Jazz: A Music in Exile

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 583-598

Abstract

The significance of jazz is examined through statements by musicians in published interviews & personal contacts. Jazz derives from the distinctive musical forms of the black community, where music was learned in a working context & is performed experimentally. Excluded from the community of white musicians, jazz musicians form a close-knit community of their own. Critics, being predominantly white, often fail to understand the origin & qualities of the music. Jazz has lost its popular base, largely because audiences are not often exposed to it; promoters of music are seldom knowledgeable about it. Jazz is endangered by its lack of popular support & the lack of attention it receives from the educational system. 7 Photographs. W. H. Stoddard.