Jews and jazz : improvising ethnicity / Charles Hersch.

Author
Hersch, Charles, 1956- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • New York, NY ; Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2017.
  • ©2017
Description
xiii, 195 pages ; 24 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Mendel Music Library - Stacks ML3776 .H45 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    Transnational studies in jazz [More in this series]
    Summary note
    Jews and Jazz: Improvising Ethnicity explores the meaning of Jewish involvement in the world of American jazz. It focuses on the ways prominent jazz musicians like Stan Getz, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, and Red Rodney have engaged with jazz in order to explore and construct ethnic identities. The author looks at Jewish identity through jazz in the context of the surrounding American culture, believing that American Jews have used jazz to construct three kinds of identities: to become more American, to emphasize their minority outsider status, and to become more Jewish. From the beginning, Jewish musicians have used jazz for all three of these purposes, but the emphasis has shifted over time. In the 1920s and 1930s, when Jews were seen as foreign, Jews used jazz to make a more inclusive America, for themselves and for blacks, establishing their American identity. Beginning in the 1940s, as Jews became more accepted into the mainstream, they used jazz to "re-minoritize" and avoid over-assimilation through identification with African Americans. Finally, starting in the 1960s as ethnic assertion became more predominant in America, Jews have used jazz to explore and advance their identities as Jews in a multicultural society [Publisher description].
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-186) and index.
    Contents
    • Part 1 : Becoming American
    • Jewish Tin Pan Alley composers and musical pluralism
    • Black-Jewish integration in the jazz world from the swing era to the 1950s
    • "Listening for the black sound" : Jews in the jazz music business
    • Part 2 : Becoming black
    • "Every time I try to play black, it comes out sounding Jewish" : Jewish jazz musicians cross the color line
    • "Matzo balls-ereenie" : African American jazz versions of Jewish songs
    • Part 3 : Becoming Jewish
    • Swinging Hava nagila : "Jewish jazz" and Jewish identity.
    ISBN
    • 9781138195783 ((hardcover))
    • 1138195782
    • 9781138195790 ((paperback))
    • 1138195790
    LCCN
    2016013551
    OCLC
    947794788
    Statement on language in description
    Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
    Other views
    Staff view

    Supplementary Information