Blutopia : visions of the future and revisions of the past in the work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton / Graham Lock.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lock, Graham, 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sun Ra--Criticism and interpretation.

Sun Ra.

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974--Criticism and interpretation.

Ellington, Duke.

Braxton, Anthony--Criticism and interpretation.

Braxton, Anthony.

Jazz--History and criticism.

Jazz.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 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.

Contents:

Introduction: Blutopia

Pt. I. Sun Ra: A Starward Eye. 1. Astro Black: Mythic Future, Mythic Past. 2. Of Aliens and Angels: Mythic Identity

Pt. II. Duke Ellington: Tone Parallels. 3. In the Jungles of America: History Without Saying It. 4. Zajj: Renegotiating Her Story

Pt. III. Anthony Braxton: Crossroad Axiums. 5. All the Things You Are: Legba's Legacy. 6. Going to the Territory: Sound Maps of the Meta-Real

Coda: House of Voices, Sea of Music.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages [285]-303) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822324409

0822324407

9780822378471

0822378477

OCLC:

891395543