Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition by Tony Whyton (2013)

Does jazz have a distinctive place among the arts and popular culture of today? Why, yes. But how exactly did this happen, since once jazz used to be anything but an art form for the majority of the general audience and both the jazz musician and the jazz fan were regarded upon as mere weird drug-addicts and bohemians?

By explaining his view on the matter, Whyton starts in medias res, so to speak, while opening the discussion of the subject with a scene from the movie Collateral (2004).
I guess we can forget about the movie immediately, but Whyton’s point is perfectly represented in a scene where the professional killer decides whether or not to execute a jazz musician since he is on his kill list. Offered a chance to save his life the jazz musician simply needs to answer a rather innocent question about Miles Davies; unfortunately, the question is answered incorrectly, and the jazz man is shot on the spot. His answer did not “fit” into the now popular canon, a heap of basic information on jazz anybody should be equipped with; a basic set of popular culture survival tools, so to speak.

Now…

Many indications from the conclusions of this scene are explored by Whyton, who is the right man to write about jazz and jazz appreciation in the media since not only is he editor of the Jazz Research Journal, he also is Director of the Salford Music Research Centre.
At this very junction of fiction, myth and representation of popular culture, i.e. in this case jazz culture, it becomes obvious that there actually are just a few “great men” who seem to have invented, fostered and changed jazz music, leaving out the thousands of unknown jazz musicians who cultivated this style of music and life.

And there is the ambiguity of the fact that these myths have become some sort of common knowledge and are part of a basic cultural vocabulary now; on the other hand, it seems that together with the information come the stereotypes. In this case, the stereotypical fictional movie jazz musician had to die since musicians not happy with their achievements simply either go crazy, or they die (to fulfill the stereotype).

Whyton enlarges basically on the role and genesis of the mythical, iconic jazzman and on the sound he/she still seems to emanate although long deceased; this makes the existence of recordings and their use as disembodied sound so interesting. Nevertheless, the jazz audience is obsessed with documenting the music, labels, artists and memorabilia.
Professor Whyton approaches this huge body of traditions and its hierarchy with a number of questions such as the nature of the cult-like adoration of the jazz icons, their follower’s willingness to do anything to keep certain myths existent and the development of a whole canon centering on a handful of (almost exclusively male) musicians. This has many effects on both today’s jazz musicians, the record label’s marketing as well as on the media that also – for reasons uncovered by Whyton – tries to keep a clearly defined set of features, expectations and roles for the art form jazz alive.

Since these topics also touch strongly on the subjects of my own study in more than one instance, I can absolutely recommend “Jazz Icons”.
As in my book,  Whyton here stresses the powerful influence of the writings of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray on the reception, myth building and canon forming in jazz appreciation.

(This text announces the first (and better affordable) paperback edition, while the original book came out in 2010).

Review by Dr. A. Ebert

Tony Whyton. Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition. Cambridge University Press (2013), 227 p.