Review by Choice Review
Like all African Americans, black jazz players have suffered indignities of racial prejudice. Yet the jazz community historically has been more integrated than the larger society, with seemingly less racial tension among the musicians. But many contemporary jazz musicians believe that the race situation in jazz is at its worst in several decades. Whites consider themselves no longer welcome in certain areas of jazz; some believe that Wynton Marsalis, director of the prestigious Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, ignores the contribution of white artists. Gerard is the first to present an evenhanded, nonjudgmental exposition of this complex and incendiary topic, including whether white artists have any legitimate "claim" to this African American art form at all. He includes interesting chapters on black and African musics and identities related to those musics, so-called "race and jazz communities," and excellent interviews with two jazz musicians and writer Ron Welburn; however, his short musical analysis of two performances is of questionable value, and his concluding chapter is somewhat unsatisfying. An important book, despite its shortcomings. Recommended as companion reading to James Lincoln Collier's controversial Jazz: The American Theme Song (CH ( Jul'94) and Gene Lees's Cats of Any Color (CH, Jun'95), which broach this topic more subjectively. All collections. K. R. Dietrich; Ripon College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Is enjoying jazz music a purely aesthetic experience, with pleasure derived from the arrangement of notes and tones? Or does its enjoyment tap something more fundamental, such as a shared ethnic identity or cultural experience? In other words, do only those that lived the blues have the right to play the blues? This question lies at the heart of the black-white division in the jazz community, according to the author, a white jazz saxophonist. Gerard decided to write his book after observing years of racial animosity between fellow jazz musicians. This excellent study of the question surveys previous literature dealing with race and music, including Nat Hentoff's early essay, "Race Prejudice in Jazz," and LeRoi Jones' Blues People. Other sections reprint interviews with black and white musicians. The book draws no firm conclusions, but Gerard rejects extreme arguments from both whites and blacks. To highlight the complex role of race in jazz, Gerard closes with a chapter on Don Byron, a black clarinetist influenced by klezmer--Jewish folk music--who finds himself outside of both the white and the black communities. --Ted Leventhal
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Gerard, a white musician whose previous books have been about how to play jazz, turns to a consideration of who is doing the playing. Is jazz a specifically African-American music? If so, what does that mean? Can white musicians play the music with any authenticity? These questions have been debated since jazz was first recognized as a musical genre, and recent histories of the music and arguments over its origins and evolution have been fraught with the tensions that racial issues in America always bring. In that respect, this volume is a refreshing change from recent polemics. It is written by a jazz musician who is openly ambivalent and by his own admission ``unable to decide whether jazz belongs to anyone who has the talent to play it'' or whether it is a black institution. Gerard's ambivalence manifests itself fruitfully in his unwillingness to accept cant and sloppy reasoning from either side of the argument. He is capable of deflating the pretensions and inaccuracies of such critics as James Lincoln Collier and Stanley Crouch with an admirable evenhandedness. The book consists of eight interlocking essays (although sometimes the connections are a bit hard to perceive) in which he considers such issues as the degree of African influence in jazz and the ways in which the jazz community constitutes itself. Although the thread of his argument is occasionally obscured by the book's structure, this is an intelligent discussion of a loaded issue. Not surprisingly, Gerard comes down in the middle of this debate, but he does so with integrity and thoughtfulness, making the middle look like the only logical place to be.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
