Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans

by Turner, Richard Brent

• ISBN13: 9780253221209
• ISBN10: 025322120X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-11
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

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 Orleansexamines 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.

Author Biography

Richard Brent Turner is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa and author of Islam in the African-American Experience (IUP, 2003).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction Follow the Second Line	p. 1
The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston as Initiate Observer	p. 12
Mardi Gras Indians and Second Lines, Sequin Artists and Rara Bands: Street Festivals and Performances in New Orleans and Haiti	p. 39
Interlude The Healing Arts of African Diasporic Religion	p. 69
In Rhythm with the Spirit: New Orleans Jazz Funerals and the African Diaspora	p. 89
Epilogue A Jazz Funeral for ""A City That Care Forgot"": The New Orleans Diaspora after Hurricane Katrina	p. 126
Notes	p. 133
Bibliography	p. 161
Index	p. 175
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