Jazz Consciousness

Wisconsin Bookwatch, March, 2006

Jazz Consciousness

Paul Austerlitz

Wesleyan University Press

215 Long Lane, Middletown, CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

0819567825 $24.95 1-800-421-1561

Ethnomusicologist and skilled jazz musician Paul Austerlitz presents Jazz Consciousness: Music, Race, And Humanity is a passionate and persuasive essay postulating the core thesis that jazz and the worldview connected to it embodies an inclusive aspect, reaching beyond its African-American base to connect with all of humanity. Written from a scholarly perspective as well as that of a jazz player and music lover, Jazz Consciousness explores the widespread influence of jazz in music of the United States, The Dominican Republic, and Finland, among other nations as well as the immense contributions of individuals such as Milford Graves and Mario Bauza. An extensively researched and persuasively written accounting of the psychological power of a widely beloved form of music.