Jazz Diasporas: "Race, Music, and Migration in Post-World War II Paris"
Rashida K. Braggs
Abstract
At the close of the Second World War, waves of African American musicians migrated to Paris, eager to thrive in its reinvigorated jazz scene. This book challenges the notion that Paris was a color-blind paradise for African Americans. On the contrary, musicians adopted a variety of strategies to cope with the cultural and social assumptions that confronted them throughout their careers in Paris, particularly as France became embroiled in struggles over race and identity when colonial conflicts like the Algerian War escalated. Using case studies of prominent musicians and thoughtful analysis of ... More
At the close of the Second World War, waves of African American musicians migrated to Paris, eager to thrive in its reinvigorated jazz scene. This book challenges the notion that Paris was a color-blind paradise for African Americans. On the contrary, musicians adopted a variety of strategies to cope with the cultural and social assumptions that confronted them throughout their careers in Paris, particularly as France became embroiled in struggles over race and identity when colonial conflicts like the Algerian War escalated. Using case studies of prominent musicians and thoughtful analysis of interviews, music, film, and literature, the author investigates the impact of this postwar musical migration. The book examines key figures including musicians Sidney Bechet, Inez Cavanaugh, and Kenny Clarke and writer and social critic James Baldwin to show how they performed both as artists and as African Americans. Their collaborations with French musicians and critics complicated racial and cultural understandings of who could represent “authentic” jazz and created spaces for shifting racial and national identities—what the book terms “jazz diasporas.”
Keywords:
African American musicians,
Paris,
jazz scene,
colonial conflict,
postwar musical migration,
Sidney Bechet,
Inez Cavanaugh,
Kenny Clarke,
James Baldwin
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520279346 |
Published to California Scholarship Online: September 2016 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520279346.001.0001 |