Abstract:

Perhaps the time is past to think in terms of a single synoptic history of jazz. However, by singling out ideas from the academic reviews of A New History of Jazz, it is possible to view it as not only (as History Today called it) an interlocking set of theses about the development of jazz, but as a series of starting points for further investigation. After addressing the ways in which the book could stimulate discussion in several areas of study, from issues of periodization to the mediating role of television and radio, and from an exploration of non-Anglophone writing on jazz to reassessing the careers of such individual musicians as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, the article turns to oral history. In particular it addresses the way that instead of being approached as individual sources, a collective body of oral histories can become a far more useful resource, able to enlighten and stimulate the history and historiography of jazz by providing several viewpoints, several opinions and several challenges to key moments in the music’s history.

Author: Alyn Shipton