Publications
My dusty academic work that I’m very proud of!
Detention Barracks Blues: masculinity and difference in the music and biography of Lester Young
Abstract
Tenor saxophonist Lester “Pres” Young is often celebrated as a herald of modern jazz, an important innovator known for his highly sophisticated melodic approach and a tone that at once anticipated bebop stylings and paved the way for cool jazz. Young has equally been immortalized for his ‘originality:’ his eccentric personality; his hip and cryptic jargon; and the pork pie hat emblematic of his particular sartorial style. Yet Young’s canonical status in jazz history is shadowed by the legend of his ill-fated induction into the U.S. Army during World War II. While many believe Young’s dishonorable discharge for possession and yearlong sentence in a detention barracks was the traumatic beginning to a tragic decline that claimed his music, and eventually, his life, Young’s posthumous biographers largely work to refute this narrative. My project critically examines the multiple discursive constructions of Young’s identity, seeking to uncover sites of difference articulated to race, gender, and sexuality within the denotation of ‘original.’ This work considers gender in biographical and critical texts, historicizes formulations of racialized masculinity at the moment of Young’s induction, and explores the role of speech and voice in identity configurations, toward a goal of contextualizing Young’s enigmatic persona.
“Wir Arme Leut”: Undignified Death and Madness in Berg’s Wozzeck
Abstract
Images in Western art of the tragic hero meeting his end typically conjure Romantic topics of honour, stoicism, and transcendence, yet it is questionable whether these projections of artistic death translate to the lived experiences of the dying. The titular protagonist of Alban Berg’s 1922 opera, Wozzeck, experiences death in a way that starkly contrasts Romantic ideals. Wozzeck does not die the honourable, ‘masculine’ death that might be expected from a tragic hero; rather, he capitulates to madness, misery, and poverty. Spurned by those who socially outrank him, Wozzeck is condemned to a shameful death, his fate sealed by his destitution and the sanctimonious prejudice against his ‘immoral’ life. These considerations provide a fascinating starting point for an examination of Berg’s poignant representation of Wozzeck’s death — a death that reflects early twentieth century attitudes that shaped and stigmatized the death experience. In this article I will frame my discussion of Wozzeck by considering the history of death in Western society, particularly the stigmas surrounding the gender and class of the dying individual. This history will inform my analysis of the symbolism in Berg’s music. Detailed analysis of Wozzeck sheds a critical light on the social stigma and class structure mapped onto the suffering, madness, and death of Wozzeck and his lover Marie.
Lester Young & Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday's and Lester Young's friendship was a beautiful thing in both their lives. Both had to navigate very limited personas placed on them by the media.
Still Saying It Loud: Kendrick Lamar and James Brown
If you pay attention to the threads of music history, music and politics have a complicated interwoven pattern.
Pop & Politics
We all love to think of music as transcendental, magical, artistically pure, timeless, etc. But music is always affected by the context its creators live in. Exterior pressures on the artists themselves are written in along with the notes.
