Blowin' the Blues Away: Performance and Meaning on the New York Jazz Scene

by Travis A. Jackson

Overview

New York City has always been a mecca in the history of jazz, and in many ways the city’s jazz scene is more important now than ever before. Blowin’ the Blues Away examines how jazz has thrived in New York following its popular resurgence in the 1980s. Using interviews, in-person observation, and analysis of live and recorded events, ethnomusicologist Travis A. Jackson explores both the ways in which various participants in the New York City jazz scene interpret and evaluate performance, and the criteria on which those interpretations and evaluations are based. Through the notes and words of its most accomplished performers and most ardent fans, jazz appears not simply as a musical style, but as a cultural form intimately influenced by and influential upon American concepts of race, place, and spirituality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520270459
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/12/2012
Series:	Music of the African Diaspora , #16
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Travis A. Jackson is Associate Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Part 1 Black, Brown and Beige

1 Studying Jazz 3

2 History and Memory, Pathways and Practices: The African Americanness of Jazz 24

Part 2 Scenes in the City

3 Jazz and Spatiality: The Development of Jazz Scenes 51

4 The New York Jazz Scene in the 1990s 70

Part 3 Blowin' the Blues Away

5 Toward a Blues Aesthetic 109

6 Jazz Performance as Ritualized Activity 136

7 In the Studio and on Stage 155

Conclusion 205

Glossary 217

Appendix: Excerpt from an Interview with Steve Wilson 223

Notes 231

References 263

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

[Jackson’s] contributions on authenticity, race and identity are direct and refreshing and his analysis informative and stimulating.

Musicology Review - Damian Evans

"[Jackson's] contributions on authenticity, race and identity are direct and refreshing and his analysis informative and stimulating."--Musicology Review

From the Publisher