Making the Scene: Contemporary New York City Big Band Jazz
Alex Stewart
Abstract
The received wisdom of popular jazz history is that the era of the big band was the 1930s and '40s, when swing was at its height. But, as practicing jazz musicians know, even though big bands lost the spotlight once the bebop era began, they never really disappeared. This book challenges conventional jazz historiography by demonstrating the vital role of big bands in the ongoing development of jazz. The author describes how jazz musicians have found big bands valuable, exploring the rich “rehearsal band” scene in New York and the rise of repertory orchestras. The book combines historical resea ... More
Keywords: jazz history, bebop, jazz historiography, rehearsal band, repertory orchestras, ethnography, participant observation, musical analysis, ethnic studies, gender theory
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520249530 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520249530.001.0001 |
