In his new book, Richard Brent Turner explores the history and contemporary significance of the popular religious traditions, identities, and performance forms celebrated in the second lines of the ...jazz street parades of black New Orleans. The second line is the group of dancers who follow the first procession of church and club members, brass bands, and grand marshals. Here musical and religious traditions interplay. Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans examines the relationship of jazz to indigenous religion and spirituality. It explores how the African diasporist religious identities and musical traditions -- from Haiti and West and Central Africa -- are reinterpreted in New Orleans jazz and popular religious performances, while describing how the participants in the second line create their own social space and become proficient in the arts of political disguise, resistance, and performance.
Typically a photograph of a jazz musician has several formal prerequisites: black and white film, an urban setting in the mid-twentieth century, and a black man standing, playing, or sitting next to ...his instrument. That's the jazz archetype that photography created. Author K. Heather Pinson discovers how such a steadfast script developed visually and what this convention meant for the music. Album covers, magazines, books, documentaries, art photographs, posters, and various other visual extensions of popular culture formed the commonly held image of the jazz player. Through assimilation, there emerged a generalized composite of how mainstream jazz looked and sounded. Pinson evaluates representations of jazz musicians from 1945 to 1959, concentrating on the seminal role played by Herman Leonard (b. 1923). Leonard's photographic depictions of African American jazz musicians in New York not only created a visual template of a black musician of the 1950s, but also became the standard configuration of the music's neoclassical sound today. To discover how the image of the musician affected mainstream jazz, Pinson examines readings from critics, musicians, and educators, as well as interviews, musical scores, recordings, transcriptions, liner notes, and oral narratives.
"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.
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.
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.
This indispensable book brings us face to face with some of the most memorable figures in jazz history as it chronicles the transition from the big band era to the "bop" period of modern jazz in the ...late 1930s and '40s. Ira Gitler interviewed more than 50 leading jazz musicians who tell in their own words how "bop" music emerged and how it influenced their lives and work. Placing jazz in historical context, Gitler demonstrates how the mood of the nation in its post-Depression years, racial attitudes of the times, and World War II shaped the jazz of today.
Eurojazzland Cerchiari, Luca; Cugny, Laurent; Kerschbaumer, Franz
2012
eBook
It is often said that jazz is America’s great gift to the world, but while true, this belies the surprising, often crucial role that Europe has played in the development and popularity of jazz ...throughout the world. Based on a series of symposia attracting leading scholars, critics, and musicians from throughout Europe and the United States, Eurojazzland first addresses the impact of European musical traditions and instruments on the formation and development of American jazz. Part two details the vital experiences of American musicians on European soil, from black minstrels to such jazz greats as Benny Carter and Duke Ellington, and deals with European jazzmen and their developments of American jazz styles. The final part chronicles the importance of European critics and musicologists in jazz criticism and offers essays on European contributions to jazz musicianship and production.
Eurojazzland proves that jazz is simply too rich and varied for one country to claim, define, or contain. This groundbreaking collection will appeal to jazz aficionados, scholars, musicologists, and musicians.
