Iain Anderson. This Is Our : Free , the Sixties, and American Culture. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. vi + 258 pp. $22.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-8122-2003-2.

Reviewed by Zachary J. Lechner

Published on H- (July, 2008)

The emergence of music in the 1960s ing status of jazz" (p. 2). He posits two chief ques‐ presented a signifcant challenge to the jazz tions: How infuential black activists and in‐ canon. Free improvisers such as , tellectuals in transforming the cultural hierarchy, , , , and Sun and, after World War II, did a broadening of Ra pushed the boundaries of jazz. For these per‐ wealth and education bridge the void between formers, , , modal, and other jazz high and low culture? Anderson argues that free innovations of the 1940s and were too re‐ improvisers and their supporters challenged the strictive. They abandoned fxed chord changes promotion of jazz as "America's artform" and of‐ and . For some listeners, it sounded inno‐ ten attempted to claim it as distinctive of the vative and exciting; others found the music chaot‐ African . In doing so, they ic and threatening. drove away most of the jazz audience. Universi‐ Iain Anderson, an associate professor of histo‐ ties and other high arts institutions interested in ry at Dana College, disagrees with the critics of better representing and supporting black culture, , as Anderson generally refers as well as the avant-garde in the arts, welcomed to the style. His book This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, free jazz. The irony of free improvisation's re‐ the Sixties, and American Culture is much more assessment in the high-brow world, Anderson than a defense of free jazz, although he does ana‐ demonstrates, "suggests the difculty of resisting lyze the criticisms in an epilogue. Anderson's ongoing attempts to sustain the stratifcation and main concern lies in understanding the function‐ sacrilization of American culture" (p. 181). ing of cultural authority. In the introduction, he Over the course of fve chapters, Anderson writes, "This book explores the question of who describes jazz's emergence as a national cultural makes decisions about the value of a cultural symbol in the 1950s, the challenges posed by free form and on what basis, taking as its example the improvisation, free jazz's complex relationship impact of 1960s free improvisation on the chang‐ with black nationalism, the narrowing audience H-Net Reviews for jazz in the 1960s, and fnally, the institutional‐ high-class genre defned by development and ization of jazz of the music marketplace. progress. Anderson notes how many Americans' For those readers acquainted with Penny Von association of jazz with progress and individual‐ Eschen's scholarship, much of Anderson's treat‐ ism ftted well with the consensus interpretation ment of jazz in the 1950s will be familiar.[1] Nev‐ of U.S. society in the 1950s. The author's under‐ ertheless, his discussion of the connection be‐ standing of non-musical reasons for jazz music's tween jazz and American Cold War foreign policy shifting fortunes is astute. It recognizes that a cul‐ helps to orient the reader to the contentiousness tural product like jazz operates within the larger at the center of debates over the music. Washing‐ framework of the marketplace. Anderson's atten‐ ton policymakers reeling from the international tion to this obvious, but often neglected facet of embarrassment of U.S. sent abroad State jazz history, requires us to place cultural produc‐ Department tours headed by , tions in the midst of an interplay between cultur‐ , and other performers. Designed al, economic, and political forces. to celebrate jazz as "America's artform," these The author posits this interplay at the core of tours strived to tell a progressive story of racial free improvisation's threat to the freshly formed integration in America. They equated jazz with jazz canon. The question of who controlled the American freedom and individualism. Not sur‐ jazz tradition, he insists, underwrote this dispute. prisingly, the tours created controversy. While Free improvisers questioned the liberal assump‐ some black performers and critics lined up be‐ tions of the jazz establishment from which they hind this depiction, seeing it as a way to improve felt increasingly marginalized, both musically and race relations and the livelihood of black musi‐ economically. Some of these linked cians, others chafed at what they saw as the Unit‐ their lack of commercial opportunities with the ed States' racial hypocrisy and the unequal treat‐ economic and racial structures of the music in‐ ment of black artists in the music business. dustry. Their dissatisfaction in turn infuenced an Besides outlining the debates engendered by aesthetic debate among critics, musicians, and the State Department tours, Anderson investigates black nationalists regarding whether jazz should how jazz gained national prestige in the 1950s. Be‐ be considered a modernist artform or an intrinsi‐ bop musicians faced accusations of criminality cally black cultural expression. Anderson thus and depravity during the previous decade. Ander‐ identifes a confict not only between critics and son contends that new technologies, new venues, supporters of free jazz, but also between devotees and expanded audiences accounted for the new who disagreed about what the music should rep‐ credibility, as did the rise of an innovative "" resent. Jazz performers in the 1940s and 1950s sound developed by and other pur‐ frequently represented their work in a language veyors that contrasted with the more frenetic be‐ of , "including the integration of intel‐ bop. Jazz promoters began moving the music out lect and emotion and an emphasis on continuous of and into halls. This change reinvention." Anderson points out that the ft lent greater artistic credibility to the music and not perfect, as other types of artists drew upon enabled record companies to record live perfor‐ jazz as a "primitivist inspiration" (p. 55). Regard‐ mance cleanly. The long playing record (LP) al‐ less, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, many jazz lowed artists to create more thematic in critics--Nat Hentof, Martin William, and Gunther high fdelity. Promoters' creation of jazz festivals, Schuller among them--employed a modernist dis‐ despite their sometimes mixed commercial suc‐ course in order to aid the respectability of jazz. cess, helped cement jazz in Americans' minds as a

