Description
Book SynopsisIn Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness, author Kelsey Klotz considers how Dave Brubeck, a pivotal jazz musician and public figure, represents manifestations of whiteness in mid-century America.
Trade ReviewInformative! * Benjamin Ivry, Catholic Herald *
Kelsey Klotz's Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness offers the first sustained critical analysis of the role of whiteness in shaping jazz history. Klotz is at once insightful, nuanced, and brave in raising issues that illuminate how whiteness shaped multiple dimensions of Dave Brubeck's career in ways that can only be understood within a broader a social analysis including race, gender, class, and indigeneity. The book is deeply researched, well-argued and convincing. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of jazz or music and social justice in the 20th century * Ingrid Monson, Harvard University *
Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness presents a thoughtful and nuanced argument about the artist's music and career. It is timely - a book the jazz world needs to reflect on this pivotal musician. Highly recommended! * Gabriel Solis, Professor of Music, University of Washington *
Klotz boldly invites us to reconsider the racial world within which Brubeck thrived. Meticulously focusing on Brubeck's music, persona, positionality, interventions, and his reception by audiences and critics, Klotz unpacks how the historical wages of whiteness endure into the future. Although Klotz insists that this is not an anti-racist project, this work urges us to be more aware of the complexities of race and its impact on how artists like Brubeck have been esteemed by audiences and critics. * Stephanie Shonekan, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, University of Maryland *
Klotz adroitly fuses jazz studies and whiteness studies in this brilliant, deeply researched study of Dave Brubeck as a vital and contested figure in post-World War II American culture. This groundbreaking book will inform and enrich the discussion of jazz and race for years to come. * John Gennari, Chair and Professor of English, University of Vermont, and author of Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics (2006) *
The book concludes with a discussion of Brubeck's emergence as a social activist in the US, particularly with regard to the Civil Rights Movement. This work is very detailed and nuanced and includes an extremely useful selective bibliography. * Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Buying the Myth Chapter 1: "Any Jackass Can Swing": Sounds in Black and White Chapter 2: Professors, Housewives, and Playboys: The Jazz Converts Chapter 3: (In)Visible Men: White Recognition and Trust Chapter 4: "We Want to Play in the South": Brubeck's Southern Strategy Chapter 5: Negotiating Jewish Identity in The Gates of Justice Conclusion: Evading Whiteness
