British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): David Owen
Reviewed work(s):
Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture by Lewis A.
Erenberg
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 7 (1998), pp. 152-154
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060713
Accessed: 06/01/2009 20:00
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Reviews
Books
LEWIS A. ERENBERG, Swingin'
the
dream:
big
bandjazz
and the rebirth
of
American culture.
Chicago/
London:
Chicago University Press,
1998. xxi +
320pp., plates, notes,
index. ISBN 0-226-21516-4.
(hb.
$28, pb. $17)
Following
the
path
trodden
by Kathy
Ogren's
The
jazz revolution, Erenberg
sets out to
present
a
history
of the
swing
era, which focuses as much on the
reception
as on the creation of the music,
taking
the view that "at
key points
in the
history
of musical
creativity
and
excitement ... the audience interacts with
the creators of music and the musical
promoters
to determine the music's form
and content"
(xiii).
This
characteristically
precise
and
thoughtful
formulation
reveals
Erenberg's
determination not to
over-compensate
for "artist-centric"
histories of
popular
music
by ignoring,
or
skimming over,
the contributions of
musicians. On the
contrary, although
he
has little new to add to
existing
accounts
of
purely
musical
developments,
his
summaries of these are
thorough
and
garnished
with some illuminating detail;
for instance,
Dicky
Wells'
descriptions
of
the Basie band's
working
methods
(103ff.). Moreover,
the sociocultural
context in which this
(largely familiar)
material is
placed
lends it a fresh
emphasis.
Basie's relaxed
approach
to
arrangement,
for
example,
takes on new
meaning
in relation to his
equally
laid-
back
lifestyle (102)
with its roots in his
working-class origins
and
non-upwardly-
mobile
temperament.
At times
Erenberg
can be insensitive to musical
nuance;
for
example,
his
description
of Goodman's
delivery
of
swing
as
"uncompromising"
(65)
doesn't
acknowledge
the subtle
ways
in which the bandleader sweetened
and standardised the
style
for a mass
audience. Later on, Erenberg
describes
Miller's
"smoothing-out"
of Goodman's
own
style,
but fails to see that this is
just
another
(more audible) point
on a
continuum of
stylistic
transformation.
The author's view of Goodman is in
general rehabilitative;
it is
refreshing
not
to be treated to another
portrayal
of an
exploitative "King
of
Swing"
but to have
instead
emphasis placed
on his role in
promoting integration
within the music
business. However, it is
surely
disingenuous (or naive)
to
imply that, just
because black musicians such as
Benny
Carter "didn't much blame"
(74)
white
musicians such as Goodman for
taking
the available slice of cake, the musical
products
of this are free from aesthetic
ideological
contradictions. In addition,
the
cursory description
of rock-and-roll
as "another mixture of black and white
music"
(253)
hardly suggests
the
influence of
swing
itself on the formation
of the
style
which
supplanted
it.
The book's chief interest lies in its
convincing
account of
swing's
relationship
to the socio-economic
background
in the thirties and forties, and
of the role
"swing
culture"
played
in the
lives of
ordinary (and
not so
ordinary)
Americans. His central thesis is that this
subculture, arising
from the
radically
transforming
conditions of the
Depression,
came to
represent
a
utopian
model of democratic
pluralism acting
as a
focus for
young people
of almost all
ethnic and class
origins.
The outbreak of
World War II
placed
intense
pressure
on
the idealistic
aspects
of the
project,
as
-
in Glenn Miller's
disciplinarian
hands
-
swing
became the nationalistic
(and
overwhelmingly "white") representation
of a
fundamentally
racist
society.
In the
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 7 1998
REVIEWS: BOOKS
postwar years,
the notion of
"Swing
America"
finally
crumbled under the
weight
of
generational, racial and
ideological conflict, leaving
behind a
disillusioned but
energetic offspring
-
Bebop. Erenberg explores
this
process
methodically
from a number of
interlocking viewpoints;
those of the
audience, musicians, industry
and media.
A little too
methodically, perhaps,
as one
tires of the same
points being
reiterated
from different
perspectives but, on the
positive side,
this
approach yields
a
large
amount of
fascinating
information.
Particularly interesting
are the
personal
accounts elicited from
swing fans; for
example,
a
second-generation
Polish
immigrant,
who saw
swing
culture as a
way
out of the traditionalism of his
parents'
culture and a chance to "do
things
like
ordinary
American children"
(40).
