition of jazz as a technically demanding music that trains skilled musicians.
However, we need to highlight that this recent phenomenon, one that is still in progress. Interviewees pointed out lingering weaknesses and out of the 45 musicians interviewed, 9 even stated that they still consider jazz to be largely marginalized within Portugal. The most common arguments are the small number of people attending concerts and the general lack of interest on the part of the Portuguese population. It has become clear that the recognition and legitimacy achieved are not directly associated with the creation of stable and lasting audiences and an increase in actual interest in jazz. One of the factors that emphasises this gap is jazz's lack of a popular music connotation: “[Interviewer] Do you think that in Portugal we lost the popular, folk side of jazz? [Interviewee] I think it never existed.” (S. C., Female, 43 years old, Algarve) “(…) High art consumption signified the natural and moral foundations of social distinctions of class, race, or ethnicity inscribed in this social hierarchy. The contours between high art and popular art, therefore, were not simply objective borders of aesthetic quality, artistic talent, and sophisticated tastes, but products of a cultural politics of distinction designed to legitimate a specific culture and the social class associated with its consumption” (Lopes, 2004, page 7)
Our case studies need then to endeavor to overcome these weaknesses and precariousness within the art world through the development of DIY careers associated with what Guerra (2023) calls the art of existence—the actors’ will and decision to do whatever is necessary to build and develop their musical careers, overcoming barriers and limits in search of independence, creative and artistic freedom and economic sustainability. For them to be successful, it is often required that they do it themselves and/or DIT.
The multiple roles of the jazz musicians and how they do it themselves
Crossley (2023) explains that DIY often arises from the need to create alternatives that allow musicians to avoid existing flaws in the music industry, such as unequal power relations or the lack of certain resources needed for the art world to function properly.
We have seen that in order to make up for the lack of resources, jazz musicians are forced to take on various roles, either simultaneously or throughout their lives (Baptista, 2024). This need for a multiplication of roles leads actors to DIY ethics and practices, as happened in the case of punk, due to the incipient nature of the Portuguese music industry (Guerra, 2017; Bennett, 2013) and its persistent limitations. These DIY ethics and practices are manifested through the need to play live music whenever (and wherever) possible, form various musical groups, have side jobs or parallel activities (18 interviewees referred having activities parallel to music that help them ensuring financial stability), teaching, composing or playing with non-jazz musicians and assuming roles that traditionally belong to other actors of the art world.
However, are DIY practices truly individual? Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2011) argue that cultural production is made up of a network of small, independent and autonomous groups, who choose independence in order to achieve artistic autonomy, but who are not shy of maintaining relations with large cultural enterprises, nonetheless. Music creation depends on the sharing of conventions and resources that are unevenly distributed among the individuals involved in the art world, creating networks of interdependence and exchange between them. This is a reality that cuts across all musical creation, even in its DIY manifestations (Crossley, 2023). Musicians need to DIT and establish networks with their peers and with other actors in the art world. According to the interviewees, the most important relationships for career development are those musicians maintain with their peers. Musicians’ networks are crucial for finding work, funding and collaborators for their projects. Consequently, musicians’ social lives become inseparable from their daily lives, as any moment could reveal a potential job opportunity (Guerra, 2021). Those with greater social capital or more experience end up better rewarded, as the bigger the network, the more opportunities there are. DIY, or rather DIT, manifests itself through associative and recreational practices, aiming to collectively develop professional careers by relying on these networks to share knowledge, opportunities and resources (Guerra, 2017; 2018; Oliveira, 2023). Alternative and independent music careers depend on the successful establishment of these networks (Reitsamer and Prokop, 2018), as artists create local economies to meet their needs and draw on cultural, social, economic and symbolic capital from these networks, while also consolidating their place within musical communities.
Through these initial considerations we have already been able to discern a seemingly paradoxical setting within the Portuguese jazz art world. Even though musicians consider themselves to be the main players promoting the development of jazz in Portugal by doing it together to maintain the art world, the remaining actors in the art world were also either credited as important in the development of the art world or, on the other hand, sometimes accused of not doing enough, proving to be of little use. Whether opinions sway to one side or the other, it's obvious that musicians do not act alone within the scope of the art world. So, where does DIY fit in an art world where, for all intents and purposes, musicians don't exist in isolation and therefore don't do everything themselves?
