Blowin' hot and cool : jazz and its critics / John Gennari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gennari, John.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jazz--History and criticism.

Jazz.

Jazz--Social aspects--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (495 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the illustrious and richly documented history of American jazz, no figure has been more controversial than the jazz critic. Jazz critics can be revered or reviled-often both-but they should not be ignored. And while the tradition of jazz has been covered from seemingly every angle, nobody has ever turned the pen back on itself to chronicle the many writers who have helped define how we listen to and how we understand jazz. That is, of course, until now. In "Blowin' Hot and Cool", John Gennari provides a definitive history of jazz criticism from the 1920's to the present. The music itself is prominent in his account, as are the musicians-from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, and beyond. But the work takes its shape from fascinating stories of the tradition's key critics-Leonard Feather, Martin Williams, Whitney Balliett, Dan Morgenstern, Gary Giddins, and Stanley Crouch, among many others. Gennari is the first to show the many ways these critics have mediated the relationship between the musicians and the audience-not merely as writers, but in many cases as producers, broadcasters, concert organizers, and public intellectuals as well. For Gennari, the jazz tradition is not so much a collection of recordings and performances as it is a rancorous debate-the dissonant noise clamoring in response to the sounds of jazz. Against the backdrop of racial strife, class and gender issues, war, and protest that has defined the past seventy-five years in America, Blowin' Hot and Cool brings to the fore jazz's most vital critics and the role they have played not only in defining the history of jazz but also in shaping jazz's significance in American culture and life.

Contents:

Introduction : (much more than) a few words about jazz

Not only a new art form but a new reason for living

As if it were artistic and not just a teenage enthusiasm : hot collecting

Across the color line

Hearing 'the noisy lostness' : telling the story of jazz

Writer's writers and sensitive cats : mapping the new jazz criticism

Swinging in a high-class groove : mainstreaming jazz in Lenox and Newport

The shock of the new : black freedom, the counterculture, and 1960s jazz criticism

Race-ing the bird : Ross Russell's obsessive pursuit of Charlie Parker

Tangled up in blues : the new jazz renaissance and its discontents

Conclusion : change of the century.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-444) and index.

ISBN:

9786613058201

9781283058209

1283058200

9780226289243

0226289249

OCLC:

701053921