Description
Book SynopsisBetween the world wars, Paris welcomed not only a number of glamorous American expatriates including Jospehine Baker and F Scott Fitzgerald, but also a dynamic musical style emerging in the United States: jazz. This title examines how and why jazz became so widely performed in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and also why it was so controversial.
Trade Review“A history that reads like a good story, this new book by Jeffrey H. Jackson illumines the multiple reactions to jazz in France, ranging from enthusiasm and fascination to fear and disgust. It also vividly recaptures the broad cultural context and above all succeeds in demonstrating the importance of jazz for the ongoing debate about French
national identity and modernity.”—Charles Rearick, author of
The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars“Jeffrey H. Jackson’s work is unique in providing a more detailed history of jazz in interwar France than anything yet in print (certainly in English). Jackson offers a new, rather unusual perspective, concentrating on the ways jazz was integrated into national practices and traditions, rather than portraying it as simply a foreign intrusion into national life. This is a very rich approach to cultural history, offering a far more complex and nuanced understanding of the process of trans-Atlantic cultural interchange than top-down perspectives.”—Tyler Stovall, coeditor of
The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France“This lively and innovative book views jazz through the prism of contemporary ideas about 'blackness' and the Americanization of Europe's economy and culture to explore the relationship between culture, race, and national identity in twentieth-century France. Jeffrey H. Jackson reveals a complex interplay of cultural and social forces that stretches from across the Atlantic to the trenches of World War I to the colonies of
la plus grande France."—Alice Conklin, author of
A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930(Starred Review) “This is an outstanding little book—a highly readable history of jazz in interwar Paris and a brilliant case study of French cosmopolitanism. . . . Entertaining, informative, authoritative, and broad in scope, Jackson’s study will appeal to readers of varied interests. . . .” * Library Journal *
"Jackson makes an important contribution to historical studies in complicating understandings of French cultural nationalism between two world wars. . . . Compelling." -- Jody Blake * American Historical Review *
"Jackson's interesting . . . work traces how a new 'cabaret culture' replaced big dancehalls, examines the effect recording technology had on the spread of jazz, and shows how, by the end of the 30s, the indefatigable French had managed to incorporate jazz into a new idea of a national cultural tradition."
-- Steven Poole * The Guardian *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 The Arrival of Jazz 13
2 The Spread of Jazz 34
3 Jazz and the City of Paris 52
4 The Meanings of Jazz: America,
Negre, and Civilization 71
5 Making Jazz Familiar: Music Halls and the Avant-Garde 104
6 Making Jazz French: Parisian Musicians and Jazz Fans 123
7 New Bands and New Tensions: Jazz and the Labor Problem 143
8 The Discovery of Hot Jazz 154
9 Epilogue 191
Appendix: Histories of Jazz in Interwar France 205
Notes 211
Selected Bibliography 255
Index 261