The multiple roles and expectations about school institutions
High school and college jazz programs have been credited by most musicians as the biggest propellers of change in the art world in recent years, apart from themselves. This is mainly due to the impact they had on exponentially increasing the number of musicians and their theoretical knowledge and technical ability. The formalization and systematization of knowledge also promoted the geographical dispersion of jazz and above all democratized access to jazz, especially among the younger generations, who are increasingly prepared for a successful integration into the professional milieu of the art world and its local circuits of musicians: “Suddenly you're capturing a lot of talent, there are kids who are really good and who previously didn't have the option of exploring that facet. Now they have, they're starting to influence what's around them. I remember noticing a huge difference in the level of the kids who came from professional schools. In their language. It's gratifying, you see that jazz is really growing, and that there are 18-year-olds playing so well and knowing what they're playing so well.” (S. L., Male, 32 years old, Tâmega e Sousa)
According to our musicians, schools had a great impact on the development of audiences and have taken on the double role of being gatekeepers of professional paths — increasing competition for available resources and, at the same time, serving as professional back up plans — insofar as they are able to assist some of the musicians who are unable to make a living exclusively from musical performance and end up adding teaching to their professional activities. Proving to be a more economically stable alternative, some musicians end up dedicating themselves exclusively to teaching. Of our sample, 5 interviewees consider themselves exclusively music teachers, while 10 are both performers and teachers. The educational path constitutes an alternative way of establishing a career within jazz music, while also creating a circle where musicians become teachers and train new musicians.
Perhaps more importantly, schools have also enabled the creation of circuits via networking among students and between students and teachers. It is in schools that musicians come together and take the first steps in building their DIY careers—by starting bands, recording, performing or jamming together, exchanging and accumulating resources. It is often in schools that musicians come together for the first time.
Musicians argue that the greatest limitations of schools are the surplus of graduate musicians followed by a shortage of opportunities for some of the recently graduated, since there's not enough room for everyone on the live performance circuit. This leads to a phenomenon that one of the interviewees called “the certification of the unemployed”, since there is an over-representation of musicians in the art world which results in an insufficiency of professional paths to accommodate jazz school graduates. This reenforces the educational path as an alternative found by musicians to build their DIY careers: “There will always be people who look at teaching as a plan B just for economic salvation, but the truth is that if out of 100 people who do this, suddenly there are five who actually want to teach and who are going to be good higher education teachers, a more specialized teaching staff is then created.” (Q. Z., Male, 30 years old, A.M. Lisboa)
Jazz audiences in Portugal, a weakened pillar
Musicians stressed the importance of concerts, defending the unique character of each performance and the weight of improvisation, which makes each show an unrepeatable phenomenon. It is in these live contexts that jazz takes its shape. Festivals are also a vital part of jazz (Frith, 2007). Webster and McKay (2016) categorize the impact of jazz festivals on the places where they take place. From these categories we would like to highlight the impact on the local economy, the socio-political impact, the impact on building audience experiences and memories, the creative impacts deriving from musical inspiration and the training of young musicians, the expansion of musicians’ social networks, audience building and the impact on the image of the cities and on tourism.
To understand audiences as the support for any cultural manifestation or as the justifying reason for artistic creation, it is necessary to consider them as more than just the totality of individuals who are affected by a given cultural expression, either through their physical presence or as active consumers. Audiences, as well as being recipients, have the capacity to communicate, evaluate, legitimise and, in some cases, appropriate and intervene directly in the works of art. In popular expressions of music, it is usually the audiences who make music financially viable. However, we’ve seen that jazz in Portugal is an erudite artistic expression, hence a need to complement the market logic with cultural policies aimed at maintaining the art world. Nonetheless, there has been a process of branching out and consolidation of jazz genres, accompanied by the specialization of audiences within these new subgenres, which helped overcoming part of the problem created by the lack of audiences, building smaller bases of loyal habitués.
The interviewees’ representations suggest that the jazz audiences in Portugal are made up mainly of aficionados, musicians themselves and people with high cultural and economic capital, traditionally over the age of 30 and concentrated in the two metropolitan areas. When asked about the barriers that separate audiences from jazz, the lack of interest or ability to understand the music played was mentioned above all. This phenomenon can be partly explained by the need to understand the musical conventions (Becker, 2008) of the musicians, or, as the musicians tell us, to “educate the ear": “I go to concerts myself and I can’t understand some things that are happening. It's complex music, I'm not looking at the score, I'm just listening. I can only imagine that the audience think we're crazy, that we're playing each to their own.” (D. B., Male, 39 years old, R. Leiria) “I don't think cultural and musical education in Portugal is strong enough for there to be much of a knowledgeable audience”. (E. J., Male, 39 years old, A.M. Lisboa)
At non-specialized jazz events, which are more generalized and on a larger scale, many people have their first contact with jazz. It is at these events that the public's motivations and reactions are more diverse and where the potential impacts of the public are mixed, and where the musicians’ perceptions are divided between the “real” audiences and the spectators who instrumentalise jazz concerts with ulterior motives: “(…) The public has a section of fans and interested people who always go to concerts. Then there's the section of people who go because it's chic. I doubt they have jazz records at home. Then there are the people who don't know jazz at all and are taken by surprise. Then there are the others, the curious people who are interested in finding out whether they like it or not.” (N.A., Male, 35 years old, Lezíria do Tejo)
One of the interviewees revealed that this difference between knowledgeable and non-knowledgeable audiences is easily revealed by the linguistic codes used, especially through the way the word jazz is said, accusing the non-knowledgeable of using the English version of the word, while regular attendees use the Portuguese one: “The guy who says “d-jess” doesn't understand any of this. That's what we used to say: the guy who says “I'm going to d-jess” is a guy who doesn't understand. You should say “jah-z”, the Portuguese way.” (A. D., Male, 69 years old, Algarve) “Sometimes people criticize me saying “you're the biggest promoter of yourself”. If I don't promote my own music, who will? Am I going to wait for opportunities to come along? No, that doesn't make sense. Although it's a lot of work and if I could, I wouldn't do it, obviously.” (S. Z., Male, 57 years old, A.M. Lisboa)
Promoters and venues—How much is specialization worth?