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Anderson states that this focus unintentionally as‐ tails, by forming organizations like the Jazz Com‐ sisted in obscuring the music's black roots. posers Guild and 's Association for the Ad‐ The book's third chapter, "Free Jazz and Black vancement of Creative Musicians. Nationalism," investigates the reaction of many In his fnal chapter, "Jazz Outside the Market‐ musicians and critics against invoking free jazz as place," Anderson discusses the institutionalization a modernist expression. Anderson relies heavily of free improvisation by universities and philan‐ upon , the noted black nationalist thropic organizations. This development begin‐ poet, essayist, and music critic. Anderson skillfully ning in the late 1960s allowed free jazz artists to describes Baraka's attempts to position free im‐ remain true to the black nationalist vision of the provisation as part of a nonwestern, Afrocentric music "as a repository of community values" tradition devoid of western culture's capitalist while also fnding a much-needed audience and drives. In focusing on Baraka's desire to "put the monetary sustenance outside of an indiferent culture" back into jazz the author builds on (p. 152). Anderson does an excel‐ William L. Van Deburg's conception of Black Pow‐ lent job of explaining free improvisation's entry er as a largely cultural movement.[2] Baraka into the world of high culture. Nonproft organi‐ could not overcome the fact, Anderson explains, zations, corporations, the federal government, that despite the adoption of nonwestern infu‐ and institutions of higher learning considered ences by and other free improvis‐ free jazz's lack of commercial achievement ap‐ ers, their music did indeed bear a strong resem‐ pealing. Their commitment to a fringe artform op‐ blance to avant-garde Euro-American aesthetic erated within a paradox, Anderson writes. Univer‐ forms. Anderson stresses, though, that by incorpo‐ sities and donors identifed with free jazz's con‐ rating free improvisation into the Black Arts nection to European avant-garde aesthetics, and Movement "[c]ultural nationalists took free jazz, a they also valued the racial pluralism seemingly travesty of accepted norms of musical discipline, embodied in the music. Thus, the confict between and turned it into a symbol of racial distinction" modernism and racial consciousness so important (p. 119). to earlier considerations of free jazz now helped Despite the infuence of black nationalism, the music, serving not as an obstacle but as a the black audience for jazz continued to dwindle strength. The music's new supporters, Anderson throughout the 1960s. Anderson is particularly at‐ clarifes, did share two main goals with the critics tuned to this point. The question is why the jazz of free jazz: placing free improvisation at the mar‐ fan base among both blacks and whites declined gins of the jazz tradition and jettisoning its rela‐ so precipitously. The author's explanation helps to tionship with racial nationalism. Anderson points support his argument about the continued pull of to other structural factors in the rebirth of free a cultural hierarchy in post-World War II Ameri‐ improvisation. Higher education expanded in the ca. He explains that the challenging nature of free postwar era and encouraged students to take improvisation surely alienated many traditional more courses in artistic disciplines. Jazz studies jazz fans; competing genres further siphoned grew quickly in the 1960s. Finally, the federal gov‐ away audiences. 1960s music and rock 'n' roll ernment's greater commitment to arts support drew black and white listeners enticed by socially and the loosening of laws governing corporate do‐ conscious, yet more accessible, music. Experimen‐ nations further aided the cause of free improvisa‐ tal jazz musicians found themselves as artists in tion. search of an audience. They tried to overcome Anderson respects the role of the nonprofts, this dilemma with varying success, Anderson de‐ the federal government, universities, and corpo‐

