Jazz in American Culture

In his unusual new book, Mr. Peretti charts the birth and development of jazz since 1900 alongside the historical context that both contributed to and reflected this distinctive music. Three aspects of this connection interest Mr. Peretti: the music itself, the musicians who have played it, and the audience. Within these motifs, he traces the emergence of jazz out of ragtime just after the turn of the century, during a tumultuous period of urban and industrial growth. By the time the 1920s arrived, jazz was flourishing and had begun to symbolize the cultural struggle between modernists and traditionalists. As Americans sought reassurance and self-esteem during the Great Depression, jazz reached new levels of sophistication in the Swing Era. World War II encouraged rapid changes in popular tastes, and in the postwar decades jazz became both a voice of a globally dominant America and an avant-garde music reflecting social and political turmoil. Today, Mr. Peretti concludes, jazz may seem like a relatively minor part of our culture, dominated as it is by computers, video, "pop" music, and political movements. But, he insists, jazz continues to speak to all of us in countless direct and indirect ways.