tion>
Michael P. Roth
and Sukey Garcetti
have endowed this
imprint to honor the
memory of their parents,
Julia and Harry Roth,
whose deep love of music
they wish to share
with others.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the AMS 75 PAYS Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Blowin’ the Blues Away
MUSIC OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Editor
Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., Editor Emeritus
1. California Soul: Music of African Americans in the West, edited by Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje and Eddie S. Meadows
2. William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions, by Catherine Parsons Smith
3. Jazz on the Road: Don Albert’s Musical Life, by Christopher Wilkinson
4. Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story between the Great Wars, by William A. Shack
5. Dead Man Blues: Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West, by Phil Pastras
6. What Is This Thing Called Jazz?: African American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists, by Eric Porter
7. Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop, by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
8. Lining Out the Word: Dr. Watts Hymn Singing in the Music of Black Americans, by William T. Dargan
9. Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba, byRobin D. Moore
10. From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz, by Raul A. Fernandez
11. “Mek Some Noise”: Gospel Music and the Ethics of Style in Trinidad, by Timothy Rommen
12. The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy, edited with an introduction by Mark Clague, with a foreword by Samuel Floyd, Jr.
13. Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music, by Amiri Baraka
14. Different Drummers: Rhythm and Race in the New World, by Martin Munro
15. Funky Nassau: Roots, Routes, and Representation in Bahamian Popular Music, by Timothy Rommen
16. Blowin’ the Blues Away: Performance and Meaning on the New York Jazz Scene, by Travis A. Jackson
Blowin’ the Blues Away
Performance and Meaning on the New York Jazz Scene
Travis A. Jackson
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley · Los Angeles · London
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2012 by The Regents of the University of California
Early versions of portions of chapters 5 and 6 appeared as “Jazz Performance as Ritual: The Blues Aesthetic and the African Diaspora” in The African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective, ed. Ingrid Monson, 23–82 (New York: Garland, 2000).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jackson, Travis A.
Blowin’ the blues away : performance and meaning on the New York jazz scene / Travis A. Jackson.
p. cm. —(Music of the African diaspora)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27044-2 (cloth : alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-520-27045-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Jazz—New York (State)—New York—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML3508.8.N5J33 2012
781.6509747’109049—dc23
2011042263
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on 50-pound Enterprise, a 30% post-consumer-waste, recycled, deinked fiber that is processed chlorine-free. It is acid-free and meets all ANSI/NISO (Z 39.48) requirements.
To Lawrence Jackson Sr. and to the memory of Sherryl L. Jackson, Rev. Chalmers Jackson Sr., and Robert Thomas Hodge—each of whom opened a way for me
Contents
PART ONE. BLACK, BROWN AND BEIGE
2. History and Memory, Pathways and Practices: The African Americanness of Jazz
