The Jazz Cadence of American Culture
The Jazz Cadence of American Culture

Author: Robert G. O'Meally

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 9780231104494

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Taking to heart Ralph Ellison's remark that much in American life is "jazz-shaped," The Jazz Cadence of American Culture offers a wide range of eloquent statements about the influence of this art form. Robert G. O'Meally has gathered a comprehensive collection of important essays, speeches, and interviews on the impact of jazz on other arts, on politics, and on the rhythm of everyday life. Focusing mainly on American artistic expression from 1920 to 1970, O'Meally confronts a long era of political and artistic turbulence and change in which American art forms influenced one another in unexpected ways. Organized thematically, these provocative pieces include an essay considering poet and novelist James Weldon Johnson as a cultural critic, an interview with Wynton Marsalis, a speech on the heroic image in jazz, and a newspaper review of a recent melding of jazz music and dance, Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk. From Stanley Crouch to August Wilson to Jacqui Malone, the plurality of voices gathered here reflects the variety of expression within jazz. The book's opening section sketches the overall place of jazz in America. Alan P. Merriam and Fradley H. Garner unpack the word jazz and its register, Albert Murray considers improvisation in music and life, Amiri Baraka argues that white critics misunderstand jazz, and Stanley Crouch cogently dissects the intersections of jazz and mainstream American democratic institutions. After this, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring jazz and the visual arts, dance, sports, history, memory, and literature. Ann Douglas writes on jazz's influence on the design and construction of skyscrapers in the 1920s and '30s, Zora Neale Hurston considers the significance of African-American dance, Michael Eric Dyson looks at the jazz of Michael Jordan's basketball game, and Hazel Carby takes on the sexual politics of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith's blues. The Jazz Cadence offers a wealth of insight and information for scholars, students, jazz aficionados, and any reader wishing to know more about this music form that has put its stamp on American culture more profoundly than any other in the twentieth century.

The Jazz Cadence of American Culture
The Jazz Cadence of American Culture

Author: Robert G. O'Meally

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13: 9780231104487

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"The Jazz Cadence of American Culture offers a wide range of eloquent statements about the influence of this art form on our world ... a comprehensive collection of [35] essays, speeches and interviews about the impact of jazz on other arts, on politics, and on the rhythm of everyday life."--Back cover.

Uptown Conversation
Uptown Conversation

Author: Robert G. O'Meally

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 0231123507

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'Uptown Conversation' asserts that jazz is not only a music to define, it is a culture. The essays illustrate how for more than a century jazz has initiated a call and response across art forms, geographies, and cultures, inspiring musicians, filmmakers,painters and poets.

Jazz in American Culture
Jazz in American Culture

Author: Peter Townsend

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9781578063246

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A persuasive appreciation of what jazz is and of how it has permeated and enriched the culture of America

Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet
Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet

Author: Randall Sandke

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2023-06-14

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 081086990X

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Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet tackles a controversial question: Is jazz the product of an insulated African-American environment, shut off from the rest of society by strictures of segregation and discrimination, or is it more properly understood as the juncture of a wide variety of influences under the broader umbrella of American culture? This book does not question that jazz was created and largely driven by African Americans, but rather posits that black culture has been more open to outside influences than most commentators are likely to admit. The majority of jazz writers, past and present, have embraced an exclusionary viewpoint. Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet begins by looking at many of these writers, from the birth of jazz history up to the present day, to see how and why their views have strayed from the historical record. This book challenges many widely held beliefs regarding the history and nature of jazz in an attempt to free jazz of the socio-political baggage that has s