One of the most
striking aspects
of the
book is its
portrayal
of the sheer
intensity
of fans' involvement with the music
(archival photographs
are used
constructively
to illustrate
physical
proximity
of musicians and
audience)
and
Erenberg
makes some
interesting
observations
(44ff.)
on the anti-
materialistic tendencies of the
swing
movement
-
a
pre-echo
of
hippie culture,
perhaps? Valuable, too,
is the material on
jazz
criticism. The
chapter "Swing
Left"
discusses connections between members
of the critical
fraternity
and
left-wing
ideologists,
and
provides
worthwhile
clarification that the
post-war "Moldy
Figs"
debate had its
origins
in the
previous
decade's
arguments
between
swing
"assimilationists" such as John
Hammond and folk
"purists"
such as
Alan Lomax.
By emphasising
the
cultures of
consumption
and criticism
which interface with the
sphere
of
purely
musical
production, Erenberg
takes our
perception
of
swing's significance
beyond
the boundaries established
by
such "classic" studies as Gunther
Schuller's The
swing
era and situates it
within the network of social
relationships
which
(partly)
determine the
ways
in
which all musics are
produced
and
consumed.
There are moments in the book when I
found
myself suspecting
that the
neutrality
of
Erenberg's
tone
disguises
a
certain commitment to the
utopian
project
the rise and fall of which he so
vividly depicts.
The book is
relentlessly
fair to contested
figures
such as
Goodman and
Miller; deadpan
in its
quotation
of remarks such as "the
juke
is
all-American, as
star-spangled
as the
flag,
native as the hot
dog" (165);
non-
judgemental
about
swing's
encouragement
of
fantasy; positive
about
the role of television and radio in
promoting
musical
"knowledge" (63)
(rather than
passivity)
-
to the extent that
one senses a blind
spot regarding
the
ineradicable (and
dangerous)
contradictions on which American
"democracy"
is based.
Perhaps
this
impression
is
partly
formed
by
the
very
material that makes the book so
interesting.
For
instance, the uncritical
presentation
of enthusiastic fans'
descriptions
of
swing
concerts
occasionally
lends an almost
propagandist
tone to the text, suggesting
that
Erenberg may
be
using "objective"
material as a filter for his own beliefs and
predilections. For
contemporary
ethnomusicologists,
this feeds into
debates
concerning
the use of "emic"
representations
of
politically-dominant
cultures. In other
ways, too, Erenberg
enters the
twilight
zone between the
disciplines
of
ethnomusicology
and
popular
music. His
general
view of the
ways
in which socio-cultural realities are
"encoded" in
popular
music
(e.g.
"the
anguished
and
languid
voice
[of
the
crooner] conveyed
a loss of faith in
individual
power
and male
potency
in a
153
154 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998 154 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.7 1998
hostile world"
(19))
owes much to the
concept
of
"homology", although
as a
historian
Erenberg
takes care to stress
more material factors
(e.g.
the role of the
microphone
in
determining
the crooner's
vocal
style).
At other times, his
statements veer towards a
faintly
patronising
idealisation of
popular
culture
("Free improvisation
let
girls
and
boys
break
through
sentimental
fagades
and fixed roles to more
independent
selves"
(51))
which also assumes the idea
that vernacular culture "encodes"
larger
social realities. Adomo
thought
the same,
and both intellectual
positions deny
a
degree
of
autonomy
to the
people
on the
dance-floor. On the other hand,
there is
something touching
about
Erenberg's
empathy
with his children of the
(swing)
dream,
and when he
regains
a more
objective
tone to describe their denouement
as the
paranoic
insecure
"grown-up"
of the
Fifties, we feel that we have borne witness
to a small
generation tragedy.
As for the
musicians, Erenberg
noticeably underplays
the
irony
of such a
hierarchical institution as the
swing
band
(one
recalls the
story
of Fletcher
Henderson's wife
trying
to "train" Lester
Young
to
play
more like Coleman
Hawkins) becoming
a
symbol
of social
egalitarianism.
Then
again
-
your
leaders
get paid
more than
you; you
do as
you're
told for most of the
time,
but
every
so
often
you get
the chance to stand
up
and
express your
views...?
Perhaps
there
couldn't be a better
representation
of
democracy
in action!
DAVID OWEN
Goldsmiths
College, University
of
London
hostile world"
(19))
owes much to the
concept
of
"homology", although
as a
historian
Erenberg
takes care to stress
more material factors
(e.g.
the role of the
microphone
in
determining
the crooner's
vocal
style).
At other times, his
statements veer towards a
faintly
patronising
idealisation of
popular
culture
("Free improvisation
let
girls
and
boys
break
through
sentimental
fagades
and fixed roles to more
independent
selves"
(51))
which also assumes the idea
that vernacular culture "encodes"
larger
social realities. Adomo
thought
the same,
and both intellectual
positions deny
a
degree
of
autonomy
to the
people
on the
dance-floor. On the other hand,
there is
something touching
about
Erenberg's
empathy
with his children of the
(swing)
dream,
and when he
regains
a more
objective
tone to describe their denouement
as the
paranoic
insecure
"grown-up"
of the
Fifties, we feel that we have borne witness
to a small
generation tragedy.
