Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 331 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

1. "Explores the role of jazz celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams as representatives of African American religion in the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1920s, the Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national celebrity. Many took on the role of race representatives, and were able to leverage their popularity toward achieving social progress for other African Americans. In Lift Every Voice and Swing, Vaughn A. Booker argues that with the emergence of these popular jazz figures, who came from a culture shaped by Black Protestantism, religious authority for African Americans found a place and spokespeople outside of traditional Afro-Protestant institutions and religious life. Popular Black jazz professionals--such as Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams--inherited religious authority though they were not official religious leaders. Some of these artists put forward a religious culture in the mid-twentieth century by releasing religious recordings and putting on religious concerts, and their work came to be seen as integral to the Black religious ethos. Booker documents this transformative era in religious expression, in which jazz musicians embodied religious beliefs and practices that echoed and diverged from the predominant African American religious culture. He draws on the heretofore unexamined private religious writings of Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams, and showcases the careers of female jazz artists alongside those of men, expanding our understanding of African American religious expression and decentering the Black church as the sole concept for understanding Black Protestant religiosity"--Publisher's website.

Subject

1. Jazz -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
2. African American jazz musicians -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
3. African American women musicians -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
4. African Americans -- Religion.
5. African Americans -- Music -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
6. Calloway, Cab, 1907-1994.
7. Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974.
8. Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917-1993.
9. Williams, Mary Lou, 1910-1981.

Contents

1. Introduction -- Part I. Representations of religion and race. "Jazzing religion" ; "Get happy, all you sinners" ; "Tears of joy" ; "Royal ancestry" -- Part II. Missions and legacies. God's messenger boy ; "Is God a three-letter word for love?" ; Jazz communion ; Accounting for the vulnerable ; Virtuoso ancestors -- Conclusion: Black artistry and religious culture.

Call number

1. Sc E 22-589

Language

1. English

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-317) and index.

Local note

1. AUTH: DARTMOUTH. HISTORY OF JAZZ-ERA ARTISTS WHO RECORDED & PERFORMED MUSIC W/RELIGIOUS THEMES.

Author

1. Booker, Vaughn A., author.

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Local subject

1. Black author.

LCCN

1. 2019029138

ISBN

1. 9781479892327 hardcover
2. 1479892327 hardcover
3. 9781479890804 paperback
4. 1479890804 paperback