Jazz Internationalism: Literary Afro-Modernism and the Cultural Politics of Black Music

247 Pages·2017·1.307 MB·English

by  John Lowney

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Jazz Internationalism
The New Black Studies Series
Edited by Darlene Clark Hine and Dwight A. McBride
A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.
Jazz Internationalism
Literary Afro-Modernism and the
Cultural Politics of Black Music
John Lowney
© 2017 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lowney, John, 1957– author.
Title: Jazz internationalism : literary Afro-modernism
and the cultural politics of black music / John
Lowney.
Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press,
2017. | Series: New black studies series | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers:
lccn 2017017753 (print) | lccn 2017033267 (ebook)
| isbn 9780252099939 (e-book) | isbn 9780252041334
(hardback) | isbn 9780252082863 (paperback)
Subjects: lcsh: American literature—African American
authors—History and criticism. | Jazz in literature.
| Modernism (Literature)—United States. | African
Americans—Music—History and criticism. | Black
nationalism—United States—History—20th century.
| African Americans—Social life and customs—20th
century. | bisac: LITERARY CRITICISM / American
/ African American. | MUSIC / Genres & Styles /
Jazz. | LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry.
Classification: lcc ps153.n5 (ebook) | lcc ps153.n5 l73
2017 (print) | ddc 810.9/896073—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017017753
for Jasmine

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 “Harlem Jazzing”: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem,
and Jazz Internationalism 27
2 “Black Man’s Verse”: The Black Chicago Renaissance
and the Popular Front Jazz Poetics of Frank Marshall Davis 59
3 “Do You Sing for a Living?”: Ann Petry, The Street,
and the Gender Politics of World War II Jazz 89
4 “Cultural Exchange”: Cold War Jazz and the
Political Aesthetics of Langston Hughes’s Long Poems 111
5 “A Silent Beat in Between the Drums”: Bebop, Post-Bop,
and the Black Beat Poetics of Bob Kaufman 131
Conclusion “A New Kind of Music”: Paule Marshall,
The Fisher King, and the Dissonance of Diaspora 159
Notes 181
Works Cited 205
Index 221

Acknowledgments
The writers and musicians I discuss in this book all experienced significant
struggle as well as success in their lives, and I want to begin by acknowledging
their inspirational art and activism. I hope that this book succeeds not only in
furthering recognition of underappreciated jazz writers and texts but also in
celebrating the vitally collaborative dynamic of jazz practice. Researching and
writing this book has reminded me how scholarship is by definition collabora-
tive, and I appreciate the opportunity I have had to interact with scholars and
artists whose exemplary work and sage advice have likewise been inspirational.
Jazz Internationalism began with research on Langston Hughes, and I
thank Mark Sanders and Joseph Skerrett for their early support of this project.
This book is indebted to numerous individuals and scholarly communi-
ties, within African American studies, African diaspora studies, American
studies, and modernist studies. I want to thank specifically those who have
shared their research, responded to my research, and encouraged me as I
was working on this book: Houston Baker Jr., Martha Cutter, Joseph Entin,
Gregory Fraser, Cheryl Higashida, Matt Hofer, Gary Holcomb, Tsitsi Jaji, Gil-
lian Johns, Jean-Phillippe Marcoux, Jane Marcus, Dellita Martin-Ogunsola,
William Maxwell, Ron Miller, Nathaniel Mills, Daniel Morris, Aldon Nielsen,
Richard Purcell, Arnold Rampersad, Rachel Rubin, James Smethurst, Edgar
Tidwell, Henry Veggian, Priscilla Wald, and Tyrone Williams. I also want
to thank the two readers for the University of Illinois Press, whose careful
reading and specific advice have made this a stronger book.
This book would not exist without the wisdom and camaraderie of my
colleagues at St. John’s University. I extend my gratitude especially to Stephen
Sicari, the chair of the university’s English department, whose leadership and
judgment have been so important to the development of our department