Ingrid Monson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195128253
- eISBN:
- 9780199864492
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195128253.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, ...
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An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism through the lens of the hot button racial and economic issues of the time. It illustrates how the contentious and soul-searching debates in the Civil Rights, African Independence, and Black Power movements shaped aesthetic debates and exerted a moral pressure on musicians to take action. Throughout, its arguments show how jazz musicians' quest for self-determination as artists and human beings also led to fascinating and far-reaching musical explorations and a lasting ethos of social critique and transcendence. Across a broad body of issues of cultural and political relevance, the book considers the discursive, structural, and practical aspects of life in the jazz world of the 1950s and 1960s. In domestic politics, the book explores the desegregation of the American Federation of Musicians, the politics of playing to segregated performance venues in the 1950s, the participation of jazz musicians in benefit concerts, and strategies of economic empowerment. Issues of transatlantic importance such as the effects of anticolonialism and African nationalism on the politics and aesthetics of the music are also examined, from Paul Robeson's interest in Africa, to the State Department jazz tours, to the interaction of jazz musicians such as Art Blakey and Randy Weston with African diasporic aesthetics. It explores musicians' aesthetic agency in synthesizing influential forms of musical expression from a multiplicity of stylistic and cultural influences—African American music, popular song, classical music, African diasporic aesthetics, and other world music—through examples from cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and the avant-garde. By considering the differences between aesthetic and socio-economic mobility, it presents a fresh interpretation of debates over cultural ownership, racism, reverse racism, and authenticity.Less
An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, this book traces the complex relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism through the lens of the hot button racial and economic issues of the time. It illustrates how the contentious and soul-searching debates in the Civil Rights, African Independence, and Black Power movements shaped aesthetic debates and exerted a moral pressure on musicians to take action. Throughout, its arguments show how jazz musicians' quest for self-determination as artists and human beings also led to fascinating and far-reaching musical explorations and a lasting ethos of social critique and transcendence. Across a broad body of issues of cultural and political relevance, the book considers the discursive, structural, and practical aspects of life in the jazz world of the 1950s and 1960s. In domestic politics, the book explores the desegregation of the American Federation of Musicians, the politics of playing to segregated performance venues in the 1950s, the participation of jazz musicians in benefit concerts, and strategies of economic empowerment. Issues of transatlantic importance such as the effects of anticolonialism and African nationalism on the politics and aesthetics of the music are also examined, from Paul Robeson's interest in Africa, to the State Department jazz tours, to the interaction of jazz musicians such as Art Blakey and Randy Weston with African diasporic aesthetics. It explores musicians' aesthetic agency in synthesizing influential forms of musical expression from a multiplicity of stylistic and cultural influences—African American music, popular song, classical music, African diasporic aesthetics, and other world music—through examples from cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and the avant-garde. By considering the differences between aesthetic and socio-economic mobility, it presents a fresh interpretation of debates over cultural ownership, racism, reverse racism, and authenticity.
Takiyah Nur Amin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly ...
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Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly referred to as The Middle Passage or the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the enslavement era, African dances were transformed to African-American dances with the addition of various movements derived from whites. Post-enslavement and throughout the 20th century, African-American dance evolved in several different directions, one of which was jazz dance. While the term “jazz dance” was not coined until the 1920s, the primary “ancestry” of jazz dance can be found by studying African dance forms and how they changed in the context of plantation life. By decentralizing the primacy of non-African cultural contributions, jazz dance can be more appropriately understood as an amalgamation of cultural influences that informed and created this uniquely American dance form, which remains persistently African at its core.Less
Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly referred to as The Middle Passage or the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the enslavement era, African dances were transformed to African-American dances with the addition of various movements derived from whites. Post-enslavement and throughout the 20th century, African-American dance evolved in several different directions, one of which was jazz dance. While the term “jazz dance” was not coined until the 1920s, the primary “ancestry” of jazz dance can be found by studying African dance forms and how they changed in the context of plantation life. By decentralizing the primacy of non-African cultural contributions, jazz dance can be more appropriately understood as an amalgamation of cultural influences that informed and created this uniquely American dance form, which remains persistently African at its core.
Munro Martin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262829
- eISBN:
- 9780520947405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262829.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter develops an understanding of the links between the conceptions of race and culture, colonial history of rhythm and its suppression, the literature and the persistence of rhythm in the ...
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This chapter develops an understanding of the links between the conceptions of race and culture, colonial history of rhythm and its suppression, the literature and the persistence of rhythm in the literary and intellectual discourse of the French Caribbean islands, and the role played by rhythm in perpetuating them by shifting the focus from the Caribbean to the United States. Reflecting primarily on James Brown's development of a distinctively rhythmic musical style, it demonstrates how black radicals interpreted these rhythms as manifestations of living African aesthetics and also how recent critics such as Fred Moten have rejected these interpretations. It concludes with the fact that there is a sense of the ongoing, though often obscured and seldom acknowledged, connections between African American and Caribbean cultural politics and the ways in which the rhythm has been at the heart of conceptions of race, culture, and subjectivity.Less
This chapter develops an understanding of the links between the conceptions of race and culture, colonial history of rhythm and its suppression, the literature and the persistence of rhythm in the literary and intellectual discourse of the French Caribbean islands, and the role played by rhythm in perpetuating them by shifting the focus from the Caribbean to the United States. Reflecting primarily on James Brown's development of a distinctively rhythmic musical style, it demonstrates how black radicals interpreted these rhythms as manifestations of living African aesthetics and also how recent critics such as Fred Moten have rejected these interpretations. It concludes with the fact that there is a sense of the ongoing, though often obscured and seldom acknowledged, connections between African American and Caribbean cultural politics and the ways in which the rhythm has been at the heart of conceptions of race, culture, and subjectivity.
Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main ...
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This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.Less
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.
Gill Wright Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0022
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
What connects African-American concert dance and jazz dance? On the one hand, both forms derive from the same root: African vernacular dance. It is easy to identify elements of African aesthetics in ...
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What connects African-American concert dance and jazz dance? On the one hand, both forms derive from the same root: African vernacular dance. It is easy to identify elements of African aesthetics in both genres. John Perpener contends that African-American concert dance was created to “effect socio-political change for African-American people, bring together aesthetic and cultural elements that had, previously, been posed as polar opposites, forge a positive identity for black people in the midst of a hostile environment, express a contemporary ethos, and create work that was multi-vocal, articulating simultaneously different worldviews.” Jazz dance, on the other hand, has usually been seen as a form of entertainment. Pearl Primus, Talley Beatty, Alvin Ailey, Chuck Davis, Diane McIntyre, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are African-American concert dance artists who are discussed within the chapter.Less
What connects African-American concert dance and jazz dance? On the one hand, both forms derive from the same root: African vernacular dance. It is easy to identify elements of African aesthetics in both genres. John Perpener contends that African-American concert dance was created to “effect socio-political change for African-American people, bring together aesthetic and cultural elements that had, previously, been posed as polar opposites, forge a positive identity for black people in the midst of a hostile environment, express a contemporary ethos, and create work that was multi-vocal, articulating simultaneously different worldviews.” Jazz dance, on the other hand, has usually been seen as a form of entertainment. Pearl Primus, Talley Beatty, Alvin Ailey, Chuck Davis, Diane McIntyre, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are African-American concert dance artists who are discussed within the chapter.
Sheron Wray
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This author’s perspective on jazz dance is centered on four core principles derived from an African aesthetic. These principles are: 1) rhythmicity, 2) formidable relationship with the music, 3) ...
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This author’s perspective on jazz dance is centered on four core principles derived from an African aesthetic. These principles are: 1) rhythmicity, 2) formidable relationship with the music, 3) improvisation, and 4) dynamic play. Within rhythmic expression, the choreographer or dancer attempts to produce complex articulation of the body, demonstrating multiple tones simultaneously. The movements in jazz dance convey the nuances of rhythm, including the color tone that musicians produce in playing the music. Artists pursuing jazz dance today should bring to the field their own individual styles as choreographers, a deep connection with music, an ability to improvise and to develop that skill in others, and finally a sense of play, which manifests itself through precision, simultaneous movement and music invention, supple dynamic range, a risk-taking outlook, individual personality, irony, wit, and satire.Less
This author’s perspective on jazz dance is centered on four core principles derived from an African aesthetic. These principles are: 1) rhythmicity, 2) formidable relationship with the music, 3) improvisation, and 4) dynamic play. Within rhythmic expression, the choreographer or dancer attempts to produce complex articulation of the body, demonstrating multiple tones simultaneously. The movements in jazz dance convey the nuances of rhythm, including the color tone that musicians produce in playing the music. Artists pursuing jazz dance today should bring to the field their own individual styles as choreographers, a deep connection with music, an ability to improvise and to develop that skill in others, and finally a sense of play, which manifests itself through precision, simultaneous movement and music invention, supple dynamic range, a risk-taking outlook, individual personality, irony, wit, and satire.
Billy Siegenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0032
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic ...
More
Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic cousins, which can be grouped under the umbrella term “American rhythm dancing.” This genre includes people as diverse as the krumper Lil’ C, jazz innovator Jack Cole, and tap dancers Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers. When choreographers and dancers build movement from rhythmically accented dynamics, the energy of the movement more than its spatial organization impacts on the viewer. This is in contrast to space-organized movement that concentrates on re-shaping the body parts to achieve geometrically defined lines, as well as moving bodies through space in straight or curved paths. The author proposes a rebalancing of dance curriculums to focus more on the aesthetics of energy and body dynamics.Less
Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic cousins, which can be grouped under the umbrella term “American rhythm dancing.” This genre includes people as diverse as the krumper Lil’ C, jazz innovator Jack Cole, and tap dancers Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers. When choreographers and dancers build movement from rhythmically accented dynamics, the energy of the movement more than its spatial organization impacts on the viewer. This is in contrast to space-organized movement that concentrates on re-shaping the body parts to achieve geometrically defined lines, as well as moving bodies through space in straight or curved paths. The author proposes a rebalancing of dance curriculums to focus more on the aesthetics of energy and body dynamics.
