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"A most valuable and engrossing book that will surely be read by all those who write about jazz. Fans will also seek it out. It offers a wealth of perspectives, allowing the reader to learn what people in other disciplines have to say about jazz."--Lewis Porter, author, with Michael Ullman, of "Jazz: From Its Origins to the Present"
List of contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Jazz Canon and Its Consequences / Krin Gabbard 1
Rethinking Jazz History
"Moldy Figs" and Modernists: Jazz at War (1942–1946) / Bernard Gendron 31
Jazz in Crisis, 1948–1958: Ideology and Representation / Steven B. Elworth 57
Other: From Noun to Verb / Nathaniel Mackey 76
Historical Context and the Definition of Jazz: Putting More of the History in "Jazz History" / William Howland Kenney 100
Oral Histories of Jazz Musicians: The NEA Transcripts as Texts in Context / Burton W. Peretti 117
The Media of Memory: The Seductive Menace of Records in Jazz History / Jed Rasula 134
Jazz Artists Among the Discourses
"Out of Notes": Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis / Robert Walser 165
Critical Alchemy: Anthony Braxton and the Imagined Tradition / Ronald M. Radano 189
Ephemera Underscored: Writing Around Free Improvisation / John Corbett 217
The Essential Context: Jazz and Politics
Double V, Double-Time: Bebop's Politics of Style / Eric Lott 243
Ascension: Music and the Black Arts Movement / Lorenzo Thomas 256
Contributors 275
Index 277
About the author
Krin Gabbard
Summary
Employing modes of criticism and theory that have transformed study in the humanities, this title addresses questions seldom if ever raised in jazz writing: What are the implications of building jazz history around the medium of the phonograph record? Why did jazz writers first make the claim that jazz is an art?
