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This chapter examines the idea of genre as it applies to jazz by focusing on the output of Atlantic Records' jazz division. Under the stewardship of two men, Nesuhi Ertegun and Joel Dorn, Atlantic Jazz came to signify not a particular approach, but rather a wide variety of artists, styles, and sounds. After tracing a general a history of Atlantic's jazz output from the 1940s to the 1970s, the essay focuses on Rufus Harley. Signed to the label by Joel Dorn, Harley recorded four albums for Atlantic in the 1960s, playing saxophone, flute, and bagpipes, although it was on the last of these that he was best known. While few critics saw Harley as little more than a gimmick, his career can be seen as emblematic as the ways that Atlantic's jazz defies easy categorization; further examination of Atlantic wind players Rahsaan Ronald Kirk and Yusef Lateef amplify this discussion. The chapter ends by questioning the current work on jazz and genre and positing some possible new paths for research.

Chapter 3 looks at the forces of transnationalism, black internationalism, masculinity, freedom, and social justice that encouraged black bebop musicians to convert to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the 1940s and 1950s. It examines the Islamic mission of the Ahmadis in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Detroit. The chapter explores the spiritual awakening of jazz artists including Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Dakota Staton, Talib Dawud, Yusef Lateef, Kenny Clarke, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

This chapter examines the transformations in Black creative music in the post-World War II period. This period is particularly rich politically and musically, and this chapter explores some of the conversations and connections between musical ideas and visions of liberation. The changing configurations of post-war geopolitics (symbolized by the Bandung Conference), the heightened tenor of the Civil Rights struggle in the US (particularly after the Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling), and the beginnings of the long politics of decolonization in the Caribbean and on the African continent conjoined to open up a critical, conceptual, and geographic space for the articulation of new political identities, as well as musical sensibilities. By focusing on a group of musicians including Max Roach, Art Blakey, Abbey Lincoln, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Yusef Lateef, and Randy Weston, this chapter investigates some of the creative linkages and artistic ties that were formed and forged.

This chapter discusses the early motivations for the lofts, arguing that the movement emerged at a unique intersection between national discourses on musician empowerment and local urban ecologies specific to late 1960s New York. In 1960s New York, several initiatives began striving toward broader collectivist ideals. These initiatives include the short-lived Jazz Artists' Guild (JAG), the Jazz Composers' Guild (JCG), and the Triumvirate formed by John Coltrane, Babatunde Olatunji, and Yusef Lateef. These examples of 1960s New York collectivism were all rooted in guild and/or trade union strategies. In all three cases, artists envisioned temporarily removing themselves from the commercial market in order to enhance their negotiating leverage as members of a larger movement. Unfortunately, despite their success in generating attention for particular events, none of these groups managed to build an alliance large enough or long-lived enough to realized their principal goals.