Jazz and the Philosophy of Art [Hardcover]

Foreword - Lee Brown: A Recollection

Acknowledgements

 

Introduction

 

PART I How is Jazz Distinctive? Essence and Definition

1 Dancing, Dwelling, and Rhythmic Swing

2 A Theory of Jazz Music: It Don't Mean a Thing ...

3 Defining Jazz Historically

 

PART II Jazz and American Culture

4 Jazz Singing and Taking Wing

5 Race, Jazz, and Popular Music: The Legacy of Blackface Minstrelsy

6 Jazz and the Culture Industry

 

PART III Music Ontology

7 Improvisations and Spontaneity

8 Musical Forgeries, Improvisation, and the Principle of Continuity

9 Phonography, Repetition, and Spontaneity

10 Jazz Improvisation and its Vicissitudes: A Plea for Imperfection

 

Index

Co-authored by three prominent philosophers of art, Jazz and the Philosophy of Art is the first book in English to be exclusively devoted to philosophical issues in jazz. It covers such diverse topics as minstrelsy, bebop, Voodoo, social and tap dancing, parades, phonography,

musical forgeries, and jazz singing, as well as Goodmans allographic/autographic distinction, Adornos critique of popular music, and what improvisation is and is not.

The book is organized into three parts. Drawing on innovative strategies adopted to address challenges that arise for the project of defining art, Part I shows how historical definitions of art provide a blueprint for a historical definitlƒJ