The vibrant world of jazz may be viewed from many perspectives, from social and cultural history to music analysis, from economics to ethnography. It is challenging and exciting territory. This volume of nineteen specially commissioned essays provides informed and accessible guidance to the challenge, offering the reader a range of expert views on the character, history and uses of jazz. The book starts by considering what kind of identity jazz has acquired and how, and goes on to discuss the crucial practices that define jazz and to examine some specific moments of historical change and some important issues for jazz study. Finally, it looks at a set of perspectives that illustrate different 'takes' on jazz - ways in which jazz has been valued and represented.

Takes the reader through the essentials from locating and defining jazz to jazz in performance.

About the Author
Mervyn Cooke is Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Jazz, The Chronicle of Jazz, and Britten and the Far East; co-author of Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd; editor of The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten (1999) and The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera (forthcoming) and is currently writing a history of film music for Cambridge University Press. He is also a composer and pianist. David Horn is Director of the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool. He was a founding editor of the journal Popular Music (Cambridge University Press) and is author of two bibliographies of American music. He is currently joint managing editor of The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World.

Reviews
'... most of the writers in this Companion are academics, and it's hard to fault the obvious passion underlying their diverse points of view.' BBC Music Magazine



Book Information
ISBN 9780521663885
Author Mervyn Cooke
Format Paperback
Page Count 428
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 870g
Dimensions(mm) 248mm * 175mm * 23mm