Landing on the Wrong Note

Ajay Heble is Associate Professor of English at the University of Guelph in Canada. The author of a book on Alice Munro and the editor of a volume of Canadian criticism, he is also the Artistic Director of the Guelph Jazz Festival. He wears a beret.

• Preface Acknowledgement Introduction 1. The Poetics of Jazz:From Symbolic to Semiotic 2. The Rehistoricizing of Jazz: chicago's Urban Bushmen and the Problem of Representation 3. Performing Identity: Jazz Autobiography and the Politics of Literary Improvisation 4. Space is the Place: Jazz, Voice, and Resistance 5. Nice Work if You Can Get it: Women in Jazz 6. Capitulating to Barbarism: Jazz and/as Popular Culture 7. Up for Grabs: The Ethicopolitical Authority of Jazz Conclusion Works Cited Sound and Video Recordings Consulted

"To the extent that the book leaves us wanting more, and opens up questions which still seem important eough to call out for answers, it is a success. It is certainly required reading for anyone interested both in jazz and contemporary critical theory." -- William Echard, Topia"...this kind of work is badly needed in jazz studies. Heble's book raises crucial issues and...the work should certainly be read by anyone interested in jazz as a cultural practice." -- William Echard, Topia"Landing on the Wrong Note...[introduces] some fascinatingnew ways of looking at jazz history and articulating ajazz-informed criticism." -- Hua Hsu, The Wire"Heble approaches the idea of 'dissonance', or non-agreement, as a symptom of the modern condition and its discipline-minded political practices. Take that, Wynton Marsalis!" -- Hua Hsu, The Wire"Heble gets off on the good foot, and many of Landing'sbest moments tread this sticky cultural line ofright/wrong." -- Hua Hsu, The Wire"Heble draws interesting intellectual alliances between the evolutionary paths tones and sentences, Ezra and Bird." -- Hua Hsu, The Wire"Heble's methodology is clearly in tune with that of his subject matter." -- Scott Thomson, The Book Shelf"Heble once again plays the unanticipated note, very much reflecting dissonant jazz which, despite the deaf-eared citicism of its detractors, has never reallly been about simplistic, 'anything goes' methodology." -- Scott Thomson, The Book Shelf"To properly appreciate Landing on the Wrong Noteyou haveto put on your thinking cap, find a quiet place, and wadethrough a high density of ideas." -- Nils Jacobson, AllAbout Jazz Update"Heble's book is truly outstanding. ...thought provoking and powerful." -- Nils Jacobson, All About Jazz Update"This exciting and adventurous work exemplifies the trenchancy of the new directions in jazz scholarship. Combining contemporary critical discourses with insights from his personal experience as an innovative arts presenter, Ajay Heble challenges scholars, musicians and audiences to move beyond the comfortable narratives so often presented as 'jazz history' to examine the role of the hybrid, mutable, unstable, noisy, boundary-shattering improvised music of our day as both agent and subject of social, cultural, and political change." -- George E. Lewis, Department of Music, University of California, San Diego