Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance and Critical Practice

Description

This is a study of jazz from two perspectives: as a cultural and musical form, and as the subject of cultural theory. If jazz is the most sophisticated, even cerebral, of popular musical genres, what can literary and cultural theory contribute to our understanding of it? By intermingling personal anecdote, observation, and conversation with jazz artists, as well as deploying the materials of cultural theory (gender, psychoanalysis, and so forth), Ajay Heble offers an imaginative tool for understanding what it is that jazz does.

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.

"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 fascinating new ways of looking at jazz history and articulating a jazz-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's best moments tread this sticky cultural line of right/wrong.."
-Hua Hsu, "The Wire