Watching Jazz

Björn Heile is Reader in Music since 1900 and Head of Music at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Music of Mauricio Kagel (2006) and editor of The Modernist Legacy: Essays on New Music (2009).Peter Elsdon is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Hull. He is the author of Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert (2013), and he has also published work on jazz recordings, and gesture in music.Jenny Doctor is Associate Professor of Communications and Director of the Belfer Audio Archive at Syracuse University. She has published The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922-36 (1999); The Proms: A Social History, co-edited with David Wright and Nicholas Kenyon (2007); and Silence, Music, Silent Music, co-edited with Nicky Losseff (2007).

• AcknowledgementsList of ContributorsIntroductionJenny Doctor, Peter Elsdon, Björn HeileShaping Screen Media1. Framing Jazz: Thoughts on Representation and Embodiment Peter Elsdon2. "All Aboard!:" Soundies and Vitaphone Shorts Emile Wennekes 3. Assimilating and Domesticating Jazz in 1950s American Variety Television: Nat King Cole's Transformation from Guest Star to National Host Kristin McGee 4. "Jazz Is Where You Find It:" Encountering Jazz on BBC Television, 1946-66, Jenny DoctorGesture and Mediatization5. "All Sights Were Perceived as Sounds" Pat Metheny and the Instrumental Image, Jonathan De Souza6. Jazz Performance on Screen: Mediatization of Gesture, Bodily Empathy, and the Viewing Experience, Paul McIntyre 7. "Playing the Clown:" Charles Mingus, Jimmy Knepper, and Jerry Maguire, Krin Gabbard Ontologies of Media8. Seeking Resolution: John Coltrane, Myth, and the Audio-Visual, Tony Whyton 9. Screening the Event: Watching Miles Davis's "My Funny Valentine", Nicholas Gebhardt 10. Play it again, Duke: Jazz Performance, Improvisation, and the Construction of Spontaneity, Björn Heile Selected ResourcesAuthor BiographiesIndex

Watching Jazz is an enlightening and enjoyable book. Well written and well edited, these chapters speak to each other, and contrasting viewpoints come across as alternative understandings rather than conflicting standpoints. I recommend this book to any jazz, media, or social history scholars seeking to explore new ways in which to think about the production and reception of jazz, or the ways that the music and audiovisual presentation developed in tandem. Watching Jazz is a timely collection, as it builds upon recent scholarship (by Elsdon, Brian Harker, Katz, Jed Rasula, Gabriel Solis, Catherine Tackley, Keith Waters, and others) about the role of audio recording in jazz, and expands this scholarship by showing how the visual element directs viewers towards aspects of the music, which in turn allows them to see and hear elements of jazz more clearly.