In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

16 CHAPTER 1 The Formation of the Jazz Image in Visual Culture the general consensus of a mental picture of a jazz musician would be a well-dressed african american man playing an instrument, most likely a saxophone or a trumpet, with smoke wafting about the stage on which he is playing at a nightclub. With majors ranging from nursing to corporate communication, my own university students described their ideas of what a jazz musician looks like: “laid back, older man, saxophone in hand with shades on, inside smoky bar,” as an “african american male, nicely dressed, with saxophone,” and as “a black man, wearing a nice suit probably of unique color, and playing a saxophone or trumpet, and wearing sunglasses.”1 the students’ images, along with the perception from others, would likely include a well-dressed individual, usually in profile, inside a club or music hall, either with his band or alone with his horn in a spotlight, perhaps with eyes closed, fully concentrating on the music he is producing. He would exude confidence, individualism, and defiance—the perfect example of the artistic genius. He would be original, yet replicated by other musicians; rebellious, yet marketed by the recording industry; modern, but timeless through his music. He is thought of as a member of an elite community of other jazz musicians who are not part of popular music culture today, but who were leaders in what popular music was considered to be in the twentieth century. further images inspired by the jazz musician would appear in our minds, not in linear succession but as one idea occurring as fast as the next, sparking a chain reaction of images that push past the first. once the images are evaluated, one begins to see meanings that lie far beyond what is first perceived. other characteristics associated with the jazz musician arise: his demeanor, the noise of the club, the stage, the smoke from a lit cigarette, dry martinis perched on a tray to be served to a patron. Some imagine the 17 THE FoRMATIon oF THE JAzz IMAGE In VISuAL CuLTuRE youthful energy of swing dancers to fast big band rhythms, or a woman singing sultrily into a microphone. Zoot suits, beat poets, pocket watches, slicked-back hair, cigarettes, button-up white shirts, fedoras, radios, blackand -white televisions, city lights, old movies—all of these emulate the jazz image, and all pertain to a particular time and place: an american city in the mid-twentieth century. Where does this image come from, and how is it possible to conjure a visual picture of a style of music? How can a picture present what jazz sounds like? the image of a jazz musician in general includes several things: an african american musician standing, playing, or sitting next to his instrument , captured in a black-and-white photograph, usually taken in a club in the mid-twentieth century. this expectation has culminated over years of exposure of jazz through film and photography. the jazz image in photography existed long before Herman Leonard took his pictures during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and clearly existed before and after his photographs found resurgence in 1988. regardless of the brief twenty-year exposure to the public, Leonard’s photographs of jazz musicians have increased in popularity and continue to be a marketable item to the modern public. His images contain qualities that appeal to various groups of people inside and outside of the jazz community.2 it behooves us to ask exactly where this image came from and how photography propelled it into the most appropriate visual representation of what jazz looks like. So, we will begin with the introduction of those visual stimulants that cause one to associate them with jazz. images play a vital role in the collective taste of a society, just as does the spoken and written word; they shape, stimulate, influence, and antagonize those who internalize the sentiments of a particular society at a particular time. this relationship between the image and the society that created it establishes an ideology around the subject presented in the image. therefore, visual culture includes the act of seeing and looking at something as well as the images composed in various forms of media. However, when examining the visual culture of something, it does not mean that one should evaluate or even notice every image that surrounds a particular subject. nor should one envision the use of images that occur in their entirety at...

Share