Dr Corey Mwamba

Educational work

I have worked with children and young people in a variety of settings between 1999 and 2018. I was part of a project in London boroughs (Tower Hamlets, Merton) that placed musicians in pupil referral units and SEN settings. I also used to deliver workshops on improvising and jazz in schools around the East Midlands, Birmingham, and London. I worked for Creative Partnerships in Derby and Oxford, specialising in Maths and Chemistry; and have worked with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with early years and babies in Glasgow.

I believe that music making requires listening and thinking, great care and attention; and my sessions emphasise the participants using imagination to create narratives on which the music can be created.

At the higher education level I can offer and contribute to modules on

2019-2024
Goldsmiths College, London
Sessional delivery of "What Is Jazz?" module alongside Tom Perchard (2019-2020)
Delivery, planning and design of "What Is Jazz?", "Music and Identity", and "Fringe and Underground Music" (2021-2024)
2019-2023
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham
Guest lecture on music practice (2019)
Design, planning and delivery of "Orchestration for Improvising Ensembles" (2020-2023)
18 Mar 2018
Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo
Guest lecture on vibraphone practice and British jazz and improvised music
13 Nov 2009
Salford University, Salford
Guest lecture on music practice

Selection Panels

2019
Documenting Jazz 2020
Conference paper selection panel committee
2019
Goldsmiths College BAME Master's bursary scheme
Candidate selection panel

Research

My research interests cover

Qualifications

2016-2019
PhD in Jazz Studies, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
how the vibraphone can be a mouth
Practice/research portfolio (music recordings, creative critical writing) exploring the ways in which personal sound is constructed and experienced by the vibraphonist in jazz and improvised music. Funded through the AHRC Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.
2014-2015
MRes in Humanities (Music), Keele University
new dark art
Practice/research portfolio (music recordings, scores, analysis, commentary) that explored and demonstrated the ways in which improvising, notational and conducting practices used in European medieval music can inform and extend my practice in composing for creative musicians. Funded by a Keele University AHRC studentship.

Awarded Studentships

2016-2019
AHRC Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (based at Birmingham University)
2013-2014
AHRC Master's Degree Studentship (based at Keele University)

Peer-reviewed articles

December 2020
Mwamba, Corey, The Second Masking, Jazz Research Journal, 12.2 (2018), 237–41 https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.40105
April 2018
Mwamba, Corey, non-performance, Riffs Special Edition—Surge in Spring II (Birmingham: BCMCR, April 2018).

Book chapters

January 2022
Mwamba, Corey, Improvising as Practice/Research Method, in Routledge International Handbook of Practice–Based Research, 1st edn (Routledge, 2022), pp. 699–705
December 2021
Mwamba, Corey, and Gravem Johansen, Guro, Everyone’s Music? Explorations of the Democratic Ideal in Jazz and Improvised Music, in The World into Higher Music Education (Oslo: NMH-publikasjoner, 2021), iii https://nmh.brage.unit.no/nmh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2754589/Karlsen_Nielsen_Verden_inn_i_musikkutdanningene.pdf
January 2020
Mwamba, Corey, The Mistake as Material, in The Aesthetics of Improvisation (Bloomsbury, 2020)

Research-based Outputs

Cited, non-peer-reviewed articles

2016
Way of Seeing Coltrane (IV) https://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/rambles/1474444749
2014
Way of Seeing Coltrane (III) https://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/rambles/1388998291
Contrafacts in Jazz: Language, Myth, Method and Homage https://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/mres/contrafacts/essay.html
2013
Way of Seeing Coltrane (II) https://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/rambles/1388289138
Way of Seeing Coltrane https://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/rambles/1388150764

Cited technical articles

2010
Dev.Opera — CSS3:Target Based Interfaces https://dev.opera.com/articles/css3-target-based-interfaces/
Dev.Opera — Showing and Hiding Content With Pure CSS3 https://dev.opera.com/articles/css3-show-and-hide/

Conferences and Talks

11 May 2019
Translating, transferring (and maybe transcending) musical knowledge
The Uses of Musical Knowledge Symposium, Goldsmiths College
roundtable discussion with Anne Danielsen, John Harries
25 Apr 2019
The Practising Practice of an Improvising Musician
Research in Music Education conference, Bath Spa University
drama/video presentation with Guro Gravem Johansen (NMH, Oslo)
19 Mar 2019
How The Vibraphone Is A Mouth
RBC Public Research Seminar Series, Birmingham City University
paper/website based presentation
31 Jan 2019
how the vibraphone can be a mouth
Performance in Research Seminar, Birmingham City University
performance/website based presentation
22 Jan 2019
how the vibraphone can be a mouth
Research in Music series, Goldsmiths College, London
performance/website based presentation
19 Jan 2019
Everyone's music? Explorations of the democratic ideal in jazz and improvised music
Documenting Jazz, DIT Dublin
joint paper, presented with Guro Gravem Johansen (NMH, Oslo)
18 Jan 2019
The Rhizome: Documenting Expansions and Representations in British Jazz and Improvised Music
Documenting Jazz, DIT Dublin
paper/website based presentation
6 Oct 2018
the mistake as material
The Aesthetics of Improvisation Symposium, Newcastle (organised by the University of Durham)
paper presentation
14 Sep 2018
Sociality, expansions and representations in British jazz and improvised music
SPARC Symposium 2018: Socio–Sonic, City, University of London
paper/web-based presentation
17 May 2018
We All Have to Deal with Gary Burton: Representations of and Turnings Away from a Singular Voice in Jazz Vibraphone Performance
12th International Jazz Research Conference Graz: Jazz Voices, Institute for Jazz Research, University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz
paper/website based presentation
25 May 2017
as_the_tex(t): body
M3C Research Festival, University of Leicester
performance presentation

Artistic Practice

Discography (as leader, selected)

Jan—Dec 2019
systems, sutras
digital download series, 12 parts
2 Jul 2019
NTH (Discus Music)
CD, digital download
Laura Cole: piano; Andy Champion: bass; Johnny Hunter: drums; CM: vibraphone, beak flute, glockenspiel
Jan—Dec 2018
(s)kin
digital download series, 13 parts
20 Oct 2017
baby/people (Two Rivers)
digital download
with yana (Dave Kane: bass; Joshua Blackmore: drums)
3 Mar 2014
one and other
digital download
with Rachel Musson: tenor saxophone
28 Jan 2013
don't overthink it
digital download
with yana (Dave Kane: bass; Joshua Blackmore: drums)
1 Dec 2012
orrery
digital download
Joshua Blackmore: drums; Graham Clark: violin; Deborah Jordan: voice; Dave Kane: bass; Tony Kofi: baritone saxophone; Jan Kopinski: tenor saxophone; Julian Siegel: bass clarinet; Alex Suckling: trumpet; CM:—vibraphone, conducting
22 Dec 2011
Everybody's Reading
digital download
with yana (Dave Kane: bass; Joshua Blackmore: drums)
7 Mar 2011
the worm
digital download
with Heralds (Alex Bonney: trumpet; Arun Ghosh: clarinet; Ntshuks Bonga: alto and soprano saxophones; Dave Kane: bass; Joshua Blackmore: drums)
15 Mar 2010
In The Vortex
digital download
with yana (Dave Kane: bass; Joshua Blackmore: drums) and Alex Bonney, trumpet
30 Sep 2009
City of Skopje Museum
digital download
Sean Carpio: drums; Diego Cofone: tenor saxophone, washing pipe; Greg Felton: piano; Branko Ilievski: trombone; Danilo Loiacono: tenor saxophone; CM: vibraphone, conductor; Cormac OBrien: bass; Aidan O'Donnell: fiddle; Ciaràn Ó Maonaigh: fiddle; Nolwenn Donnet–Descartes: voice
21 Mar 2009
hear us listen
digital download
with yana (Dave Kane, bass; Joshua Blackmore, drums)
4 Sep 2008
Songs for the New Folk
digital download
dulcimer, ocarina, live processing and looping, vibraphone
9 Jun 2008
Popular Delusions
digital download
vibraphone, mbira, beak flute, Yamaha PSR-280, voice, live audio processing and looping
17 Nov 2006
Sipping Rioja at Home
digital download
audio processing, vibraphone, dulcimer, guitar, flutes, bottles, exercise ball, keys, Indian hand bell
1 Jan 2006
Aurorae
digital download
audio processing
14 May 2001
BioChem
digital download
with Walt Shaw (percussion)

