Going for Jazz: Musical Practices and American IdeologyJazz is one of the most influential American art forms of our times. It shapes our ideas about musical virtuosity, human action and new forms of social expression. In Going for Jazz, Nicholas Gebhardt shows how the study of jazz can offer profound insights into American historical consciousness. Focusing on the lives of three major saxophonists—Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman—Gebhardt demonstrates how changing forms of state power and ideology framed and directed their work. Weaving together a range of seemingly disparate topics, from Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis to the invention of bebop, from Jean Baudrillard's Seduction to the Cold War atomic regime, Gebhardt addresses the meaning and value of jazz in the political economy of American society. In Going for Jazz, jazz musicians assume dynamic and dramatic social positions that demand a more conspicuous place for music in our understanding of the social world. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
act’s analysis analyze argues argument band basis bebop bebop act Bechet Bechet’s narrative black Americans black consciousness black musicians Blues Books capitalist Charlie Parker Chicago Press constituted creative critical culture defined dynamics E. P. Thompson economic Ellison emancipation emerged ensemble ex-slaves existential framework Fredric Jameson free jazz freedom frontier going for jazz Gutman Hentoff Herbert Gutman historical human action Ibid improvised act individual industrial jazz act jazz form jazz musicians jazz practices Jones Kapferer labor limits logic London meaning melody Miles Davis musical act myth Nat Hentoff orienting Ornette Coleman Oxford University Press Paolo Virno play production radical relation remaking remythologization rhythm saxophone Scarry seduction sense significance situation slavery Slavoj Žižek social and political social practices social struggle society specific state’s structure Sudnow swing transformation Treat It Gentle University of Chicago Verso Virno virtuosic dimension virtuosity W. E. B. Du Bois York Žižek