DC Jazz Maurice Jackson, Blair A. Ruble
06/2018
eBook
The familiar history of jazz music in the United States begins with its birth in New Orleans, moves upstream along the Mississippi River to Chicago, then by rail into New York before exploding across ...the globe. That telling of history, however, overlooks the pivotal role the nation's capital has played for jazz for a century. Some of the most important clubs in the jazz world have opened and closed their doors in Washington, DC, some of its greatest players and promoters were born there and continue to reside in the area, and some of the institutions so critical to national support of this uniquely American form of music, including Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., are rooted in the city. Closer to the ground, a network of local schools like the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, jazz programs at the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University, churches, informal associations, locally focused media, and clubs keeps the music alive to this day.
Noted historians Maurice Jackson and Blair Ruble, editors of this book, present a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history, including a portrait of the cultural hotbed of Seventh and U Streets, the role of jazz in desegregating the city, a portrait of the great Edward "Duke" Ellington's time in DC, notable women in DC jazz, and the seminal contributions of the University of District of Columbia and Howard University to the scene. The book also includes three jazz poems by celebrated Washington, DC, poet E. Ethelbert Miller. Collectively, these stories and poems underscore the deep connection between creativity and place. A copublishing initiative with the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the book includes over thirty museum-quality photographs and a guide to resources for learning more about DC jazz.
"Breaking through pervasive misconceptions, Jazz in the 1970s explores a pivotal decade in jazz history. Many consider the 1970s to be the fusion decade, but Bill Shoemaker pushes back against this ...stereotype with a bold perspective that examines both the diverse musical innovations and cultural developments that elevated jazz internationally. He traces events that redefined jazz's role in the broadband arts movement as well as the changing social and political landscape."
From its beginning, jazz has presented a contradictory social world: jazz musicians have worked diligently to erase old boundaries, but they have just as resolutely constructed new ones. David Ake's ...vibrant and original book considers the diverse musics and related identities that jazz communities have shaped over the course of the twentieth century, exploring the many ways in which jazz musicians and audiences experience and understand themselves, their music, their communities, and the world at large. Writing as a professional pianist and composer, the author looks at evolving meanings, values, and ideals--as well as the sounds--that musicians, audiences, and critics carry to and from the various activities they call jazz. Among the compelling topics he discusses is the "visuality" of music: the relationship between performance demeanor and musical meaning. Focusing on pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Ake investigates the ways in which musicians' postures and attitudes influence perceptions of them as profound and serious artists. In another essay, Ake examines the musical values and ideals promulgated by college jazz education programs through a consideration of saxophonist John Coltrane. He also discusses the concept of the jazz "standard" in the 1990s and the differing sense of tradition implied in recent recordings by Wynton Marsalis and Bill Frisell.Jazz Culturesshows how jazz history has not consisted simply of a smoothly evolving series of musical styles, but rather an array of individuals and communities engaging with disparate--and oftentimes conflicting--actions, ideals, and attitudes.
An extensive, upbeat compilation of Wisconsin's jazz musicians Although New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are often considered the epicenters of American jazz, this extensive, upbeat ...compilation of jazz musician biographies details Wisconsin's rich association the genre since its the inception of the genre in the early 1900s. Iconic musicians Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman, Les Paul, and Al Jarreau all hailed from Wisconsin, as have many other influential players, composers, and teachers. Wisconsin Riffs features these musicians side-by-side-from the world-renowned to obscure regional artists-to portray a comprehensive history of jazz in Wisconsin. Through meticulous research and more than a hundred interviews, author Kurt Dietrich has assembled a group of musicians who represent a wide range of backgrounds, ages, stylistic schools, and experiences-from leaders of swing-era big bands to legendary Wisconsin Conservatory instructors to today's up-and-coming practitioners of contemporary jazz and jazz rock. For aspiring musicians, jazz enthusiasts, and fans of Wisconsin culture alike, Wisconsin Riffs presents a compelling, complex, and multi-layered concoction-just like jazz itself.
