Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History

by Robert Walser (Editor)

Overview

Featuring more than seventy thought-provoking selections drawn from contemporary journalism, reviews, program notes, memoirs, interviews, and other sources, Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History, Second Edition, brings to life the controversies and critical issues that have accompanied more than 100 years of jazz history. This unique volume gives voice to a wide range of perspectives which stress different reactions to and uses of jazz, both within and across communities, enabling readers to see that jazz is not just about names, dates, and chords, but rather about issues and ideas, cultural activities, and experiences that have affected people deeply in a great variety of ways. Selections include contributions from well-known figures such as Jelly Roll Morton, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis; from renowned writers including Langston Hughes, Norman Mailer, and Ralph Ellison; and from critics and historians ranging from Gunther Schuller and Christopher Small to Sherrie Tucker and George Lipsitz. Filled with insightful writing, Keeping Time aims to increase historical awareness, to provoke critical thinking, and to encourage lively classroom discussion as students relive the intriguing story of jazz.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199765775
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/27/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	1320L (what's this?)

About the Author

Edited by Robert Walser, Professor of Music, Case Western Reserve University

Table of Contents

First Accounts1. Sidney Bechet's Musical Philosophy2. "Whence Comes Jass?" Walter Kingsley3. The Location of "Jass," New Orleans Times-Picayune4. A "Serious" Musician Takes Jazz Seriously, Ernest Ansermet5. "A Negro Explains 'Jazz,'" James Reese Europe6. "Jazzing Away Prejudice," Chicago Defender7. Mister Jelly Roll, Jelly Roll MortonThe Twenties8. Jazzing Around the Globe, Burnet Hershey9. "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?" Anne Shaw Faulkner10. Jazz and African Music, Nicholas G.J. Ballanta-Taylor11. Sexual Politics of Women's Blues, Hazel B. Carby12. The Man Who Made a Lady Out of Jazz (Paul Whiteman), Hugh C. Ernst13. "The Jazz Problem," The Etude14. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," Langston Hughes15. A Black Journalist Criticizes Jazz, Dave Peyton16. "The Caucasian Storms Harlem," Rudolph Fisher17. The Appeal of Jazz Explained, R.W.S. MendlThe Thirties18. What Is Swing? Louis Armstrong19. Looking Back at "The Jazz Age," Alain Locke20. Defining "Hot Jazz," Robert Goffin21. Black Music in Our Culture, John Hammond22. Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday and William F. Dufty23. Jazz at Carnegie Hall, James Dugan and John Hammond24. Duke Ellington Explains Swing25. Jazz and Gender During the War Years, Down BeatThe Forties26. "Red Music," Josef Skvorecky27. "From Somewhere in France," Charles Delaunay28. "Upside Your Head!" Johnny Otis29. Jazz: A People's Music, Sidney Finkelstein30. "Bop is Nowhere," D. Leon Wolff and Louis Armstrong31. To Be or Not to Bop, Dizzy Gillespie32. The Golden Age, Times Past, Ralph Ellison33. The Professional Dance Musician and His Audience, Howard S. BeckerThe Fifties34. Perspectives in Jazz, Marshall Stearns35. Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence, Andre Hodeir36. Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller37. "Beneath the Underdog," Charles Mingus38. Psychoanalyzing Jazz, Miles D. Miller39. Vatican is Asked to Rule on Jazz, Paul Hofmann40. US Has Secret Weapon - Jazz, Felix Belair, Jr.41. "The White Negro," Norman Mailer42. Louis Armstrong on Music and PoliticsThe Sixties43. "Free Jazz," Ornet Coleman44. "Jazz and the White Critic," LeRoi Jones45. The Playboy Panel: Jazz, Today and TomorrowThe Seventies46 . Jamey Aebersold, "The Scale Syllabus"47. What Jazz Means to Me, Max Roach48. Stomping the Blues, Albert Murray49. Notes (8 Pieces), Wadada Leo Smith50. Jazz Pop - A "Failed Art Music" Makes Good, Robert PalmerThe Eighties51. Jazz: "America's Classical Music," William "Billy" Taylor52. "A Rare National Treasure," U.S. Congress53. Interview with Wynton Marsalis and Herbie Hancock54. Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro-American Music, Christopher SmallThe Ninties55. Who Listens to Jazz? 56. "Free Jazz" Revisited, Ornet Coleman57. Ring Shout! Samuel A. Floyd Jr. 58. Ferociously Harmonizing with Reality, Keith Jarrett59. Constructing the Jazz Tradition, Scott DeVeaux60. "Local Jazz," James Lincoln Collier61. "Out of Notes": Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis, Robert Walser62. "What Makes 'Jazz' the Revolutionary Music of the 20th Century, and Will It Be Revolutionary for the21st Century?" Fred Wei-han Ho63. Improvised Music After 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives, George E. LewisToday64. "Resistance Is Futile!" Sarah Rodman65. "Music and Language," Brad Mehldau66. "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't in the History Books," Sherrie Tucker67. Three Polemics on the State of Jazz, Stanley Crouch68. The Jazz Left, Herman S. Gray69. Songs of the Unsung: The Darby Hicks History of Jazz, George Lipsitz70. Exploding the Narrative in Jazz Improvisation, Vijay Iyer71. Celebrating the Global: The Nordic Tone in Jazz, Stuart Nicholson72. "Who Listens to Jazz Now?" National Endowment for the Arts

Editorial Reviews

"No other source than Keeping Time gives such a rich choice of material relating to the social, cultural, historical, and economic conditions of jazz."—Peter Winkler, Stony Brook University

"The single most valuable jazz-history resource (print or otherwise) available today."—David Ake, University of Nevada, Reno

"Walser offers a much greater range of ideas and topics and a more solid critical approach [than other collections on jazz]."—Geoffrey Block, University of Puget Sound

From the Publisher