The Imperfect Art : Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture.

Intro -- Contents -- 1 Louis Armstrong and Furniture Music -- 2 Jazz and the Primitivist Myth -- 3 The Imperfect Art -- 4 Neoclassicism in Jazz -- 5 What Has Jazz to Do with Aesthetics? -- 6 Boredom and Jazz -- 7 Jazz as Song -- Notes -- About the Author -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Credits.

Taking a wide-ranging approach rare in jazz criticism, Ted Gioia draws upon fields as disparate as literary criticism, art history, sociology, and aesthetic philosophy in order to place jazz within the turbulent cultural environment of the twentieth century. He argues that because improvisation--the essence of jazz--must often fail under the pressure of on-the-spot creativity, we should view jazz as an "imperfect art" and base our judgments of it on an "aesthetics of imperfection." Incorporating the thought of such seminal thinkers as Walter Benjamin, José Ortega y Gasset, and Roland Barthes, The Imperfect Art offers vivid portraits of the giants of jazz and startling insights into both this vital musical form and the interaction of society and art.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.