What is this thing called 'jazz'? Translation, adaptation and the jazz form

Jazz is a much invoked metaphor of and by adaptation. Through its power to improvise around a theme, to compose at the same time it performs, jazz problematises the relationship between the original and the rewritten, reconceived work in ways which move forward debates plagued by binaries of fidelity and betrayal, equivalence and loss, in new and exciting ways. Focusing on a variety of musical examples as well as the making of the biographical jazz performance piece Speedball for the London Jazz Festival, this paper will explore the application of jazz both as a way of seeing the process of re-writing all works of translation and adaptation as well as making a specific piece emanating from the music form itself.