Music is a constant part of the daily lives of urban individuals, present in the streets, commercial establishments, public or personal transportation. It has an impact on the perception and experiences that individuals have of public spaces and, at the same time, the reflexive dynamics through which individuals perceive themselves in these same spaces. Music can be instrumentalised by those who own or are responsible for the spaces where music takes place, with the aim of creating a spontaneous association between the space and specific feelings, sensations, memories or experiences. As such, curators have the decisive power when it comes to what is played in venues, and which musicians play the music. This gatekeeping power can either boost musicians’ careers or create obstacles to them, keeping them away from job opportunities. Since jazz music doesn't guarantee a constant flow of income and its audiences are a minority when compared to generalized cultural audiences in Portugal (Borges, 2022), interviewees claim that jazz venues end up being ephemeral, meaning that regular curators must adapt to the availability of existing venues. This is a reality that is not limited to concerts in smaller venues, as many festivals are also temporary, with new festivals often being created and existing festivals coming to an end.
This lack of reliable and stable venues often results in musicians having to accept work opportunities in places that are not specialized or where jazz is not common (playing in many venues and as often as possible). According to the musicians, the dichotomy between specialized programmers (who may or may not be musicians themselves) and the owners of non-specialized establishments involves blatant differences, as specialized venues strive to create a convivial atmosphere, offer regular jazz programs, and put music and musicians before financial rewards, thus striving for the maintenance of the art world despite very little gains: “It's a meeting place, a place of communion. People go to Hot
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after having played somewhere else. The gig ends at midnight, you go for a coffee or a drink at Hot. While you’re there you can grab your instrument from your car and play. That's where musicians meet.” (S. I., Male, 45 years old, Oeste)
Non-specialized venues, on the other hand, are accused of offering unsavory conditions and of often focusing mostly on jam sessions because they mean more performance hours, often without any cost: “Bars and clubs want jam sessions because it's four hours of music and they only pay the band that opened. Musicians still want jams because it's a fixed gig every week and there aren't many venues where you can play original music with no strings attached.” (E.Z., Male, 23 years old, A.M. Lisboa) “It's prestigious to listen to jazz. I just had a problem with the synopsis of a concert. I have a side project, something in the likes of Zappa. The programmer made a point of writing jazz in the program, and we wanted him to take it out, it didn't make much sense to us. He really didn't want to take it out, we had to demand him to take it out.” (J. J., Female, 24 years old, A.M. Porto)
The lack of viable record labels and music critics
Mostly a recent phenomenon, record labels still have a limited impact on the jazz art world in Portugal. Nevertheless, the creation of the pioneering record labels was an important milestone and created a series of new possibilities for musicians: “In the past, hardly anyone recorded, which meant that jazz musicians were basically improvisers of existing themes. From a certain point onwards, they started recording. They also started composing. The market changed.” (L.Q., Male, 63 years old, Médio Tejo)
Tarassi (2018) argues that the border between independent and mainstream artists is more dissolved than ever, since changes in the music industry have created a panorama of interdependence between artists, and because even within independent music production there is a logic of cultural economics, visible in its core of professionalization and entrepreneurship (Guerra, 2021). The alternatives found to respond to the inability to find consistent record labels to release music have been the creation of small-scale record labels (often linked to musician associations and/or run by singular musicians) focused on releasing music by specific groups of musicians who collaborate frequently, or the author's editions, in which each musician releases their own music without a record label. By doing this, musicians channel the DIY ethos to promote themselves and remain independent of the big record labels, ensuring closer contact with audiences (Dias, 2019). Technological advances have made it possible for musicians to produce and distribute high-quality music, thus making DIY careers more accessible. This is especially important since jazz specialized managers are non-existent, according to the interviewees. Musicians must then take charge of their own careers (McRobbie, 2002) by self-managing their careers: “There used to be a lot of stigma about author's editions, people thought “poor guy, he couldn't get a record company, his music is not good enough”, but then what happened was that the record companies couldn't afford to pay for everyone's records, no matter how much they liked them. The guys started making their records with their own money, making an investment. Since we paid for the record, we're not going to give it to a record company, we're doing our own thing.” (L. R., Male, 39 years old, A.M. Lisboa)
