Kelsey Klotz
Biographic Data
| ID | 5803391 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kelsey Klotz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kelsey |
| FAMILY NAME | Klotz |
| SIGNATURE | KLOTZ K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Maryland, College Park |
| ORCID | 0009-0004-9702-008X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 6 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
“If You Have to Ask, You’ll Never Know”
When RIPM Jazz (Le Répertoire international de la presse musicale, Jazz Periodicals) was released in 2019, there was great rejoicing in the jazz studies community. Finally! At long last, jazz periodicals would be accessible and searchable! Since the return to in-person conferences, my conversations with fellow jazz scholars have inevitably included the RIPM Jazz inquiry: “So, do you have it?”1 Our excitement is palpable.RIPM Jazz partnered with t…
Leonard Feather and the Gender Ignorant Language of Jazz Mastery
Leonard Feather (1914−1994) was one of the first (and only) prominent jazz critics to recognize gender discrimination within jazz and attempt to redress the issue. But even by the 1950s, Feather grew frustrated with his inability to effect meaningful change for women musicians. He could not understand why women like Beryl Booker, Melba Liston, Vi Redd, and others did not receive more attention, even after he arranged tours and produced record dat…
Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)
Throughout his career, Kenny G has been heralded by some audiences as a jazz icon, even as he portrays ambivalence toward well-recognized jazz histories and is often critiqued by self-described members of jazz communities. By diving deeply into the cringe-worthy moments in which Kenny G’s refusal of jazz knowledge are most evident, Klotz examines Kenny G’s performance of white ignorance as a form of white privilege. The essay closes with a medita…
Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness
How can historians, writers, musicians, and audiences understand the legacy and impact of a musician like Dave Brubeck? Brubeck leveraged his fame as a jazz musician and status as a composer for social justice causes, holding to a belief system that, during the civil rights movement, modeled a progressive approach to race and race relations. However, it also took Brubeck, like others, some time to understand the full spectrum of racial power dyna…
Dave Brubeck's Southern Strategy
In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck made headlines for cancelling a twenty-five-date tour of colleges and universities across the American South after twenty-two schools had refused to allow his black bassist, Eugene Wright, to perform. This cancellation became a defining moment in Brubeck's career, forever marking him as an advocate for racial justice. This essay follows Brubeck's engagement with early civil rights–era protests, exa…
On Musical Value
In this article, I reveal the ways in which musical value, as marked by methods and places of listening, is intricately connected to race. I focus on John Lewis in his role as pianist and artistic director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, an African American jazz group formed in 1952 with members Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums) (replaced by Connie Kay in 1955). To understand Lewis’s approach toward listening and…
No prominent works on this page.
On Musical Value
In this article, I reveal the ways in which musical value, as marked by methods and places of listening, is intricately connected to race. I focus on John Lewis in his role as pianist and artistic director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, an African American jazz group formed in 1952 with members Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums) (replaced by Connie Kay in 1955). To understand Lewis’s approach toward listening and…
Dave Brubeck's Southern Strategy
In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck made headlines for cancelling a twenty-five-date tour of colleges and universities across the American South after twenty-two schools had refused to allow his black bassist, Eugene Wright, to perform. This cancellation became a defining moment in Brubeck's career, forever marking him as an advocate for racial justice. This essay follows Brubeck's engagement with early civil rights–era protests, exa…
Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)
Throughout his career, Kenny G has been heralded by some audiences as a jazz icon, even as he portrays ambivalence toward well-recognized jazz histories and is often critiqued by self-described members of jazz communities. By diving deeply into the cringe-worthy moments in which Kenny G’s refusal of jazz knowledge are most evident, Klotz examines Kenny G’s performance of white ignorance as a form of white privilege. The essay closes with a medita…
Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness
How can historians, writers, musicians, and audiences understand the legacy and impact of a musician like Dave Brubeck? Brubeck leveraged his fame as a jazz musician and status as a composer for social justice causes, holding to a belief system that, during the civil rights movement, modeled a progressive approach to race and race relations. However, it also took Brubeck, like others, some time to understand the full spectrum of racial power dyna…
Leonard Feather and the Gender Ignorant Language of Jazz Mastery
Leonard Feather (1914−1994) was one of the first (and only) prominent jazz critics to recognize gender discrimination within jazz and attempt to redress the issue. But even by the 1950s, Feather grew frustrated with his inability to effect meaningful change for women musicians. He could not understand why women like Beryl Booker, Melba Liston, Vi Redd, and others did not receive more attention, even after he arranged tours and produced record dat…
“If You Have to Ask, You’ll Never Know”
When RIPM Jazz (Le Répertoire international de la presse musicale, Jazz Periodicals) was released in 2019, there was great rejoicing in the jazz studies community. Finally! At long last, jazz periodicals would be accessible and searchable! Since the return to in-person conferences, my conversations with fellow jazz scholars have inevitably included the RIPM Jazz inquiry: “So, do you have it?”1 Our excitement is palpable.RIPM Jazz partnered with t…
Music History and Culture (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Jazz (5 works) · Musicology and Musical Analysis (5 works) · Art history (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Politics (3 works) · Theater, Performance, and Music History (3 works)