A01=John Gennari
audience
Author_John Gennari
black culture
blackness
blues
Category=AVLP
Category=JBCC1
charlie parker
class
counterculture
criticism
critics
dan morgenstern
dissonance
duke ellington
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
freedom
gary giddins
gender
history
jazz
john coltrane
leonard feather
liberation
louis armstrong
mainstream
martin williams
music
musicians
nonfiction
performance
politics
protest
race
renaissance
roscoe mitchell
ross russell
stanley crouch
war
whitney balliett
Product details
- ISBN 9780226289229
- Weight: 794g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 21 Jun 2006
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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 1920s 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.
John Gennari is assistant professor of English at the University of Vermont, where he also directs the African, Latino, and Native American Studies program.