3 H-Net Reviews rations in helping to sustain and promote free society, cultural arbiters have often been unable jazz. Free improvisers have taken advantage of to maintain standards of taste (see, for example, these opportunities in the form of fellowships, rock 'n' roll in the 1950s). But cultural authority grants, and professorships. Ultimately, however, still exerts a strong infuence in diferentiating Anderson asks the question, "At what cost?" Draw‐ nonconsumer high culture with low or consumer ing on the work of Paul J. Dimaggio, he contends culture if we accept Anderson's strong case for the that both nonproft and proprietary sponsorship potency of cultural stratifcation. The democratiz‐ greatly infuences what we consider low and high ing efect on cultural authority has not extended art.[3] That certainly holds true, as Anderson ex‐ to the world of jazz sponsorship where free im‐ hibits, for free improvisers. He is quick to ques‐ provisers' lack of commercial success leaves them tion the dissolution between highbrow and low‐ largely dependent on those who control the purse brow forms that the institutional acceptance of strings to defne the artistic and cultural signif‐ free jazz seems to promise. Experimental artists cance of their work. castigated the coronation of jazz as "America's art In researching this challenging and contro‐ form" in the 1950s, and yet their current sponsors versial music, Anderson consulted several contribute to the continued hierarchical divisions archival collections, including Rutgers Universi‐ within American culture. From my reading, An‐ ty's Institute of Jazz Studies and 's derson appears to believe that the cultural chal‐ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. lenge of free jazz has been tamed. The genre re‐ Utilizing mostly published sources, he grounds his mains just outside of "mainstream" jazz with its primary research in contemporary publications black nationalist implication muted. like Downbeat, Jazz, Newsweek, and the New York This Is Our Music, with its focus on cultural Times and makes extensive use black nationalist hierarchies, does an excellent job of locating free writings. Anderson also cites free jazz liner jazz's evolution in the context of cultural authori‐ notes and recordings, although he rarely provides ty. The keepers of the jazz canon such as Wynton much description of various recordings. Consider Marsalis, the Musical Director of Jazz at Lincoln the following description of Cecil Taylor's early Center, still promote a progressive version of the 1960s output: "Taylor's use of extended form mir‐ jazz narrative that treats post-bop innovations as rored [Duke] Ellington's work since the , his part of a divergent path--perhaps interesting but complicated chord alterations echoed George Rus‐ ultimately going nowhere. One might consider sell's compositions of the 1950s, and his free form Anderson's take on cultural authority alongside experiments found precedent in some notorious David Farber's in his 1994 book ¬The Age of Great sides from 1949" (p. 59). To jazz Dreams: America in the 1960s. Farber stresses the afcionados and music historians, this sentence centrality of a crisis of cultural authority in the should make perfect sense. I suspect that cultural 1960s. Youthful behavior, he argues, exposed the historians, who will comprise a large part of An‐ economic value of consumer hedonism in the con‐ derson's audience, may have more difculty com‐ text of a society that also valued hard work and prehending it. Granted, it is always a challenge to restraint. This paradoxical situation helped to write about music, especially a genre with a struc‐ loosen traditional hierarchies of authority.[4] An‐ ture as loose as free jazz, but a little more back‐ derson, conversely, portrays the continuing pull of ground and more detailed descriptions of the mu‐ traditional forces of cultural authority. The difer‐ sic would have been helpful for readers not well ence in the scholars' interpretation perhaps lies in acquainted with free improvisation and its an‐ the virtual removal of free jazz from the market‐ tecedents. I do not want to overstate this criticism. place. In the post-World War II consumer-driven Anderson is mainly concerned with highlighting

4 H-Net Reviews the response to free jazz's critics; nonetheless, a Constraint (New York: Oxford University Press, book about music--even one focused on cultural 1986), 41-61; see also "Introduction," 12. impact and not --should provide a [4.] David Farber, The Age of Great Dreams: reader with a reasonable sense of how the music America in the 1960s (New York: Hill and Wang, sounds without previously hearing it. I suppose in 1994), 176. a perfect world university press publishers would possess the resources to include in their music-re‐ lated books a CD with a selection of relevant recordings. Putting aside this minor criticism, Anderson's keen insight into cultural authority and distinc‐ tion makes this book valuable to jazz scholars and postwar cultural historians. I am impressed with how efortlessly the author moves between issues as diverse as postwar government policymaking, the tenants of black nationalism, transformations in the music industry, and the evolution of spon‐ sorship of the arts, and manages to tie them to‐ gether into a complex, yet comprehensible, dis‐ cussion of the challenge of free improvisation, not just to the jazz canon, but to American culture as well. When Ornette Coleman released the 1959 LP This Is Our Music he surely could not have antici‐ pated the far-reaching impact of free improvisa‐ tion. Iain Anderson has shown us that free jazz may have always been music for the margins. Its infuence nevertheless has infused issues of cul‐ ture and racial identity very much in the main‐ stream of American society. Notes [1]. Penny Von Eschen, Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1997); Penny Von Eschen, Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004). [2.] William L. Van Deburg, New Day in Baby‐ lon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). [3.] Paul J. Dimaggio, "Cultural Entrepreneur‐ ship in Nineteenth-Century Boston" in Nonproft Enterprise in the Arts: Studies in Mission and

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Citation: Zachary J. Lechner. Review of Anderson, Iain. This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture. H-1960s, H-Net Reviews. July, 2008.

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