-
Read this book! Jul 8, 2009 (2 of 2 found this helpful)
Review by Eugene Marlow, Ph.D
In a later chapter of Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology, Kabir Sehgal writes: "It is illuminating that those who were the most oppressed in America [blacks] have created the most democratic of arts." This simple statement is fraught with layers of meaning in a book that delves comprehensively into the metaphor of jazz-as-democracy.
Jazzocracy gives an initial impression of a young first-time author who wants to tell you everything he or she ever learned about a subject, like many top students who have yet to integrate and organize their knowledge. By the end of the book, however, you realize you have just read something brilliant, articulate, insightful and important.
In part, Jazzocracy shines because of its compactness. With a narrative only 171 pages long, it consists of 650 endnotes drawn from 237 sources. Sehgal's work succeeds at melding the seemingly disparate subjects implied by jazz and democracy.
-
JAZZOCRACY Lights the Way Sep 23, 2009 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
Review by Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D.
Many months after spearheading a year long elementary school collaboration called The Jazz & Democracy Project(TM), and spending countless hours searching for creative ways to make the jazz-democracy metaphor explicit and significant to classes of 5th graders at Thornhill Elementary, I discovered JAZZOCRACY, the book that would have provided the road map for the trail I (thought I) was blazing! Not only does Sehgal illuminate nearly every angle of the jazz-democracy metaphor, his writing style eloquently mirrors tenets of the metaphor itself. Like the jazz soloist who has mastered his instrument and craft, able to pull from myriad licks, experiences, and sources of inspiration, Sehgal culls innumerable sources to explicate the intricacies and subtle yet significant beauty of this most American of metaphors. In so doing, he allows scholars, music critics, historical figures, and jazz luminaries to co-exist and converse with one another on the page, ultimately crafting a collective work of art by his single hand, and thereby reconciling the individual amongst the group.
House Congressional Resolution 57 (HR-57), passed by the 100th Congress in 1987, declares jazz a "rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated." It follows, then, that every student and citizen should learn about our nation's classical music, widely considered America's greatest artistic contribution to the world. What Sehgal clarifies once and for all is that by learning about jazz history and the process by which musicians create this most American of art forms, we learn fundamentally what it is to be American as envisioned by our Founding Fathers and set forth in our nation's Constitution. Jazz is the shining relic of our past, embodying the best we as a nation have to offer, and providing the most noble and democratic aesthetic vision for our future. Read JAZZOCRACY if you truly want to see the light.
-
Brilliant Apr 30, 2009 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
Brilliant is the first word that comes to mind. Jazzocrazy is an extremely well written book comparing the evolution of American democracy with the incredible American invention and art form that is Jazz. Not only is the book brilliant, but it was written by a very brilliant, musically talented, politically savvy, not to mention, highly likable guy. Kabir breathes life into the metaphor between jazz and democracy, giving each a soul of it's own but showing how jazz and democracy are in fact kindred American spirits.
-
An Education in Jazz & Politics Apr 15, 2009 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
When I began reading this book I knew very little of Jazz and had never thought of it as being particularly 'democratic.' After reading, however, I feel much more connected to this great American art form and its incredible power.
Sehgal's erudite prose grabbed my attention from page one and kept me interested throughout.
-
Rediscovering and Reshaping America's Culture Through Jazz Nov 13, 2008 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
Kabir Sehgal's endeavor Jazzocracy begins with guiding the reader to rediscover Jazz, America's greatest contribution to culture. And not only its greatest contribution to culture, but a rosetta stone to learning America's culture and government itself as it evolved into one of both dynamic individualism and a great community project.
America's representative democracy is the rhythm of the beat, keeping every jazz musician on the same path. Jazz's virtuoso solos are the oratory and individualism of the leader in democracy. Jazz promotes and celebrates the virtuoso, but, just like in government they are never separate from and dis attached from the community of jazz artists they are on stage with. Through a vigorous exposition of the metaphors of jazz, Sehgal applies the same metaphors to American Democracy and shows the verisimilitude of both projects.
The same can be said of Jazz's and America's history according to Kabir. Jazz's roots stretch back to the music traditions of Africa, brought here with the black slaves America exploited. A direct link to the land these African Americans were torn from, as jazz evolved the same history of segregation is written into the chords of blues and jazz.
Jazz comes to be much more than the outgrowth of classical African music. America gives jazz its distinctive individualism as it grew in America's most cosmopolitan city, New Orleans. And as it was exported to Europe, Jazz became seen as America's imprint on world culture. What seemed like a natural music to Americans, was understood as democracy at its best by Europeans. Jazz became an important weapon in the arsenal of democracy employed through out the cold war. Sehgal points out that the radio free Europe project which broadcast music into Soviet Russia, predominately played jazz music. For the communist or any non-American, the beauty that is jazz was taken as a metaphor for the beauty and intelligence of democracy. Jazz was a beacon of our democracy through the last century.
Jazzocracy unfortunately ends in the opposite end of the New Orleans funeral procession. New Orleans, to date, is still left in disrepair. Jazz is being forgotten in lieu of a music culture which is superficial at best and degrading to its artists and listeners at word. Sehgal throws down the gauntlet it what he sees an American culture war, stridently demanding that jazz be used again as a tool to build a vibrant democratic culture. Kabir calls for the remythification of the solo trumpeter, blaring his instrument through the night in the hot, thick New Orleans air. He calls for jazz to help unify a country in political doldrums, both in creating a community once again and celebrated individuals.
The prospects for this may seem idealistic, daunting, and unlikely. But by seeing how Jazz shaped America's government and culture in the past, there is no reason why it can't do so again. The first step, buy the book and learn the lessons Sehgal has mastered. Jazz is democracy and democracy is jazz. And America can once again link the two, substantiating what should be called a Jazzocracy