Tours (selected)

3 Feb—23 Mar 2019
NTH quartet
Tour of the north of England with NTH (Andy Champion, bass; Laura Cole, piano; Johnny Hunter, drums)
Performances in Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, and Derby
7 May—19 Apr 2015
Renga
Tour of England with yana (Dave Kane, bass; Joshua Blackmore or Johnny Hunter, drums)
Performances in Derby, London, Newcastle, Sheffield, and Leeds
Supported by Arts Council England
31 Jan—7 Feb 2015
Soundtrips #23
Tour of the North Rhine–Westphalia region (Germany) with Rachel Musson (tenor saxophone), featuring guest musicians
Performances in Hagen, Bielefeld, Düsseldorf, Köln, Wuppertal, Essen, Münster, and Bochum
Supported by NRW Kutur Secretariat, a. o.
19 Jan 2010—22 Feb 2010
hear us listen tour
Tour of England and Wales with yana (Dave Kane, bass; Joshua Blackmore, drums)
Performances in Stratford upon Avon, Reading, Cardiff, London, Leeds, and Derby
Supported by Jazz Services

Works and Commissions

Fellowred (2020)
score for piano
commissioned by The Showroom, London as part of the In:florescence series
body (#asthetex_t) (2017)
score for vibraphone, optionally with multiple players
stemmed from doctoral work
commissioned by LUME Festival in 2017
Performed in London, Leicester, and Bucharest
new dark art (2014)
score and theoretical treatise for multiple instruments
stemmed from Master's degree work
Performed at Commonwealth Games Closing Celebrations, Glasgow (2014), Derby (2015), London (2015)
orrery (2012)
score for eight musicians
commissioned by Derby Jazz to celebrate Joseph Wright anniversary
Performed in Derby
Everybody's Reading (2011)
score for vibraphone, bass, and drums
commissioned by Everybody's Reading Festival
Performed at the Everybody's Reading Festival, Leicester
Argentum (2007)
score for five musicians
commissioned by Derby Jazz for celebrate Derby Jazz's 25th anniversary
Performed at Derby Jazz Festival, Wirksworth Jazz Festival, and London Jazz Festival

Festival Appearances

Awards and Nominations

2009—present
Downbeat Critics Poll
Rising Star, Vibraphone (nomination, top ten)
2008
BBC Jazz Awards
Best Innovative Album (nomination)
2006
PRS/Jerwood Foundation
"Take Five" Artist Development Award

Advocacy

My advocacy practice comprises promoting, programming, presenting, and supporting the arts and humanities within a community.

2 Nov 2019—present
Presenter, "Freeness", BBC Radio 3
Host of weekly radio programme, focusing on jazz and improvised music
23 Mar 2019
The Sequestering of Corey Mwamba
Programming and performing at final public performance
Reviewed: Dehany, AJ, ‘REPORT: The Sequestering of Corey Mwamba (His Final Public Performance) in Derby’, 2019 http://londonjazznews.com/2019/03/26/report-the-sequestering-of-corey-mwamba-his-final-public-performance-in-derby/
2016-2020
Derby Jazz, Derby
Artistic director role. Two jazz performances per month for thirty-year-old non-profit arts organisation.
2016-present
Out Front!, Derby
Founder and project lead. Programing and fundrasing for a monthly programming of improvised music, electronica, and chamber music for family audiences; and a festival within the programme. Supported by Arts Council England.
2014-2015
The Family Album, Derby
Founder. Programming and fundraising for a series of 10 concerts for all ages that explored jazz, modern creative and totally improvised music. Supported by Arts Council England and the Two Rivers Foundation.
2012-2013
One Note Sunday, Derby
Founder. Programming a monthly series of music concerts, experimenting with "single note" pricing.

Selection Panels

2018
New Voices Artist Development Programme (Sound And Music)
Artist selection panel
2016
Pathways Artist Development Programme (Sound And Music)
Artist selection panel
2016—present
University of Leicester Student Music Scholarship
Audition panel