Jazz Icons Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition

Today, jazz history is dominated by iconic figures who have taken on an almost God-like status. From Satchmo to Duke, Bird to Trane, these legendary jazzmen form the backbone of the jazz tradition. Jazz icons not only provide musicians and audiences with figureheads to revere but have also come to stand for a number of values and beliefs that shape our view of the music itself. Jazz Icons explores the growing significance of icons in jazz and discusses the reasons why the music's history is increasingly dependent on the legacies of 'great men'. Using a series of individual case studies, Whyton examines the influence of jazz icons through different forms of historical mediation, including the recording, language, image and myth. The book encourages readers to take a fresh look at their relationship with iconic figures of the past and challenges many of the dominant narratives in jazz today.

Introduction: jazz narratives and sonic icons; 1. Jazz icons, heroes and myths; 2. Jazz and the disembodied voice; 3. Not a wonderful world: Louis Armstrong meets Kenny G.; 4. Men can't help acting on impulse!; 5. Witnessing and the jazz anecdote; 6. Dispelling the myth: essentialist Ellington; 7. Birth of the school.

Tony Whyton is Director of the Salford Music Research Centre at the University of Salford. As Professor of Jazz and Musical Cultures, he co-edits the internationally peer-reviewed Jazz Research Journal and, in 2011, edited the jazz volume of the Ashgate Library of Essays on Popular Music. He is the Project Leader for the HERA-funded Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities programme and author of the forthcoming book Beyond A Love Supreme.