Traditional New Orleans Jazz
Traditional New Orleans Jazz

Author: Thomas W. Jacobsen

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2011-03-25

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0807139467

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About a century after its beginnings, traditional jazz remains the definitive music of New Orleans and an international hallmark of the city. The enduring sound and boundless energy of this American art form have produced a long list of jazz legends. From Lionel Ferbos -- the city's oldest working jazz musician -- to Grammy winner Irvin Mayfield, the musical heritage of traditional jazz lives on through each player's passion. In Traditional New Orleans Jazz, veteran jazz journalist Thomas Jacobsen discusses that legacy with Ferbos, Mayfield, and a who's who of the present-day scene's "trad jazz" players. Through intimate conversations with jazz veterans and up-and-coming talent, Jacobsen elicits honest, witty, and sometimes comedic discussions that reveal a strong mutual devotion to do one thing -- compose and play music inspired by the Crescent City's earliest jazz musicians. Traditional New Orleans Jazz presents local perspectives on what has become an international language with interviews from Lucien Barbarin, Evan Christopher, Duke Heitger, Leroy Jones, Dr. Michael White, and many more. Jacobsen also notes the stewardship of traditional jazz means more than making music. Its longevity relies on teaching and innovation, furthering the inextricable ties between the music and the men who make it. Traditional New Orleans jazz is a culture of its own, and the players in this remarkable volume are its native speakers.

Race Music
Race Music

Author: Guthrie P. Ramsey

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-11-22

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0520243331

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Covering the vast and various terrain of African American music, this text begins with an account of the author's own musical experiences with family and friends on the South Side of Chicago. It goes on to explore the global influence and social relevance of African American music.

Cultural Codes
Cultural Codes

Author: Bill Banfield

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2009-12-10

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0810872870

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No art can survive without an understanding of, and dedication to, the values envisioned by its creators. No culture over time has existed without a belief system to sustain its survival. Black music is no different. In Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy, William C. Banfield engages the reader in a conversation about the aesthetics and meanings that inform this critical component of our social consciousness. By providing a focused examination of the historical development of Black music artistry, Banfield formulates a useable philosophy tied to how such music is made, shaped, and functions. In so doing, he explores Black music culture from three angles: history, education, and the creative work of the musicians who have moved the art forward. In addition to tracing Black music from its African roots to its various contemporary expressions, including jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop, Banfield profiles some of the most important musicians over the last century: W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Wonder, among others. Cultural Codes provides an educational and philosophical framework for students and scholars interested in the traditions, the development, the innovators, and the relevance of Black music.

Making Jazz French
Making Jazz French

Author: Jeffrey H. Jackson

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2003-08-05

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0822385082

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Between the world wars, Paris welcomed not only a number of glamorous American expatriates, including Josephine Baker and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but also a dynamic musical style emerging in the United States: jazz. Roaring through cabarets, music halls, and dance clubs, the upbeat, syncopated rhythms of jazz soon added to the allure of Paris as a center of international nightlife and cutting-edge modern culture. In Making Jazz French, Jeffrey H. Jackson examines not only how and why jazz became so widely performed in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s but also why it was so controversial. Drawing on memoirs, press accounts, and cultural criticism, Jackson uses the history of jazz in Paris to illuminate the challenges confounding French national identity during the interwar years. As he explains, many French people initially regarded jazz as alien because of its associations with America and Africa. Some reveled in its explosive energy and the exoticism of its racial connotations, while others saw it as a dangerous reversal of France’s most cherished notions of "civilization." At the same time, many French musicians, though not threatened by jazz as a musical style, feared their jobs would vanish with the arrival of American performers. By the 1930s, however, a core group of French fans, critics, and musicians had incorporated jazz into the French entertainment tradition. Today it is an integral part of Parisian musical performance. In showing how jazz became French, Jackson reveals some of the ways a musical form created in the United States became an international phenomenon and acquired new meanings unique to the places where it was heard and performed.

Digging
Digging

Author: Amiri Baraka

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2009-05-26

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 0520943090

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For almost half a century, Amiri Baraka has ranked among the most important commentators on African American music and culture. In this brilliant assemblage of his writings on music, the first such collection in nearly twenty years, Baraka blends autobiography, history, musical analysis, and political commentary to recall the sounds, people, times, and places he's encountered. As in his earlier classics, Blues People and Black Music, Baraka offers essays on the famous—Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane—and on those whose names are known mainly by jazz aficionados—Alan Shorter, Jon Jang, and Malachi Thompson. Baraka's literary style, with its deep roots in poetry, makes palpable his love and respect for his jazz musician friends. His energy and enthusiasm show us again how much Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and the others he lovingly considers mattered. He brings home to us how music itself matters, and how musicians carry and extend that knowledge from generation to generation, providing us, their listeners, with a sense of meaning and belonging.