Theory : Modern

Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance, and Critical Practice

Ajay Heble

Ajay Heble provides a groundbreaking analysis of jazz in its cultural context and a lucid exploration of the musical form itself: its dissonant riffs and resistance to traditional interpretations are emblematic of the social struggles surrounding the jazz scene and the people who created it. Drawing on personal anecdote, observation, conversations with jazz artists, and cultural theory, Heble demonstrates that although jazz may be free-form, its rich and varied history makes it an important point of entry into some of the most hotly contested issues of our era -- power, identity, representation, history, ethics, and social change. As artistic director of a jazz festival and noted critic, he has unique insight into the gap between critical interpretation and the reality of performance.

Table of contents:
1. The Poetics of Jazz:From Symbolic to Semiotic
2. The Rehistoricizing of Jazz:chicago's "Urban Bushmen" and the Problem of Representation
3. Performing Identity:Jazz Autobiography and the Politics of Literary Improvisation
4. "Space is the Place":Jazz, Voice, and Resistance
5. Nice Work if You Can Get it: Women in Jazz
6. Capitulating to Barbarism: Jazz and/as Popular Culture
7. Up for Grabs The Ethicopolitical Authority of Jazz Conclusion Works Cited Sound and Video Recordings Consulted

256 pgs, 6" x 9"
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$32.95