- Series: American Made Music
- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (November 1, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1617039446
- ISBN-13: 978-1617039447
Ken Prouty argues that knowledge of jazz, or more to the point, claims
to knowledge of jazz, are the prime movers in forming jazz's identity,
its canon, and its community. Every jazz artist, critic, or fan
understands jazz differently, based on each individual's unique
experiences and insights. Through playing, listening, reading, and
talking about jazz, both as a form of musical expression and as a marker
of identity, each aficionado develops a personalized relationship to
the larger jazz world. Through the increasingly important role of media,
listeners also engage in the formation of different communities that
transcend not only traditional boundaries of geography, but increasingly
exist only in the virtual world. The relationships of "jazz people"
within and between these communities is at the center of Knowing Jazz.
Some communities, such as those in academia, reflect a clash of
sensibilities between historical traditions. Others, particularly those
who inhabit cyberspace, represent new and exciting avenues for everyday
fans, whose involvement in jazz has often been ignored. Other
communities seek to define themselves as expressions of national or
global sensibility, pointing to the ever-changing nature of jazz's
identity as an American art form in an international setting. What all
these communities share, however, is an intimate, visceral link to the
music and the artists who make it, brought to life through the medium of
recording. Informed by an interdisciplinary approach and approaching
the topic from a number of perspectives, Knowing Jazz charts a philosophical course in which many disparate perspectives and varied opinions on jazz can find common ground.
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