Another repost from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. Promised Land Last week in Iowa, Michele Bachmann launched her bid to become the Republican candidate in the next US presidential election. On the Tea Party far right of American politics, she has a long, lamentable history of anti-gay and anti-abortion activism not to [...]
Short Takes: “Jackie Wilson’s Melisma – 20 notes for the word ‘for’” (from History is Made at Night)
Final repost (for now) from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. Jackie Wilson’s Melisma – 20 notes for the word ‘for’ ‘The extent to which the music is integrated with the literal meaning in soul is apparent in some of its basic stylistic conventions, the call and response structure, for instance, where a [...]
Short Takes:”Dancing in the Dark – Bert Williams” (from History is Made at Night)
Second in a series of reposts from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. This entry deals with one of my abiding interests as a scholar, how boundaries of race are maintained, negotiated and challenged in popular culture. It also highlights the power of a “fictional” writing approach to capture the truth of a [...]
Short Takes:”Gadhafi, Dancing and the Communism of Movement” (from History is Made at Night)
First in a series of reposts from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog: Gadhafi, Dancing and the Communism of Movement ‘A moderate revolution is a contradiction in terms, though a moderate putsch, coup or pronunciamento is not. However limited the ostensible aims of the revolution, the light of the New Jerusalem must [...]
Is the future of jazz in its past?
THIS IS AN ADDENDUM TO AN EARLIER POST ON DECIPHERINGCULTURE.COM: Regenerating Jazz Is the future of jazz in its past? There’s a lot of talk lately about why jazz has been losing its audience despite decades of efforts to build infrastructure. There is hardly a university music program that does not include a jazz studies [...]
