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Bowed Strings in 20th-Century Jazz in the United States serves as a historical examination of the roles of bowed strings (violin, viola, and cello) in jazz. The subject of bowed strings in jazz has garnered considerable interest, evident in the swell of pedagogical materials published in the last decade, the proliferation of college programs incorporating alternative styles for strings, the increasing number of jazz groups featuring improvising string players, and the abundance of articles, both biographical and historical, on bowed strings in jazz.
Sequentially, this book discusses the roles of violin, viola, cello, string quartets, and miscellaneous groupings of strings in various contexts. The discussion progresses from specific instruments and players to chamber groups and then ensembles of a variety of sizes.
This book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in the musical study of Jazz in the United States.
List of contents
Introduction Chapter 1 Smith faces South and an Anything-but-Average Joe: Violins in Jazz, 1900-1950
Chapter 2 Saxes and Violins: Violins in Jazz, 1950-2000
Chapter 3 This Ain't No Viola Joke
Chapter 4 Jazz Cellobration
Chapter 5 Alone Together: Stand-Alone Jazz String Quartets
Chapter 6
Bibliography Selected Discography
About the author
Sonya R. Lawson holds a Ph.D. in Music History with a Supporting Area in Viola Performance from the University of Oregon, and a M.M in Viola Performance from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation presented a history of strings in jazz, and other research interests are cognitive musicology and innovations in music history pedagogy. Dr. Lawson was Principal Violist of the Tennessee Philharmonic, Assistant Principal of the Cheyenne Symphony, and has played in many orchestras. As a member of The Knotty Ensemble avant-garde chamber group, she has released two CDs on the Third Rail label.
