Jazz Among the Discourses

by Gabbard, Krin; Gendron, Bernard L. (CON); Elworth, Steven B. (CON); MacKey, Nathaniel (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780822315964
• ISBN10: 0822315963
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

The study of jazz comes of age with this anthology. One of the first books to consider jazz outside of established critical modes, Jazz Among the Discourses brings together scholars from an array of disciplines to question and revise conventional methods of writing and thinking about jazz. Challenging "official jazz histories," the contributors to this volume view jazz through the lenses of comparative literature; African American studies; music, film, and communication theory; English literature; American studies; history; and philosophy. With uncommon rigor and imagination, their essays probe the influence of various discourses-journalism, scholarship, politics, oral history, and entertainment-on writing about jazz. Employing modes of criticism and theory that have transformed study in the humanities, they address 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? How is an African American aesthetic articulated through the music? What are the consequences of the interaction between the critic and the jazz artist? How does the improvising artist navigate between chaos and discipline? Along with its companion volume, Representing Jazz, this versatile anthology marks the arrival of jazz studies as a mature, intellectually independent discipline. Its rethinking of conventional jazz discourse will further strengthen the position of jazz studies within the academy. Krin Gabbard is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is the editor of the companion volume, Representing Jazz, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: The Jazz Canon and Its Consequences	1	(30)
Krin Gabbard
RETHINKING JAZZ HISTORY
``Moldy Figs'' and Modernists: Jazz at War (1942--1946)	31	(26)
Bernard Gendron
Jazz in Crisis, 1948--1958: Ideology and Representation	57	(19)
Steven B. Elworth
Other: From Noun to Verb	76	(24)
Nathaniel Mackey
Historical Context and the Definition of Jazz: Putting More of the History in ``Jazz History''	100	(17)
William Howland Kenney
Oral Histories of Jazz Musicians: The NEA Transcripts as Texts in Context	117	(17)
Burton W. Peretti
The Media of Memory: The Seductive Menace of Records in Jazz History	134	(31)
Jed Rasula
THE JAZZ ARTIST AMONG THE DISCOURSES
``Out of Notes'': Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis	165	(24)
Robert Walser
Critical Alchemy: Anthony Braxton and the Imagined Tradition	189	(28)
Ronald M. Radano
Ephemera Underscored: Writing Around Free Improvisation	217	(26)
John Corbett
THE ESSENTIAL CONTEXT: JAZZ AND POLITICS
Double V, Double-Time: Bebop's Politics of Style	243	(13)
Eric Lott
Ascension: Music and the Black Arts Movement	256	(19)
Lorenzo Thomas
Contributors	275	(2)
Index	277