We’ve learned from the interviewees that the possible harmfulness of record labels also depends on their degree of specialization, as with the other previously mentioned actors: “You have gigantic record labels, not just for jazz music, that make billions while musicians get very little or nothing. When labels have an identity you know, everything is much clearer.” (B.R., Female, 38 years old, R. Aveiro)
According to the interviewees, among the functions of specialized critics and journalists are opinion making, the establishment of criteria and standards of taste, dissemination and creation of new audiences, the documentation of the history and contextualization of music. However, collected data suggests that musicians believe that the impact of critics mainly affects the audiences: “I think critics are more important to people who aren't musicians, to the audience. For those who know music, the reviews sometimes seem [to be] just the opinion of the writer.” (L. R., Male, 39 years old, A.M. Lisboa) “Here in the province, there are hardly any critics, there isn't even any journalistic coverage of the events, I don't know if the jazz festival, for example, has been mentioned in the local newspapers. There are no people with knowledge to criticize either, except us. It's so small, there are half a dozen or less of us here. Would I criticize a performance of mine? If we're criticizing each other, saying bad things about each other, or just exchanging pleasantries, there's no point.” (L. Q., Male, 63 years old, Médio Tejo) “I want them to say a lot of good things about my records, because it'll come in handy in the press releases, to get gigs with the promoters. I really like the reviews when they're good, I don't mind them when they're bad. Basically, they're just opinions.” (E. Z., Male, 23 years old, A.M. Lisboa)
Final remarks—Do Portuguese jazz musicians do it themselves?
No artistic expression is truly individualistic. It is not for many reasons, whether due to the social background of the artist, who is not immune to its surrounding influences (even in the cases where art is an attempt to break established dogmas—it's still a reaction to them) or to the following of conventions and rules, either broad ones such as language, tradition or the choice of tools, or more specific, like the belonging to particular art movements or artistic collectives, or the plain coexistence with other artists. The same can be said about artistic work, which is never the result of a sole effort of one individual.
We have seen that the Portuguese jazz art world is still characterized by some limitations, mainly due to inequalities in the development processes of musicians and the remaining intervening actors, a reality that has created a certain mistrust and tension between these two parties. Musicians attribute different legitimacy to non-musicians depending on their degree of specialization and the impact they have on the art world, often depicting them using a dichotomy between “real” and “false”. This does not mean, however, that these players are replaceable or that, at least, that replacement won’t make difficulties arise.
As a way of bridging the gaps in the art world, musicians act together. We have shown that the role of each musician's networks is crucial in the maintenance and progression of their careers. Crossley (2023) refers to the density of the musicians’ network with their peers — i.e., the proportion of potential connections within a network that take place—as something that is crucial for the sustainability of an art world. The high degree of density allows for coordination, trust, cooperation, and mutual support between members. This is translated in a DIT initiative that aims to circumvent the difficulties that exist in the art world. Our jazz musicians’ DIY attitude is detached from a specific ethos or meanings of self and/or group definition and forms of misidentification from others but instead emerges as an initiative to replace the roles of actors in the art world who are non-existent, insufficient, or can't fully (or successfully) fulfill their roles. In this way, musicians do what is necessary—either by themselves or together—to build and develop their professional careers: create networks to share knowledge, opportunities and resources; seek for financing or compete for opportunities; take up professional alternatives such as teaching; do their own self-promotion; attract audiences; take care of the programming in venues that host jazz concerts or festivals; self-release their music via author's editions or by creating small record labels when there are not enough or sufficiently specialized labels or when the conditions offered by these are not attractive; keep programmers and critics in their circles methodically.
It's important to note that this analysis was focused solely on the musicians’ representations, thus analyzing non-musicians from an outside perspective, which, although it allowed us to collect heterogeneous and interesting data, leaves exposed a column of weaknesses that would be prevented by a larger, cross-sectional study that included the representations of all those involved in the art world. Even so, we hope to have contributed to a better understanding of the phenomenon that is jazz in Portugal, its individuals and relationships, and of the concepts of DIY and DIT.
Footnotes
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was developed as part of the author's doctoral thesis À procura do jazz português: Identidades, atores e contextos na contemporaneidade portuguesa/In search of Portuguese jazz: Identities, agents, and contexts in contemporary Portugal, supported by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), within the scope of the doctoral scholarship under reference SFRH/2020.06738.BD/20.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.