Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-382) and index.
A marvel of paradox : jazz and African American modernity -- Dizzy atmosphere : the challenge of bebop -- Passions of a man : the poetics and politics of Charles Mingus -- Straight ahead : Abbey Lincoln and the challenge of jazz singing -- Practicing "creative music" : the black arts imperative in the jazz community -- Writing "creative music" : theorizing the art and politics of improvisation -- The majesty of the blues : Wynton Marsalis's jazz canon.
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Despite the plethora of writing about jazz, little attention has been paid to what musicians themselves wrote and said about their practice. An implicit division of labor has emerged where, for the most part, black artists invent and play music while white writers provide the commentary. Eric Porter overturns this tendency in his creative intellectual history of African American musicians. He foregrounds the often-ignored ideas of these artists, analyzing them in the context of meanings circulating around jazz, as well as in relationship to broader currents in African American thought.