Jazz Cultures
Jazz Cultures

Author: David Ake

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-01-07

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780520926967

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From its beginning, jazz has presented a contradictory social world: jazz musicians have worked diligently to erase old boundaries, but they have just as resolutely constructed new ones. David Ake's vibrant and original book considers the diverse musics and related identities that jazz communities have shaped over the course of the twentieth century, exploring the many ways in which jazz musicians and audiences experience and understand themselves, their music, their communities, and the world at large. Writing as a professional pianist and composer, the author looks at evolving meanings, values, and ideals--as well as the sounds--that musicians, audiences, and critics carry to and from the various activities they call jazz. Among the compelling topics he discusses is the "visuality" of music: the relationship between performance demeanor and musical meaning. Focusing on pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Ake investigates the ways in which musicians' postures and attitudes influence perceptions of them as profound and serious artists. In another essay, Ake examines the musical values and ideals promulgated by college jazz education programs through a consideration of saxophonist John Coltrane. He also discusses the concept of the jazz "standard" in the 1990s and the differing sense of tradition implied in recent recordings by Wynton Marsalis and Bill Frisell. Jazz Cultures shows how jazz history has not consisted simply of a smoothly evolving series of musical styles, but rather an array of individuals and communities engaging with disparate--and oftentimes conflicting--actions, ideals, and attitudes.

Jazz Cultures
Jazz Cultures

Author: David Ake

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-01-07

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0520228898

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"Ake blends careful historical research with intelligent textual criticism and sophisticated cultural theory. . . His critiques augment and enhance our understanding and appreciation of great artistry, but they do much more. This is new, imaginative, original, and generative work. There are very few people who can write about both music theory and social theory with such clarity, depth, and insight."—George Lipsitz, author of Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism and the Poetics of Place "David Ake is a jazz artist who has woodshedded with his critical theory as much as with his instrument. As an astute commentator on a wide range of jazz subjects, he has the virtuosity of an Art Tatum and the eclecticism of a John Zorn."—Krin Gabbard, author of Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema "David Ake's writing combines the best of modern scholarship with the no-nonsense attitude of a gigging musician. In Jazz Cultures, he seizes upon precisely those issues and historical moments that best reveal how jazz studies might mature into something worthy of the music. A wonderful antidote to the usual cliches of jazz history and a splendid debut."—Scott DeVeaux, author of The Birth of Bebop

Jazz Cultures
Jazz Cultures

Author: David Andrew Ake

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 9781597346900

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From its beginning, jazz has presented a contradictory social world: jazz musicians have worked diligently to erase old boundaries, but they have just as resolutely constructed new ones. David Ake's book considers the diverse musics and related identities that jazz communities have shaped over the course of the twentieth century, exploring the many ways in which jazz musicians and audiences experience and understand themselves, their music, their communities, and the world at large. Writing as a professional pianist and composer, the author looks at evolving meanings, values, and ideals--as well as the sounds--that musicians, audiences, and critics carry to and from the various activities they call jazz. Among the compelling topics he discusses is the "visuality" of music: the relationship between performance demeanor and musical meaning. Focusing on pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Ake investigates the ways in which musicians' postures and attitudes influence perceptions of them as profound and serious artists. In another essay, Ake examines the musical values and ideals promulgated by college jazz education programs through a consideration of saxophonist John Coltrane. He also discusses the concept of the jazz "standard" in the 1990s and the differing sense of tradition implied in recent recordings by Wynton Marsalis and Bill Frisell. Jazz cultures shows how jazz history has not consisted simply of a smoothly evolving series of musical styles, but rather an array of individuals and communities engaging with disparate--and oftentimes conflicting--actions, ideals, and attitudes.

Jazz in American Culture
Jazz in American Culture

Author: Burton W. Peretti

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee

Published: 1998-02-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1461713048

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This history of jazz, spanning the twentieth century, is the first to place it within the broad context of American culture. Burton Peretti argues persuasively that this distinctive American music has been a key thread in the tapestry of the nation’s culture. The music itself, its players and its audience, and the critical debates it has prompted, tell us much about changes in American life since 1910. Mr. Peretti traces the emergence of jazz out of ragtime during a time of tumultuous growth of cites and industries. In the 1920s jazz flourished and symbolized the cultural struggle between modernists and traditionalists. As American sought reassurance and self-esteem during the Great Depression, jazz reached new levels of sophistication in the Swing Era. World War II encouraged rapid changes in popular tastes, and in the postwar decades jazz became both a voice of a globally dominant America and an avant-garde music reflecting social and political turmoil. Today, Mr. Peretti concludes, jazz symbolizes important cultural trends and enjoys a new prestige in a complex musical scene. Jazz in American Culture tells a peculiarly American story, evaluating the music as well as those who created it, and opening new perspectives on our cultural history.