How did French musicians and critics interpret jazz-that quintessentially American music-in the mid-twentieth century? How far did players reshape what they learned from records and visitors into ...more local jazz forms, and how did the music figure in those angry debates that so often suffused French cultural and political life?After Djangobegins with the famous interwar triumphs of Josephine Baker and Django Reinhardt, but, for the first time, the focus here falls on the French jazz practices of the postwar era. The work of important but neglected French musicians such as André Hodeir and Barney Wilen is examined in depth, as are native responses to Americans such as Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The book provides an original intertwining of musical and historical narrative, supported by extensive archival work; in clear and compelling prose, Perchard describes the problematic efforts towards aesthetic assimilation and transformation made by those concerned with jazz in fact and in idea, listening to the music as it sounded in discourses around local identity, art, 1968 radicalism, social democracy, and post colonial politics.
Conversations in Jazz Gleason, Ralph J; Gleason, Toby; Gioia, Ted
2016, 2016-05-28
eBook
During his nearly forty years as a music journalist, Ralph J. Gleason recorded many in-depth interviews with some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. These informal sessions, conducted mostly ...in Gleason's Berkeley, California, home, have never been transcribed and published in full until now. A This remarkable volume, a must-read for any jazz fan, serious musician, or musicologist, reveals fascinating, little-known details about these gifted artists, their lives, their personas, and, of course, their music. Bill Evans discusses his battle with severe depression, while John Coltrane talks about McCoy Tyner's integral role in shaping the sound of the Coltrane quartet, praising the pianist enthusiastically. Included also are interviews with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Jon Hendricks, and the immortal Duke Ellington, plus seven more of the most notable names in twentieth-century jazz.
Anti-Music Thompson, Mark Christian
2018, 2018-05-22
eBook
Examines how African American jazz music was received in Germany both as a racial and cultural threat and as a partner in promoting the rise of Nazi totalitarian cultural politics.
John Arthur "Jaki" Byard Brown, Scott E.
Journal of jazz studies,
11/2022, Letnik:
13, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
2022 marks the centennial of the birth of pianist/composer John Arthur “Jaki” Byard. Byard is highly regarded among his many musician students and serious students of jazz history, but his place in ...the historical narrative of twentieth century jazz, and the nature of his music, have challenged conventional approaches to assessing them. Attributes are assigned to his playing and methodology that convey a simplistic interpretation of a complex man who expressed a profound and individual notion of the cultural, social, and political nature of his music and jazz. Well known for a comprehensive grasp of jazz history and a virtuosic ability to articulate it musically, his intentions are diluted and obfuscated by misinterpretation of the way he applies humor, eclecticism, and historical reference. This paper will examine Byard’s background as the source of his expansive view, his natural talents as humorist and educator, and how these elements led him to adopt the classical definition of eclecticism to craft a unique voice that was both inclusive and specific.
For critics and listeners, the reception of the 1950s jazz-classical hybrid Third Stream music has long been fraught. InJohn Lewis and the Challenge of "Real" Black Music, Christopher Coady explores ...the work of one of the form's most vital practitioners, following Lewis from his role as an arranger for Miles Davis'sBirth of the Coolsessions to his leadership of the Modern Jazz Quartet, his tours of Europe, and his stewardship of the Lenox School of Jazz.Along the way Coady shows how Lewis's fusion works helped shore up a failing jazz industry in the wake of the 1940s big band decline, forging a new sound grounded in middle-class African American musical traditions. By taking into account the sociocultural milieu of the 1950s, Coady provides a wider context for understanding the music Lewis wrote for the Modern Jazz Quartet and sets up new ways of thinking about Cool Jazz and Third Stream music more broadly.
Through their own words, Vacher tells their story in Los Angeles, offering along the way a close look at the role the black musicians union played in their lives while also taking on jazz ...historiography's comparative neglect of these West Coast players.
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