Jazz in Europe

Available also as ebook on: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/62658 Music Centre Slovakia in cooperation with Peter Lang International Academic Publishers presents a book Jazz in Europe, conceived as a record of how “new” (American) music changed on the “old” (European) continent. The “chroniclers” look at the history of jazz in individual European countries from a local point of view. Importantly, this book gives the reader a unique (con)text – for the first time Jazz in Europe provides a “bird’s-eye view” on the subject. It also raises the question what actually is the European context in each country. In the given form and scope, this analysis of the origins and dissemination of jazz on the old continent is unprecedented. Only an international team of writers, led by the distinguished writer on music, programme advisor and pedagogue Igor Wasserberger, could have produced this comprehensive study of jazz in Europe. As a pioneer of jazz writing in Slovakia, he concisely described the developmental forces in jazz in his previous book Phenomena of Contemporary Jazz. For the current book he has invited the Czech musicologist, writer and programme advisor of the Prague Spring Festival Antonín Matzner with whom he had co-written several books (Jazz Profiles, Encyclopedia of Jazz and Modern Popular Music). Matzner focuses on jazz in totalitarian regimes (Germany, USSR). The team of writers is complemented by Peter Motyčka representing the younger generation of authors. He supplied the chapters about Poland and Slovakia. Though members of national jazz communities may not agree with views presented in the book, a lively discourse that it can provoke might be its greatest “added value”. Jazz in Europe Contents 1. Dominant Features and Stereotypes of New Music on the Old Continent 2. Great Britain 3. France 4. Austria 5. Jazz and Totalitarianism: West and East Germany 6. Jazz and Totalitarianism: USSR and Russia 7. Switzerland 8. Italy 9. Hungary 10. Scandinavia 11. The Netherlands 12. Iberian Peninsula: Spain and Portugal 13. Yugoslavia and Succession Countries 14. Poland 15. Czech Lands 16. Slovakia