[Dixielandjazz] Bruce Raeburn's new book--Charlie Suhor writes

[D and R Hardie]

Hi All
Charlie has written an excellent review of a very good book for  
anyone interested in jazz history. Bravo Chas!
cheers
Dan Hardie
On 15/09/2009, at 8:15 AM, Norman Vickers wrote:

>
>
> To ;DJML
>
> From: Norman
>
>
>
> Charlie Suhor, percussionist, English professor, author, reviews  
> Bruce Boyd
> Raeburn's new book. Listmates  likely will remember Charlie's  
> contributions
> to this list. He is author of NEW ORLEANS JAZZ: POSTWAR YEARS TO 1970.
>
>
>
> I hope you will find this review of interest.
>
> From: Charles Suhor [mailto:csuhor at zebra.net]
> Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 10:16 PM
> To: Norman Vickers
> Subject: Bruce Raeburn's new book
>
>
>
> Hi, Norm-Below is my review of Bruce Boyd Raeburn's excellent new  
> book from
> the current issue of JazzNotes, publication of JJA (Jazz Journalists
> Association). There's info about JJA at www.jazzhouse.org--Charlie
>
> New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History
> By Bruce Boyd Raeburn
>
> University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2009; 342 pp.; $26.95  
> paperback
>
> Review by Charles Suhor
>
> What we today call "jazz journalism," "jazz criticism" and "jazz  
> history"
> began, like jazz itself, as the work of passionate amateurs. Bruce  
> Raeburn,
> curator of the Tulane University Jazz Archive, traces the growth of  
> the
> profession from the foundational writings of zealous record  
> collectors to
> the mainstream of historical and critical studies. His brilliantly
> researched book is essential reading for jazz journalists.
>
> Focusing on writings about the New Orleans style, Raeburn explores  
> issues
> that have been disputed and recast over the years in magazines like  
> Down
> Beat, Esquire, HRS Society Rag, Jazz Information, Jazz Record,  
> Metronome and
> Record Changer. He notes that the early discourse evolved willy- 
> nilly, with
> designations like ragtime, folk art, sweet versus hot jazz, corn  
> and race
> music. Jazz was variously described as primitive, robotic, bourgeois,
> mechanistic, spontaneous, freewheeling, popular, artistic and what  
> have you.
>
> Jazz criticism involved a potpourri of insights and attitudes. A  
> cadre of
> Marxist writers defined the music in terms of class struggle and  
> racial
> oppression. Purists argued for the superiority of traditional New  
> Orleans
> jazz, first over the emerging swing of the 1930s, then more  
> ferociously over
> bebop in the mid-1940s. Other writers claimed that jazz progressed  
> from
> simple to superior, more sophisticated forms. The dispute raged  
> until "the
> combatants had completely exhausted their vocabulary of insults."  
> Ideas
> about jazz were also shaped, often distorted, by the demands of record
> companies for salable products and the predilections of A&R men and
> influential writers.
>
> Pulling all of this into a coherent narrative is a formidable task,  
> but
> Raeburn handles it well. He sees the writings of Charles Edward Smith,
> William (Bill) Russell and Frederick Ramsey, Jr., authors of the  
> 1939 volume
> Jazzmen, as seminal. They "had given to the jazz world a firm  
> foundation on
> which to build. Basing their work on historical research and devising
> theories accordingly, they produced a series of books and articles  
> that are
> still useful as examples of jazz scholarship."
>
> The writers who participated in the unfolding discussion are too  
> numerous to
> list here, but a few noteworthy figures are George Avakian, Rudi  
> Blesh,
> Nesuhi Ertegun, Charles Delaunay, Leonard Feather, Ralph J.  
> Gleason, John
> Hammond, S. I. Hayakawa, Wilder Hobson, Andre Hodeir, George  
> Hoefer, Alan
> Lomax, Hugues Panassie, Winthrop Sargeant, Marshall Stearns, Edmond  
> Souchon,
> Virgil Thomson and Eugene Williams. The only photo in the book is a
> hilarious cover picture of Smith, Russell and Ramsey. I would have  
> gladly
> paid a few dollars more for a photo gallery of the major principals.
