Chile en Liverpool - Music & Memories / Música & Memorias

In the third podcast in the series, we focus on the work of the late Jan Fairley, a scholar, journalist, broadcaster, champion of World Music and a long-standing Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular Music. The podcast explores Jan’s passion for music and politics, her devotion to Latin American music, and her particular expertise in Chilean music.

We hear from some of Jan's friends and colleagues, and from Jan herself in an interview she gave just before being hoisted onto the vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009 as a participant in Antony Gormley's One & Other public art project.

Click here to listen to our Spotify playlist of music associated with this podcast episode.

Contributors to this episode were:

Professor Sara Cohen, James and Constance Alsop Chair in Music and Director of the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool

David Horn, founding Director of the Institute of Popular Music and one of the founders of the international association for the study of popular music (IASPM),

Carlos Arredondo, musician and songwriter

Simon Frith OBE, sociomusicologist and Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh

Helmi Järviluoma, Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Eastern Finland

Original music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Pérez

Jan's friend Galo Ceron played Danza de la Paloma Enamorada by Atahualpa Yupanqui

Podcast editing: Richard Smith, with many thanks to Richard Anderson

The next podcast in the series will focus on the experiences of Chilean exiles and their families in the North of England and the role music plays in their lives.

We are very grateful to the Wellcome Collection for permission to use extracts from Jan's 'One & Other' interview and to the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research for the initial funding that enabled the development of the podcast series.

Click here to listen to our Spotify Playlist of music associated with this podcast episode, in which the full versions of songs can be heard.

Contributors to this episode were:

Monica Fisher, daughter of Robert Pring-Mill
Professor Sara Cohen, James and Constance Alsop Chair in Music and Director of the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool
Lisa Shaw, Professor of Brazilian Studies, Department of Languages, Cultures and Film, University of Liverpool
Richard Smith, postgraduate researcher in Chilean History and Politics in the Department of History, University of Liverpool

Original Music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Perez
Podcast editing: Richard Anderson

The next podcast in the series will focus on the work of Jan Fairley, a scholar, journalist and broadcaster, and a long-standing Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular. The podcast will cover Jan’s passion for music and politics, her devotion to Latin American music, and her particular expertise in Chilean music.

We are very grateful for a grant from the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research which has enabled the development of the podcast series.

Extracts from songs are used for the educational purpose of quotation as set out in Section 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (As amended 2014).

This episode is being launched on 28/09/2021 - what would have been the 89th birthday of Victor Jara - the eminent Chilean poet, teacher and singer-songwriter of the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement. Jara was murdered by the Pinochet regime following the coup in 1973.

In this first episode, we'll hear from Lisa Shaw of the University of Liverpool's Department of Languages, Cultures and Film who has led a project in Brazil and the UK on the power of cinema and film music to improve the emotional health of older people and those living with dementia through reminiscing. She is joined by Sara Cohen, Director of the Institute of Popular Music (IPM), and Jacky Waldock, who is a researcher on sound and place-making. 

We'll be introduced to the late Robert Pring-Mill, whose collection of sound recordings, posters, albums and ephemera inspired this podcast series. Pring-Mill was a University of Oxford professor who taught and studied Spanish and Latin American literature. His interest in politically committed songs and poems dated from a visit to Chile in 1948. We'll hear quotations of songs by artists such as Víctor Jara, Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani, Los Prisioneros, Violeta Parra and others who were important to the anti-Pinochet resistance between 1973 and 1990. These remain significant in today's Plaza de la Dignidad campaigns for constitutional, political and economic reforms in Chile.

Future episodes will include a series of 'Inheritance Tracks' interviews, where members of the local Chilean community in Merseyside talk about music they have inherited, and music they cherish. One of the project's aims is to encourage people with ties to Chile and their families and friends to share music-related reminiscences. The podcast episodes will explore different aspects of memory and well-being, such as IPM musicologist Jan Fairley's work and activism, music and the Merseyside Chile Solidarity Campaign, the Cultural Resistance to Pinochet in Santiago.

Click here to listen to our Spotify Playlist of music associated with this podcast episode.

We are very grateful for a grant from the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research which has enabled the development of the podcast series.

Contributors to this episode were:

Alex Blair, Languages student, University of Liverpool;
Professor Sara Cohen, James and Constance Alsop Chair in Music, University of Liverpool;
Poppy Poole, Languages Student, University of Liverpool;
Lisa Shaw, Professor of Brazilian Studies, Department of Languages, Cultures and Film, University of Liverpool;
Dr Jacqueline Waldock, Faculty Impact Fellow Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Liverpool 

Original Music composed, recorded and produced by Francisco Carrasco and Esteban Perez