Abstract
An assistant professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, Bertram D. Ashe discusses how the intersection of an African American cool style with a black vernacular tradition and multi-racial audiences complicates audience-performer relations. In the vernacular tradition, performers play not "to" but "with" an audience, drawing on the call-response patterns that characterize the black aesthetic. Ashe notes that the vernacular tradition is not racial but cultural, and class can be as important a marker as race in determining audience expectations. Differing cultural backgrounds create, in Ashe's words, "competing realities," distinct sets of expectations that can shape a musical performance. Ashe presented this paper at a Cyrus Chestnut Trio concert in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 16, 1998.
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1999
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 1999, University of Massachusetts Press. This chapter first appeared in Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin', and Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture.
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Recommended Citation
Ashe, Bertram D. "On the Jazz Musician's Love/Hate Relationship with the Audience." In Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin' & Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture, edited by Gena Caponi-Tabery. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
Included in
African American Studies Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, Music Performance Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons