Blowin’ the Blues Away: Performance and Meaning on the New York Jazz Scene
Travis Jackson
Abstract
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. This book 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, the author—an ethnomusicologist—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 accomplis ... More
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. This book 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, the author—an ethnomusicologist—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.
Keywords:
New York,
history of jazz,
performance,
jazz,
musical style,
cultural form,
race,
place,
spirituality,
accomplished performers
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520270442 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: September 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520270442.001.0001 |
