Jazz Perspectives (review)

Recognizing both the extent of Jazz journal scholarship and the dearth of international, interdisciplinary dialogue, the new journal Jazz Perspectives hopes to broaden the discussion concerning this seminal music and help "bridge the jazz-as-music and jazz-as-culture divide."(Lewis Porter and John Howland, "From Perspectives in Jazz to Jazz Perspectives," Jazz Perspectives 1, no. 1 [May 2007]: 2) Editors Lewis Porter and John Howland have assembled a first-rate Editorial Board made up of many of the leading scholars in Jazz studies, with an even balance between the culturalists and the musicians. The result is an interesting and challenging journal that will surely satisfy a wide variety of persons interested in jazz and its larger social and musical meaning.

This being the inaugural issue, the editors made every attempt to display this breath they hope the journal will examine. Jeffrey Magee's article concerning Miles Davis' commitment to the blues in his performance and its connection to 'Afro-Modernism' integrates the "cultural and musical perspectives" of Davis' jazz that by extension illuminates "a key theme in postwar American life."(p. 27) By examining seven key recordings, Magee shows how the blues, as both a musical root and a social construct of Afro-Modernism, provided the foundation for Davis' understanding of jazz and its place in American society. David Ake examines the influence of rural themes in jazz, especially related to Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, in order to emphasize the influence geography has had on the creation of jazz. Certainly many jazz musicians came from rural areas and as a musical product have been linked to urban themes, and Ake does well to remind the reader of this rural connection. Unfortunately, his sweeping generalizations—the discussion of the sixties on pages 36–37 and his characterization of Pat Metheny and the jazz revival in the early 1970s on page 57 for example—reveal a narrow historical and cultural understanding of the period. The final article, by David Borgo, is both the most intriguing and dense, as he seeks to present ways in which "freer forms of improvisation can, and should, be integrated into our music curriculums and pedagogical practices."(p. 63) By allowing more free jazz instruction in the classroom, both student and teacher could better explore the "interpersonal dimensions of improvisation" (p. 68) to encourage more organic and responsive pedagogy. Only three works are covered in the book review section—an older work on Kansas City jazz revamped for modern audiences compared to a newer exploration of Oklahoma City jazz, and transcriptions of some of Earl Hines' piano solos—which seems weak, but given that it's a new journal perhaps there were few books on hand to review. The same is true for the media section, where a comparative essay on Monk/Coltrane collaborations and a review of early Ray Charles recordings serve as the contributions.

Jazz Perspectives seems like it will be a welcome addition to the study of jazz. This being the first issue it is a bit uneven, favoring the musicological over cultural or historical, and the international dialogue promised is missing. Given that many university libraries are turning to online journals, Jazz Perspectives is being offered in that format as well as in the traditional print format. It has a well-established publisher in Routledge and the editors and editorial board promise a bright future for the journal.