Eurojazzland: Jazz and European Sources, Dynamics, and Contexts ed. by Luca Cerchiari, Laurent Cugny, Franz Kerschbaumer (review)

Eurojazzland, a collection published by Northeastern University Press, considers the significance of European musicians and musical traditions in the development and dissemination of jazz. When first hearing of this project, I was reminded of historian Krin Gabbard’s iconic discussion of the 1930 film revue, The King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson and Pál Fejös, dirs. [Universal Pictures]) in the introduction to Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema ([Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996], 9–14). Gabbard shows how The King of Jazz exhibits a “thorough denial of the African American role in jazz,” thus reflecting an unfortunately commonly-held view of the time (p. 10). For example, the final number “The Melting Pot of Music” presents bandleader Paul Whiteman stirring a cauldron containing the “ingredients” of jazz. Said ingredients, portrayed through a montage of musical performances, are decidedly not African American, but rather stereotypically European, and include Scottish bagpipes, flamenco guitar, and Italian accordion players (p. 13). While many today would understand this as largely ridiculous, it nonetheless encapsulates the whitewashing that tinged much of early-twentieth-century jazz reception and criticism. In accordance, modern scholars invested in exploring the European influences of jazz need not only show awareness of this history and historiography, but also take care not to re-inscribe white or Eurocentric biases. My mental conjuring up of Gabbard’s discussion of The King of Jazz, which Eurojazzland evoked, served as a warning I hoped to not be reminded of again while reading the text. As I will show, my initial concerns about Eurojazzland proved prescient. After reflecting on the contents of Eurojazzland, I concluded that while it is admirable to account for Europe’s role in jazz within one massive volume, unfortunately, some of the authors fail to heed Gabbard’s warning about whitewashing.

“Massive” appropriately describes the scope and length of Eurojazzland. After an introduction by Luca Cerchiari (one of the three editors), nineteen English-language articles, totaling nearly 450 pages, follow. Cerchiari, Laurent Cugny, and Franz Kersch baumer (the three editors), are Europe-based scholars with decades of jazz research between them. The volume’s remaining authors come from diverse geographic locations. The majority of the contributors are scholars, curators, and critics, many of whom are accomplished performers, from Continental Europe; a few contributors hail from the U.K. and U.S. as well.

In his introduction, Cerchiari stresses that Eurojazzland should not serve as a comprehensive history of European jazz. Rather, the concept driving the project was to compile “a series of essays dedicated to the complex, broader subject of the relations between Europe and jazz” (p. vii). The editors divide the contributions into three broad categories, “Europe as a Source of Jazz,” “Jazz Meets Europe,” and “The Circulation of Eurojazzland.” Thus, the volume approaches the idea of Europe from a multitude of angles—as a tradition, a geographic space, a set of interlocking musical communities, and as a source of inspiration.

The first section, “Europe as a Source of Jazz,” examines various points of European influence on the jazz tradition. The most convincing articles in this section (and frankly, the entire text) are those that present a focused scope, and that trace geographically or stylistically specific threads of influence. One highlight, by Bruce Boyd Raeburn, goes “Beyond the ‘Spanish Tinge,’ ” to examine “Hispanics and Latinos in Early New Orleans Jazz.” Vincent Cotro’s exploration of a possible “French School” of jazz violin performance serves as an interesting case study as well. The relatively narrow scope of these articles allows the authors to isolate and illuminate a specific thread relevant to the overall texture of jazz history.

Many of the highlights in the text’s second section, “Jazz Meets Europe,” show similar specificity. Catherine Tackley Parsonage employs an almost microscopic focus on Benny Carter’s...