Jazz in American Culture

This work is distinctive in looking at jazz both as a music and as a culture within the wider American context and in opening up the subject to the non-specialist. It examines the social and institutional structures that have underpinned the music at particular stages in its history and considers its place as a component of the entertainment industry. It looks at the direct influence of jazz upon other arts and its more indirect influence as a cultural presence and source of meaning. It argues that jazz culture has provided an influential model in relation to a number of issues affecting American art and society including ethnicity, the competing claims of individualism and group identity and freedom and constraint.