The New York loft jazz scene of the 1970s was a pivotal period for uncompromising, artist-produced work. Faced with a flagging jazz economy, a group of young avant-garde improvisers chose to eschew the commercial sphere and develop alternative venues in the abandoned factories and warehouses of Lower Manhattan. Loft Jazz provides the first book-length study of this period, tracing its history amid a series of overlapping discourses surrounding collectivism, urban renewal, experimentalist aesthetics, underground archives, and the radical politics of self-determination.
Essential Reading for Jazz Appreciation Month
April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), and UC Press is jazzed to celebrate! Founded in 2001 by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, JAM serves to recognize the collective influence jazz musicians, …
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