On his book Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition
Cover Interview of August 08, 2010
In a nutshell
In Jazz Icons, I argue that jazz history is now dominated by iconic figures who have taken on an almost God-like status.
When musicians and fans discuss the life and music of Satchmo, Duke, Bird or Trane, they often create a mythic world where legendary jazzmen are used to tell the story of jazz.
So I explore the growing significance of icons in jazz through individual case studies—to explain the politics behind why jazz history is frequently portrayed as a succession of heroic male figures.
I am interested in contemporary uses of mythology and how the telling of the story of jazz history ties into American politics and values. I want readers to examine their own relationships with iconic figures. Why do we invest so much of our energy in icons? (And this could apply to other types of art, not only jazz.) How can our behaviour be understood in broader contexts?
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
In Jazz Icons, I argue that jazz history is now dominated by iconic figures who have taken on an almost God-like status.
When musicians and fans discuss the life and music of Satchmo, Duke, Bird or Trane, they often create a mythic world where legendary jazzmen are used to tell the story of jazz.
So I explore the growing significance of icons in jazz through individual case studies—to explain the politics behind why jazz history is frequently portrayed as a succession of heroic male figures.
I am interested in contemporary uses of mythology and how the telling of the story of jazz history ties into American politics and values. I want readers to examine their own relationships with iconic figures. Why do we invest so much of our energy in icons? (And this could apply to other types of art, not only jazz.) How can our behaviour be understood in broader contexts?