Jazz Text

American arts since World War II have drawn power and mystery from the ideas of voice and of improvisation. These unite in modern jazz, which is America’s special contribution to world culture. But American poetry, too, has been vitally motivated by the example of jazz musicians. Working from this crucial connection between arts, Charles Hartman shows how music and poems illuminate each other. Juxtaposing musicians and poets, he also explores the equivocal boundary between oral and written art. Applying close-reading techniques to jazz, Hartman confronts the tangled issues of improvisation and composition, originality, authenticity, disguise, and recognition.

Jazz and popular music criticism need more examples on this high level, beginning with intensive textual analysis and moving to larger aesthetic and moral issues.

Peter K. Winkler