Jazz in the 1970s: Diverging Streams

Breaking through pervasive misconceptions, Jazz in the 1970s explores a pivotal decade in jazz history. Many consider the 1970s to be the fusion decade, but Bill Shoemaker pushes back against this stereotype with a bold perspective that examines both the diverse musical innovations and cultural developments that elevated jazz internationally. He traces events that redefined jazz’s role in the broadband arts movement as well as the changing social and political landscape. Shoemaker immerses readers in the cultural transformation of jazz through: official recognition with events like Jimmy Carter’s White House Jazz Picnic and the release of The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz;the market validation of avant-garde musicians by major record labels and the concurrent spike in artist-operated record labels and performance spaces;the artistic influence and economic impact of jazz festivals internationally;the emergence of government and foundation grant support for jazz in the United States and Europe;and the role of media in articulating a fast-changing scene. Shoemaker details the lives and work of well-known innovators (such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers) as well as barrier-breaking artists based in Europe (such as Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann and Chris McGregor) giving both longtime fans and newcomers insights into the moments and personae that shaped a vibrant decade in jazz.

Table of Contents:
Author’s Note Introduction: The 1960s: Point of Departure Chapter 1: 1970: Travelling Somewhere Chapter 2: 1971: The Prince and the Pariah Chapter 3: 1972: Adaptive Dance Chapter 4: 1973: The Canon Chapter 5: 1974: “A new name half the world already knows” Chapter 6: 1975: Montreux Chapter 7: 1976: Wildflowers Chapter 8: 1977: Company Week Chapter 9: 1978: Salt Peanuts Chapter 10: 1979: Nice Guys Coda: The Early 1980s: Let’s Call This

About the Author :
Bill Shoemaker is the coauthor of Arrivals/Departures: New Horizons in Jazz. He founded the online journal Point of Departure in 2005.

Review :
Focusing primarily on one figure or group of musicians for each year of the decade, Shoemaker looks at British and European musicians, including Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Albert Mangelsdorff, Chris McGregor, John Stevens, Derek Bailey, and Evan Parker. Major American figures profiled are Julius Hemphill, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and Sam Rivers. Shoemaker also discusses jazz criticism and the jazz canon, jazz festivals, and jazz at the White House. His explorations of the music and “scenes” of the musicians are thorough. This is a well-written and important book. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. In this informative, opinionated history, Shoemaker, a longtime jazz writer and critic, breaks down the 1970s by devoting each chapter of the book to a specific year. After the 1960s—a decade Shoemaker hails as the genre’s most pivotal—jazz was at a crossroads and seeking a new identity. Although jazz in the 1970s is often associated with the word “fusion,” it headed in multiple directions. Shoemaker focuses on what he believes are the decade’s important albums, including saxophonist Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D. and Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Nice Guys, plus the establishment of major events such as the Montreux Jazz Festival and Jimmy Carter’s one-off White House Jazz Picnic. At times, this selective history reads like a series of lengthy record reviews interspersed with DownBeat and Melody Maker reviews from the era, accompanied by overwritten prose (“Increasingly, Marsalis’s subsequent recordings combine aspects of reverse engineering and discredited recapitulation theories in biology, which posits that an organism’s development resembles the series of ancestral types”). That said, Shoemaker does provide insight into major and independent record labels and the impact that sampler releases such as The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz had on avant-garde and mainstream listeners. Shoemaker writes for the jazz connoisseur, and his work will disappoint mainstream readers in search of a more complete overview of this era of jazz. (Jan.) Shoemaker’s work has two great strengths: rapid response and sense of detail befitting a journalist, coupled with a historian’s sense of scale and long view. Bill Shoemaker examines a jazz decade when cultures collided and coalesced, then moved on. He shows what these processes meant for the music's future, while unfalteringly bringing the reader to some unsuspected conclusions. Revelatory, responsive and inspiring. Can we make sense of the reality that was jazz in the 1970s? The answer is yes. In this brilliantly researched book, Bill Shoemaker sorts out the layers of Afro-American self-determination, European identity, the market, and even Jimmy Carter’s great jazz event at the White House. Bill Shoemaker’s Jazz in the 1970’s: Diverging Streams is a rich read. You'll want to listen to the music as you follow the stories of the musicians, the business, and the dynamic interplay with history, culture, politics, and economic forces.