HUM 396 - Jazz in Film and Literature: Jazz Histories

Considered the most encyclopedic interpretive history of jazz available in one volume for more than 50 years, this reference has been completely revised and expanded to incorporate the dominant styles and musicians since the book's last publication in 1992, as well as the fruits of current research about earlier periods in the history of jazz. In addition, new chapters have been added on John Zorn, jazz in the 1990s and beyond, samplers, the tuba, the harmonica, non-Western instruments, postmodernist and repertory big bands, how the avant-garde has explored tradition, and many other subjects.

What is jazz? What is gained—and what is lost—when various communities close ranks around a particular definition of this quintessentially American music? Jazz/Not Jazz explores some of the musicians, concepts, places, and practices which, while deeply connected to established jazz institutions and aesthetics, have rarely appeared in traditional histories of the form.

Contents: 1. The Basics. 2. Jazz From it's Origins to 1940 Roots, Early Jazz, the Swing Era; 3. Jazz 1940-1960 Bebop, Cool, Hard Bop; 4. Jazz 1960-1980 The Avant-Garde and Its Aftermath. 5. Jazz After 1980: The Postmodern Period

Marc Myers describes the myriad of events and trends that affected the music's evolution, among them, the American Federation of Musicians strike in the early 1940s, changes in radio and concert-promotion, the introduction of the long-playing record, the suburbanization of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights movement, the 'British invasion' and the rise of electronic instruments