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

The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives
The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives

Author: Nicholas Gebhardt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-05

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1317672712

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The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music documents the emergence of collective movements in jazz and improvised music. Jazz history is most often portrayed as a site for individual expression and revolves around the celebration of iconic figures, while the networks and collaborations that enable the music to maintain and sustain its cultural status are surprisingly under-investigated. This collection explores the history of musician-led collectives and the ways in which they offer a powerful counter-model for rethinking jazz practices in the post-war period. It includes studies of groups including the New York Musicians Organization, Sweden’s Ett minne för livet, Wonderbrass from South Wales, the contemporary Dutch jazz-hip hop scene, and Austria‘s JazzWerkstatt. With an international list of contributors and examples from Europe and the United States, these twelve essays and case studies examine issues of shared aesthetic vision, socioeconomic and political factors, local education, and cultural values among improvising musicians.

Jazz As Critique
Jazz As Critique

Author: Fumi Okiji

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2018-09-04

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1503605868

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This “lucidly argued, historically grounded . . . and timely book” reexamines the relationship between black cultures, jazz music, and critical theory (Alexander G. Weheliye, Northwestern University). A sustained engagement with the work of Theodor Adorno, Jazz As Critique looks to jazz for ways of understanding the inadequacies of contemporary life. While Adorno's writings on jazz are notoriously dismissive, he has faith in the critical potential of some musical traditions. Music, he suggests, can provide insight into the controlling, destructive nature of modern society while offering a glimpse of more empathetic and less violent ways of being together in the world. Taking Adorno down a new path, Okiji calls attention to an alternative sociality made manifest in jazz. In response to writing that tends to portray it as a mirror of American individualism and democracy, she makes the case for jazz as a model of “gathering in difference.” Noting that this mode of subjectivity emerged in response to the distinctive history of black America, she reveals that the music cannot but call the integrity of the world into question.

Jazz Matters
Jazz Matters

Author: David Andrew Ake

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0520266889

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"Ake offers an engaging and eclectic alternative to much jazz studies fare by examining seldom-considered subjects and reading familiar ones through unconventional means. I came away from Jazz Matters knowing that I had learned something new regarding the practices of writing about, listening to, and playing jazz."--Eric Porter, author of What Is This Thing Called Jazz? "Smart, interesting, engaging, thoughtful, and stimulating, this book opens up a lot of what we often take for granted about jazz. A fitting sequel to Jazz Cultures, Jazz Matters will no doubt be just as important to jazz scholarship."--Gabriel Solis, author of Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making "Jazz Matters is intellectually stimulating as much as emotionally involving. It deals with sides of the acts of creating jazz and listening to it that were hitherto little or no discussed, and does it with first-hand knowledge, empathy, and a wide range of references to literature, philosophy and art, adding something deeply valuable at the vast literature on jazz currently available."--Francesco Martinelli, Director of Centro Studi sul Jazz "Arrigo Polillo" - Fondazione Siena Jazz

Jazz as a Cultural Archive
Jazz as a Cultural Archive

Author: Jim Merod

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13:

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The jazz jam session is becoming obsolete. This spontaneous, organic communal habit of playing music for fun and with obsessive abandon is threatened by economic, technological, and cultural changes that have transformed the jazz scene. Now driven largely by commercial interests, jazz serves a wide audience that can enjoy its musical tradition in the comfort of the living room. While jazz as an art form has moved from an essentially live club experience to a controlled mass market enterprise, jazz as a cultural form is becoming more recognized and more defined. Reminiscent of yesterday's more personal jazz encounter, Jazz as a Cultural Archive is an intellectual and controversial jam session. This issue views the evolution of jazz culture through the eyes of the artists themselves. Conversations with saxophonist/composer Benny Golson, singer Mary Stallings, pianists John Hicks and Frank Strazzeri, and trumpeter Art Farmer, among others, highlight this collection of commentary on the changing jazz scene. Also included are an essay by one of the foremost chroniclers of the jazz world, novelist and critic Albert Murray; a look at jazz and the politics of race by trombonist/composer Tom McIntosh; and a stunning collection of photographs by renowned jazz photographer Michael Oletta.

Jazz Matters
Jazz Matters

Author: David Ake

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2010-10-07

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0520947398

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What, where, and when is jazz? To most of us jazz means small combos, made up mostly of men, performing improvisationally in urban club venues. But jazz has been through many changes in the decades since World War II, emerging in unexpected places and incorporating a wide range of new styles. In this engrossing new book, David Ake expands on the discussion he began in Jazz Cultures, lending his engaging, thoughtful, and stimulating perspective to post-1940s jazz. Ake investigates such issues as improvisational analysis, pedagogy, American exceptionalism, and sense of place in jazz. He uses provocative case studies to illustrate how some of the values ascribed to the postwar jazz culture are reflected in and fundamentally shaped by aspects of sound, location, and time.