Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony BraxtonIn Blutopia Graham Lock studies the music and thought of three pioneering twentieth-century musicians: Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton. Providing an alternative to previous analyses of their work, Lock shows how these distinctive artists were each influenced by a common musical and spiritual heritage and participated in self-conscious efforts to create a utopian vision of the future. A century after Ellington's birth, Lock reassesses his use of music as a form of black history and compares the different approaches of Ra, a band leader who focused on the future and cosmology, and Braxton, a contemporary composer whose work creates its own elaborate mythology. Arguing that the majority of writing on black music and musicians has--even if inadvertently--incorporated racial stereotypes, he explains how each artist reacted to criticism and sought to break free of categorical confines. Drawing on social history, musicology, biography, cultural theory, and, most of all, statements by the musicians themselves, Lock writes of their influential work. Blutopia will be a welcome contribution to the literature on twentieth-century African American music and creativity. It will interest students of jazz, American music, African American studies, American culture, and cultural studies. |
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Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun ... Graham Lock No preview available - 1999 |
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African American American music ancient Egypt Anthony Braxton Arkestra band Baraka black creativity black history black music Blues Brax Braxton's music Brown and Beige C. H. Johnson called Carnegie Hall CD insert notes Cecil Taylor Chase Chicago Christian claimed classical color Composition concert context Corbett Cotton Club critics culture dance Duke Ellington Ellington's music European Evidence ECD example Extended Play film freedom Graham Lock Hammond Harlem heaven improvisation James jazz John Jump for Joy jungle music later Leonard Feather London Mark Sinker Mercer Ellington meta-real musicians myth Nathaniel Mackey notion operas Orchestra outer space performance perhaps planet play Quartet Ra's race record reference Saturn saxophone seems slavery slaves solo sound space chants spiritual story Sun Ra Sun Song swing Szwed talking tion titles ton's tradition Tri-axium Writings Trillium Tucker unpublished interview Val Wilmer vision Western York