The Velvet Lounge

On Late Chicago Jazz

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Music Styles, Jazz & Blues, Jazz
Cover of the book The Velvet Lounge by Gerald Majer, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gerald Majer ISBN: 9780231510127
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: August 24, 2005
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Gerald Majer
ISBN: 9780231510127
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: August 24, 2005
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Troubled urban neighborhoods and jazz-club havens were the backdrop of Gerald Majer's life growing up in sixties and seventies Chicago. The Velvet Lounge, an original hybrid of memoir, biography, and musical description, reflects this history and pursues a sustained meditation on jazz along with a probing exploration of race and class and how they defined the material and psychic divides of a city. With the instrument of a supple, lyrical prose style, Majer elaborates the book's themes through literary and intellectual forays as carefully constructed and as passionately articulated as a jazz master's solo. Throughout the work, issues of identity and culture, art and politics achieve a rare immediacy, as does the music itself.

In portraits of Jimmy Smith, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Sun Ra, and others, Gerald Majer conveys the drama and artistry of their music as well as the personal hardships many of them endured. Vivid descriptions and telling historical anecdotes explore the music's richness through a variety of political, social, and philosophical contexts. The Velvet Lounge, named after the famous Chicago club, is also one of the few works to consider the music of such avant-garde jazz musicians as Fred Anderson, Andrew Hill, and Roscoe Mitchell. In doing so, Majer builds a bridge from the traditionalist view of jazz to the world of contemporary innovators, casts a new light on the music and its makers, and traces connections between jazz art and postmodernist thought.

Present throughout Majer's spirited encounters with the worlds of jazz is Majer himself. We hear and appreciate the music through his individual sensibilities and experiences. Majer recounts growing up in racially divided Chicago—his trips to the famed Maxwell Street market, his wanderings among its legendary jazz clubs, his riding the El, and his working in a jukebox factory. We witness his awakening to the music at a crossroads of the intimately personal and the intellectually provocative.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Troubled urban neighborhoods and jazz-club havens were the backdrop of Gerald Majer's life growing up in sixties and seventies Chicago. The Velvet Lounge, an original hybrid of memoir, biography, and musical description, reflects this history and pursues a sustained meditation on jazz along with a probing exploration of race and class and how they defined the material and psychic divides of a city. With the instrument of a supple, lyrical prose style, Majer elaborates the book's themes through literary and intellectual forays as carefully constructed and as passionately articulated as a jazz master's solo. Throughout the work, issues of identity and culture, art and politics achieve a rare immediacy, as does the music itself.

In portraits of Jimmy Smith, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Sun Ra, and others, Gerald Majer conveys the drama and artistry of their music as well as the personal hardships many of them endured. Vivid descriptions and telling historical anecdotes explore the music's richness through a variety of political, social, and philosophical contexts. The Velvet Lounge, named after the famous Chicago club, is also one of the few works to consider the music of such avant-garde jazz musicians as Fred Anderson, Andrew Hill, and Roscoe Mitchell. In doing so, Majer builds a bridge from the traditionalist view of jazz to the world of contemporary innovators, casts a new light on the music and its makers, and traces connections between jazz art and postmodernist thought.

Present throughout Majer's spirited encounters with the worlds of jazz is Majer himself. We hear and appreciate the music through his individual sensibilities and experiences. Majer recounts growing up in racially divided Chicago—his trips to the famed Maxwell Street market, his wanderings among its legendary jazz clubs, his riding the El, and his working in a jukebox factory. We witness his awakening to the music at a crossroads of the intimately personal and the intellectually provocative.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Feminist Consequences by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book As Wide as the World Is Wise by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Democracy and Islam in Indonesia by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Japan’s Security Renaissance by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Nakba by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Rage and Time by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Hunting Girls by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book A Possible Peace Between Israel and Palestine by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book The Death of Philosophy by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Extinction Studies by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book Social-Ecological Resilience and Law by Gerald Majer
Cover of the book The Invention of International Relations Theory by Gerald Majer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy