Making Jazz in Contemporary Japan - A Passionate Search for Self-Expression

Making Jazz in Contemporary Japan: A Passionate Search for Self-Expression explores the ways in which Japanese jazz musicians express themselves through their art-not to "japanize" jazz, but to assert one's creativity, passion, and capacity for self-expression-establishing it as an art form with its own sense of musicality and cultural, social, and economic concerns. This ethnographic survey contextualizes a shift in the Japanese jazz world over the last 30 years: What once was a culture dependent on the American influence is now a thriving local scene creating a wide variety of original, transnational compositions. Based on digital and physical observations and extensive interviews with nearly three dozen Japanese professional jazz musicians while featuring portraits of well-known artists, this empirical investigation into how, where, and why jazz is performed, opens doors to touch on culturally sensitive and taboo topics such as gender, sexuality, and indigenization. Suited for readers in global jazz studies and cultural study programs alike, this book is a timely sociological consideration of the Japanese jazz diaspora, a necessary update to break free of established tropes and cliches envisioning Japanese artists as mere imitators.

List of contents

Introduction
1. Jazz Clubs at the Heart of Japanese Jazz Making
2: A Passionate Choice for Jazz: Escaping One's Social Destiny
3. Two Paths towards Self-expression
4. The Paradoxical Feminization of Japanese Jazz
Conclusion

Product details

• Authors: Marie Buscatto, Marie (University of Paris 1 Pantheon So Buscatto
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.10.2024
• EAN: 9781032603889
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3260388-9
• No. of pages: 154
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 225 mm x 10 mm
• Series: Print on demand; Transnational Studies in Jazz
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Jazz, Japan, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / General, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Jazz, Popular Music