As for the
musicians, Erenberg
noticeably underplays
the
irony
of such a
hierarchical institution as the
swing
band
(one
recalls the
story
of Fletcher
Henderson's wife
trying
to "train" Lester
Young
to
play
more like Coleman
Hawkins) becoming
a
symbol
of social
egalitarianism.
Then
again
-
your
leaders
get paid
more than
you; you
do as
you're
told for most of the
time,
but
every
so
often
you get
the chance to stand
up
and
express your
views...?
Perhaps
there
couldn't be a better
representation
of
democracy
in action!
DAVID OWEN
Goldsmiths
College, University
of
London
STEPHEN JONES,
Folk music
of
China:
living
instrumental traditions.
Oxford: Oxford
University Press,
1998. xxvii
+
428pp.,
39
plates,
33
figures,
3
maps,
musical exx.,
glossary-index, notes, bibliography.,
STEPHEN JONES,
Folk music
of
China:
living
instrumental traditions.
Oxford: Oxford
University Press,
1998. xxvii
+
428pp.,
39
plates,
33
figures,
3
maps,
musical exx.,
glossary-index, notes, bibliography.,
CD. ISBN 0-19-816718-0.
(pb $29.95).
This revised edition of Steve Jones'
book, available now in
paperback,
has
two
important
additions (for a
comprehensive
review of the hardback
version see BJE 1996:
168-70). First, it
adds Chinese characters to the index.
Second,
and
perhaps
most
importantly,
it
includes a CD of
recordings
from the
archives of the Music Research Insititute,
Beijing,
and
by
the author as well as
commercial
recordings.
These
comprise
15 extracts from the two CD set
published
in 1995.
The
availability
of these sound
recordings
with the text
emphasises
the
inadequacy
we have had to live with so
long,
that is, having
to
rely
on notation as
a means of
trying
to communicate about
sound. Now that CD
production
has
become so
simple
and
cheap,
there is no
excuse for not
illustrating
books on music
in this
way.
Whoever would have
guessed
from the staff notation
(125)
that the
presto complex
metre liushui
(section
of
the Shanxi
sheng-guan piece)
would have
been so vibrant in texture and
glorious
in
its
energy?
These
examples bring
to
life
the
"living"
instrumental folk traditions of
the Han Chinese, whether we are
listening
to the
resounding
shawm bands of
rugged
north-eastern China or the sweeter-
sounding string
ensembles of the south-
eastern coast.
They
add
multiple
extra
dimensions to an
already superb
book.
References
China:
folk
instrumental traditions. 2
CDS,
AIMP/VDE Gallo VDE CD 822-823, 1995.
CAROLE PEGG
Department of
Social
Anthropology
University of Cambridge
c.pegg@newgrove.co.uk
CD. ISBN 0-19-816718-0.
(pb $29.95).
This revised edition of Steve Jones'
book, available now in
paperback,
has
two
important
additions (for a
comprehensive
review of the hardback
version see BJE 1996:
168-70). First, it
adds Chinese characters to the index.
Second,
and
perhaps
most
importantly,
it
includes a CD of
recordings
from the
archives of the Music Research Insititute,
Beijing,
and
by
the author as well as
commercial
recordings.
These
comprise
15 extracts from the two CD set
published
in 1995.
The
availability
of these sound
recordings
with the text
emphasises
the
inadequacy
we have had to live with so
long,
that is, having
to
rely
on notation as
a means of
trying
to communicate about
sound. Now that CD
production
has
become so
simple
and
cheap,
there is no
excuse for not
illustrating
books on music
in this
way.
Whoever would have
guessed
from the staff notation
(125)
that the
presto complex
metre liushui
(section
of
the Shanxi
sheng-guan piece)
would have
been so vibrant in texture and
glorious
in
its
energy?
These
examples bring
to
life
the
"living"
instrumental folk traditions of
the Han Chinese, whether we are
listening
to the
resounding
shawm bands of
rugged
north-eastern China or the sweeter-
sounding string
ensembles of the south-
eastern coast.
They
add
multiple
extra
dimensions to an
already superb
book.
References
China:
folk
instrumental traditions. 2
CDS,
AIMP/VDE Gallo VDE CD 822-823, 1995.
CAROLE PEGG
Department of
Social
Anthropology
University of Cambridge
c.pegg@newgrove.co.uk