>
> Many JJA members will be familiar with these writers, but Raeburn  
> laces the
> story of their contributions with rich detail, firm context and  
> thoughtful
> commentary. He argues persuasively that New Orleans was the central  
> origin
> site of jazz, dissecting Leonard Feather's famous argument to the  
> contrary
> in The Book of Jazz. He acknowledges the primacy of African- 
> Americans in
> shaping the new music but sees the city's unique environment as a  
> network of
> cross-cultural influences. Above all, he rejects critical dogmas -  
> those of
> traditional jazz purists as well as progressive/evolutionary  
> critics. He
> praises writers and promoters like Avakian, Ertegun, Hammond and  
> Smith, who
> expanded their tastes beyond rigid categories.
>
> This admirable catholicity has a downside. Raeburn doesn't provide  
> a sharp
> image of his own view of the New Orleans style. He cites the  
> musicological
> and sociological analyses of many writers and appears to accept the
> perspectives of early figures - especially Smith and Russell - on
> fundamentals such as group polyphony, basic instrumentation and
> African-American influence. But he waxes romantic and  
> impressionistic when
> speaking in his own voice: "In the final analysis, New Orleans  
> style was a
> way of living that manifested itself musically in the 'City that Care
> Forgot'.... Liberty, equality, fraternity, and fun are the  
> hallmarks of the
> New Orleans style."
>
> Raeburn's endnotes provide excellent documentation and further  
> details that
> illuminate the text. But I have a concern about his bibliography that
> wouldn't matter in a different kind of book. Raeburn gives only a  
> brief,
> topically selected list of recommended materials, pointing out that  
> the
> endnotes contain complete citations. But the information there, of  
> course,
> is scattered among hundreds of notes spanning 60 pages. Since the  
> essence of
> this study is a survey of writers, books and magazines that  
> together portray
> the evolution of writing about jazz, a complete bibliography would  
> provide a
> broad overview of the nature, amount and timing of the various
> contributions.
>
> But Raeburn's groundbreaking work hints provocatively at further  
> avenues of
> research. He touches sporadically on the neglect and outright  
> denigration of
> jazz in the New Orleans daily papers. A more fine-grained study  
> might pick
> up the scent and track the roles of periodicals like Figaro, New  
> Orleans,
> Second Line and Vieux Carre Courier in modeling a wider cultural  
> vision and
> creating a niche for local jazz journalism.
>
> An update of Raeburn's work would also be useful. His account of  
> critiques
> of the New Orleans style essentially ends after the traditional  
> jazz versus
> swing and bebop wars. Intensive coverage of early styles slowed to  
> a trickle
> in large circulation magazines, revived in part by the influence of
> Preservation Hall in the 1960s. But reviews of recordings and  
> performances
> and commentaries and feature stories on a wide range of traditional  
> jazz
> continued in specialized publications (American Rag, JazzBeat, The
> Mississippi Rag, IAJRC Journal and Second Line); bulletins of  
> traditional
> jazz societies; foreign "trad" magazines; and recently with online  
> sources
> like the few-holds-barred Dixieland Jazz Mailing List  
> (islandnet.com/djml).
> The dynamic of the concurrent decline of interest and diffusion of  
> coverage
> in jazz journalism is a story worth telling.
>
> But Raeburn's book will be an abiding reference point on my  
> bookshelf. While
> the author set out to do an academic study (a reworking of his  
> doctoral
> thesis at Tulane), he displays a gift for rendering scholarly  
> research in
> well-crafted prose. The result is serious and enjoyable reading, an  
> in-depth
> account of the early history of jazz journalism.
>
>
>
>
> --End--
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland  
> Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com