Funded by a joint grant from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the US National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, Dr Tillman Weyde, is the UK lead on a project to develop AI for music information retrieval tools and archival workflows to enhance access to archival jazz collections.

On the US side, the project will be led by Professor Gabriel Solis at the University of Illinois, and co-coordinator Adriana Cuervo at Rutgers University.

Professor Simon Dixon at Queen Mary University of London, Dr Haftor Medboe at Edinburgh Napier University, Dr Pedro Cravinho at Birmingham City University, and the Scottish Jazz Archive are project partners.

Supported by the newly unveiled NEH/AHRC New Directions for Digital Scholarship in Cultural
Institutions grants, Dr Weyde and colleagues will develop AI for music information retrieval tools and archival
workflows to enhance access to archival jazz collections, including those held by the Institute of Jazz Studies at
Rutgers University (Newark, New Jersey) and the Scottish Jazz Archive.

NEH Chairman, Jon Parrish Peede, said:

“The NEH is pleased to partner with AHRC to support scholars at some of the world’s finest cultural institutions in developing innovative techniques and strategies to share their rich collections and expand our understanding of their contents.”

“The role of digital innovation in transforming access to, and understandings of, culture and heritage has never been more important,” said Arts and Humanities Research Council Executive Chair, Christopher Smith.

Commenting on the research project, Dr Weyde said:

We are looking forward to collaborating with our partners in the UK and the US who bring great expertise and experience in jazz studies as well as in AI and music technology to this project. With our research we will create intelligent technologies to further cultural understanding and exchange in digital music archives.