The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue (Music Culture) [Paperback]

Daniel Fischlin (Editor), Ajay Heble (Editor), Ingrid Monson (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Music Culture | Publication Date: March 30, 2004

A breakthrough book in the emergent fields of improvisation and cultural theory, The Other Side of Nowhere conveys the spirit and energy of an experimental celebration. The volume is divided into four sections: writings of musicians about improvising; examinations of inter- and cross-cultural dialogue; discussions of social practice and identity; and essays about collaborative dissonance. The 17 essays present jazz improvisation as a cultural practice with far-reaching ramifications. Music is treated not merely as an artistic phenomenon, but as a social force with the power to effect substantial change among people of marginalized races, genders, sexualities and ethnicities. The collection argues that there is a distinctive relationship between the emergence of free jazz, the desire for social justice and activist practices. The Other Side of Nowhere is a groundbreaking book that offers multiple perspectives on the art of jazz improvisation--it will inspire readers to create, collaborate and dissent.

CONTRIBUTORS: John Corbett, Krin Gabbard, Michael Jarrett, George E. Lewis, Nathaniel Mackey, Mark Anthony Neal, Pauline Oliveros, Eddie Prevost, Dana Reason, Michael Snow and Sherrie Tucker.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Academic theorizing about jazz has traditionally lagged far behind the inspired playing of it with the field of jazz writing dominated by magazine journalists and social commentators. This has often been a relief, making the literature of jazz unburdened by the obfusacatory language and petty point-scoring of the academic establishment. Since 1990 some excellent jazz academicians have emerged such as Krin Gabbard, Graham Lock, Ingrid Monson, Nathaniel Mackey, Paul Berliner, and George E. Lewis, who incorporate the best of the jazz writing tradition whilst riffing a new discourse using the resources of cultural theory. Some of them are represented here in this excellent comprehensive collection of writings about the politics and aesthetics of improvisation."--Alan Rice, Journal of American Studies

"This is an impressively wide-ranging collection that is sure to engage and provoke. Fischlin and Heble have elicited some valuable insights about improvisation and its complex relationship with the histories of race, gender and class." --Graham Lock, author of Blutopia and Forces in Motion

Review

"The Other Side of Nowhere is an important and wide-ranging contribution to the growing fields of improvisation studies and cultural theory. It provides a fascinating array of contributions from musicians, artists, scholars, critics and promoters. The book's in-depth treatment of an often marginalized cultural and musical form and its timely interdisciplinary approach to its subject make it extremely significant." (David Borgo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Music, University of California at San Diego )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819566829
• ISBN-13: 978-0819566829
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,423,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Requires a little patience, April 22, 2005

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue (Music Culture) (Paperback)

Nowadays a lot of books on jazz/improv are like this one, pitched at an academic audience in the cultural-studies area rather than engaging in serious musicology. There are musicians among contributors but the amount of actual discussion of music (rather than of cultural symbolism of the act of improvisation) is pretty thin, & indeed (except for a few bars' transcription of a Steve Coleman piece at one point) there's no music printed in the book at all. Some of the pieces are too windy to be of much use (above all, the editors' incredibly long & repetitive preface), & some are just rather tangential (a piece on Marlon Brando as "jazz actor"), but if you're a patient sort you can winkle out some useful material. Trombonist George Lewis writes ponderously, but his piece (a reprint of his earlier essay "Improvised Music after 1950" plus a brief coda to bring it up to date) contains a well-aimed polemic concerning the way that "new music" borrows from jazz while at the same time denigrating it subtly or bluntly (John Cage's inane comments on jazz come in for careful dissection). Pauline Oliveros' autobiographical piece "Harmonic Anatomy: Women in Improvisation" is also strong; & there's an excellent collage of interviews with jazz producers (Macero, Avakian, Weinstock, Keepnews, &c) by Michael Jarrett. & there are various other good things (John Corbett's final piece is worthwhile, though Nathaniel Mackey's contribution is somewhat disappointing: a useful introduction but then the rest of it is reprinted extracts from his fiction).

The basic thesis of the book (which runs through essays by different authors) is that improvised music's importance is in its "community building"--as a form of utopianism in action. My feelings about this idea are mixed: on the one hand the community around jazz (of fans, musicians, critics, presenters, &c) is indeed one of its appeals; on the other often this tempts jazz/improv fans to excesses of pride & denigration of other forms of music (witness the silly comments of people like Eddie Prevost about the "authoritarian", "hierarchical" nature of pop music or classical music). & the emphasis on community building in the book can sometimes seem to get things backwards: as if the importance of the music weren't the music at all but the forms of community it gives rise to. As the thinness of musicological description (or even more nontechnical description) in the book suggests, this can mean a curious bypassing of the actual music that led people to join the jazz/improv community in the first place.

Not really an essential purchase unless you're doing academic work in the field.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the other hand..., November 28, 2007

By 

James G. Carroll - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue (Music Culture) (Paperback)

I agree with the first reviewer that the academic discourse around jazz gets very obscure, but I have to say that nothing is more obscure to the larger reading audience than musical notation and harmonic theory. You have to ask yourself why Prof. Monson, a very fine musician, would choose to edit a book on jazz improv that does not rely on music theory. My approach to teaching this subject - an approach that I share with other academics - is that music theory is an exclusive language that cuts all non-musicians out of the discourse. I love music theory, but I don't use it, for this and for other reasons, in teaching African American music history.

After having editorialized (my apologies), I need to say that the essays in this book represent the current thinking on jazz improv. It is an area of the scholarship that needs to continue to be criticized and refined, but it hits the high points for sure.