The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in Postwar American CultureA Study of the Ways Popular Culture Viewed Jazz and Its Musicians in Postwar AmericaAlthough now sometimes called America's only pure art form and America's classical music, jazz has not always been accorded favorable appellations. Accurate though these encomiums may be, they obscure the complex and fractious history of jazz's reception in the U.S. Developing out of the African-American cultural tradition, jazz has always been variously understood by black and white audiences.This penetrating study of America's attitudes toward jazz focuses on a momentous period in postwar history -- from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Black Power Movement. Exploring the diverse representations of jazz and jazz musicians in literature and popular culture, it connects this uneven reception and skewed use of jazz with the era's debates about race and racial difference. Its close scrutiny of literature, music criticism, film, and television reveals fundamental contrasts between black and white cultures as they regard jazz. To the detriment of concepts of community and history, white writers focus on the individualism they perceive in jazz. Black writers emphasize the aspects of musicianship, performance, and improvisation. White approaches to jazz tend to be individualistic and ahistorical, and their depictions of musicians accent the artist's suffering and victimization. Black texts treating similar subject matter stress history, communitarianism, and socio-personal experience.This study shows as well how black and white dissenters such as the Beats and various African-American writers have challenged the mainstream's definition of this African-American resource. It exploressuch topics as racial politics in bohemian Greenwich Village, the struggle of the image of Charlie Parker, the cultural construction of jazz performance, and literature's imitation of jazz improvisation.As a cultural history with relevance for contemporary discussions of race and representation, The Color of Jazz offers an innovative and compelling perspective on diverse, well-known cultural materials. |
Contents
Blinded by the White | 3 |
Racing the Village People | 23 |
Caging Bird | 42 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown
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The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in Postwar American Culture Jon Panish No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
African American culture African American music African American musicians African American writers African and Euro Albert Murray American society Amiri Baraka artists audience Baldwin Beat bebop Bernie Rich Bird black and white black culture bohemians Cassady character characterize Charlie Parker civil rights club color-blindness connection construction creative Creole depiction dominant drums emotional emphasize Euro American Euro American writers Euro and African example experience expression fiction Gillespie Greenwich Village Harlem Holmes Holmes's Horn improvisation individual interaction interracial Jack Kerouac jazz music jazz musicians jazz performance John Clellon Holmes Lipsitz listen literary lives Louis Armstrong mainstream metaphor Mezzrow Moreover narrative narrator Negro nightclub novel play player political postwar race racial discourse racism relationships Russell Russell's says scene significant solo Sonny Sonny's Blues sound specific spontaneous story structure Travers's trumpet U.S. culture University Press white Americans white and black white jazz white musicians Williams York