
Thriving on a Riff
Jazz and Blues Influences in African American Literature and Film
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 29. January 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-19-533709-9 (ISBN)
Description
From the Harlem Renaissance to the present, African American writers have drawn on the rich heritage of jazz and blues, transforming musical forms into the written word. In this companion volume to The Hearing Eye, distinguished contributors ranging from Bertram Ashe to Steven C. Tracy explore the musical influence on such writers as Sterling Brown, J.J. Phillips, Paul Beatty, and Nathaniel Mackey. Here, too, are Graham Lock's engaging interviews with contemporary poets Michael S. Harper and Jayne Cortez, along with studies of the performing self, in Krin Gabbard's account of Miles Davis and John Gennari's investigation of fictional and factual versions of Charlie Parker. The book also looks at African Americans in and on film, from blackface minstrelsy to the efforts of Duke Ellington and John Lewis to rescue jazz from its stereotyping in Hollywood film scores as a signal for sleaze and criminality. Concluding with a proposal by Michael Jarrett for a new model of artistic influence, Thriving on a Riff makes the case for the seminal cross-cultural role of jazz and blues.
Reviews / Votes
highly readable * Roger Thomas, Jazz UK * The book is balanced, consistently well and persuasively written and opulently presented. It also has a genuinely useful website ... the best aspect of the book is its subtle awareness of the effect of jazz and the way it shaped the spinning of words and images to make African American culture distinctive * Trevor Herbert, Times Higher Education *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
9 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 251 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
1151 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-533709-9 (9780195337099)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Graham Lock | David Murray
Thriving on a Riff
Jazz and Blues Influences in African American Literature and Film
Book
01/2009
Oxford University Press Inc
€79.23
Article exhausted; check different version
Persons
Graham Lock is a freelance writer, Special Lecturer in American Music, University of Nottingham, and author, Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-reality of Creative Music (Quartet, 1988), Chasing the Vibration: Meetings with Creative Musicians (Stride, 1994), and Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington and Anthony Braxton (Duke, 1999), and editor, Mixtery: A Festschrift for Anthony Braxton (Stride, 1995).
David Murray is Professor of American Studies, University of Nottingham, and author, Indian Giving: Economies of Power in Early Indian-White Exchanges (Massachusetts UP, 2000), Forked Tongues: Speech, Writing and Representation in North American Indian Texts (Indiana UP, 1992), and Matter, Magic and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief (Pennsylvania UP, 2007).
David Murray is Professor of American Studies, University of Nottingham, and author, Indian Giving: Economies of Power in Early Indian-White Exchanges (Massachusetts UP, 2000), Forked Tongues: Speech, Writing and Representation in North American Indian Texts (Indiana UP, 1992), and Matter, Magic and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief (Pennsylvania UP, 2007).
Content
I. MUSIC, IMAGE, AND IDENTITY; II. JAZZ, BLUES, AND LITERATURE; III. MUSIC, IMAGE, AND IDENTITY - II; IV. JAZZ, BLUES, AND FILM; V. EPISTROPHY