Reconsidering “the Revolution in Music”

doi:10.1017/9781108386043.007

Chapter 4 - Reconsidering “the Revolution in Music”

from I - Poetry and Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022

Eric Porter

Edited by

Shelly Eversley

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Shelly Eversley: Affiliation:
Baruch College, The City University of New York

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Summary

Focusing on recently come-to-light recordings of interviews with musicians conducted by jazz critic and historian Frank Kofsky, this essay takes as its point of departure a reconsideration of Kofsky’s influential yet controversial theories about the transformations (creative and political) occurring in the jazz world during the Black Arts Movement era. The essay notes how the interviews showcase an analytical nuance that many of Kofsky’s critics do not recognize, but still shows how he might have theorized the “revolution in music” differently if he had listed to his interviewees more carefully. Musicians’ comments, the essay suggests, help us understand the multiplicity of the so-called jazz revolution in ways that exceed any simple notions of politics or identity. They also help us understand how the weight of political expectation vis-à-vis “the Black community” and “the revolution” was itself an aesthetically productive force, whether musicians were working with or against it.

Keywords

Black experimental music jazz jazz and politics Frank Kofsky John Coltrane

Type: Chapter
Information: African American Literature in Transition, 1960–1970
Black Art, Politics, and Aesthetics
, pp. 90 - 116

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108386043.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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