Dr. Billy Taylor, "America's Classical Music," and the Role of the Jazz Ambassador

Bibliographic Data

ID5777508
AuthorsTom Arnold-Forster (0000-0003-3317-7091, Jesus University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume51
Issue1
Pages117-139
Publication date2016-02-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8758 • E-ISSN: 1469-5154
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021875815002662
OpenAlexW2582515773
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

The idea of jazz as "America's classical music" has become a powerful way of defining the music, asserting its national and artistic value, and shaping its scholarly study. The present article provides a history of this idea through a close analysis of its primary theorist and most visible spokesperson, Dr. Billy Taylor. It argues that the idea was not a neoclassical and conservative product of the 1980s, but had important roots in the Black Arts imperatives of the later 1960s and early 1970s. It suggests that Taylor initially made the idea work inventively and productively in a variety of contexts, especially through his community arts project Jazzmobile, but that these contexts diverged as his public profile was stretched thin across and beyond the United States. The idea's disintegration into clichéd ubiquity in the mid-1980s then provides a critical perspective on the idea of the "jazz renaissance," and an opportunity to consider the role of the jazz ambassador in the context of debates about African American intellectuals

Classical music · Jazz · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access