On jazz, memory and history

A response to Alyn Shipton

Authors

  • Nicholas Gebhardt Lancaster University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v4i1.7

Keywords:

Alan Lomax, Alyn Shipton, jazz history, memory, oral testimony

Abstract

This essay is a response to Alyn Shipton's essay in the previous edition of the journal. It will explore two related ideas: firstly, what the concept of memory offers the process of documenting jazz history; and secondly, the implications a theory of memory has for how jazz critics interpret that history and the documents on which they rely to verify the past.

Author Biography

  • Nicholas Gebhardt, Lancaster University

    Nicholas Gebhardt teaches courses on popular music and improvisation in the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and is a member of the HERA-funded European research project, 'Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities'.

References

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DeVeaux, S. (1991) ‘Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography’. Black American Literature Forum 25/3: 525–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3041812

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Lewis, G. E. (2008) A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lomax, A. (2001) Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz”. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Monson, I. (1996) Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Peretti, B. W. (2001) ‘Speaking in the Groove: Oral History and Jazz’. Journal of American History 88/2: 582–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2675107

Radano, R. (2003) Lying Up a Nation: Race and Black Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ricoeur, P. (2004) Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Shipton, A. (2009) ‘New Jazz Histories: Can a Reconciliation of Widely Differing Source Material Offer New Possibilities for the Jazz Historian?’ Jazz Research Journal 3/2: 127–44.

White, H. (2007) ‘Guilty of History? The Longue Durée of Paul Ricoeur’. History and Theory 46/2: 233–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2303.2007.00404.x

Published

2011-11-15

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Gebhardt, N. (2011). On jazz, memory and history: A response to Alyn Shipton. Jazz Research Journal, 4(1), 7-14. https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v4i1.7