Representing Jazz

by Gabbard, Krin; Knight, Arthur (CON); Chambers, Leland H. (CON); Garber, Frederick (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780822315940
• ISBN10: 0822315947
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-06-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Traditional jazz studies have tended to see jazz in purely musical terms, as a series of changes in rhythm, tonality, and harmony, or as a parade of great players. But jazz has also entered the cultural mix through its significant impact on novelists, filmmakers, dancers, painters, biographers, and photographers.Representing Jazzexplores the "other" history of jazz created by these artists, a history that tells us as much about the meaning of the music as do the many books that narrate the lives of musicians or describe their recordings. Krin Gabbard has gathered essays by distinguished writers from a variety of fields. They provide engaging analyses of films such asRound Midnight,Bird,Mors" Better Blues,Cabin in the Sky, andJamminrs" the Blues;the writings of Eudora Welty and Dorothy Baker; the careers of the great lindy hoppers of the 1930s and 1940s; Mura Dehnrs"s extraordinary documentary on jazz dance; the jazz photography of William Claxton; painters of the New York School; the traditions of jazz autobiography; and the art of "vocalese." The contributors to this volume assess the influence of extramusical sources on our knowledge of jazz and suggest that the living contexts of the music must be considered if a more sophisticated jazz scholarship is ever to evolve. Transcending the familiar patterns of jazz history and criticism,Representing Jazzlooks at how the music actually has been heard and felt at different levels of American culture. With its companion anthology,Jazz Among the Discourses, this volume will enrich and transform the literature of jazz studies. Its provocative essays will interest both aficionados and potential jazz fans.Contributors. Karen Backstein, Leland H. Chambers, Robert P. Crease, Krin Gabbard, Frederick Garber, Barry K. Grant, Mona Hadler, Christopher Harlos, Michael Jarrett, Adam Knee, Arthur Knight, James Naremore

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Writing the Other History

Jazz in Literature and Film

Jammin' the Blues, or the Sight of Jazz, 1944

Improvising and Mythmaking in Eudora Welty's "Powerhouse"

Fabulating Jazz

Signifyin(g) the Phallus: Mo' Better Blues and Representations of the Jazz Trumpet

Jazz Autobiography: Theory, Practice, Politics

Excursus: Cabin in the Sky

Uptown Folk: Blackness and Entertainment in Cabin in the Sky

Doubling, Music, and Race in Cabin in the Sky

Jazz and Dance

Divine Frivolity: Hollywood Representations of the Lindy Hop, 1937-1942

Keeping the Spirit Alive: The Jazz Dance Testament of Mura Dehn

Picturing Jazz

Jazz and the New York School

The Tenor's Vehicle: Reading Way Out West

Vocalese: Representing Jazz with Jazz

Purple Passages of Fiestas in Blue? Notes Toward an Aesthetic of Vocalese

Contributors

Index

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