1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786197303321

Autore

Myers Marc <1956->

Titolo

Why jazz happened [[electronic resource] /] / Marc Myers

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2013

ISBN

1-283-64636-6

0-520-95398-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (279 p.)

Disciplina

781.65/5

Soggetti

Jazz - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Record Giants Blink -- 2. DJ's, Promoters, and Bebop -- 3. G.I. Bill and Cool -- 4. Speed War, Tape, and Solos -- 5. Suburbia and West Coast Jazz -- 6. BMI, R&B, and Hard Bop -- 7. Bias, Africa, and Spiritual Jazz -- 8. Invasion and Jazz-Pop -- 9. Alienation and the Avant-Garde -- 10. Lights, Volume, and Fusion -- 11. Jazz Hangs On -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Why Jazz Happened is the first comprehensive social history of jazz. It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz's post-war styles. Rich with the voices of musicians, producers, promoters, and others on the scene during the decades following World War II, this book views jazz's evolution through the prism of technological advances, social transformations, changes in the law, economic trends, and much more. In an absorbing narrative enlivened by the commentary of key personalities, Marc Myers describes the myriad of events and trends that affected the music's evolution, among them, the American Federation of Musicians strike in the early 1940's, changes in radio and concert-promotion, the introduction of the long-playing record, the suburbanization of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights movement, the "British invasion" and the rise of electronic instruments. This groundbreaking book deepens our appreciation of this music by identifying many of the developments outside of jazz itself that contributed most to its texture, complexity,



and growth.