Research Catalog

Title

Jazz Noir : listening to music from Phantom Lady to The Last Seduction / David Butler.

Author

Butler, David, 1974-

Publication

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xix, 227 pages; 25 cm

Summary

Jazz has been associated with crime and immorality since early forms of the music were heard in the brothels of New Orleans and the gangster-owned clubs of the 1920s. This association encouraged the use of jazz in film noir, a genre preoccupied with tales of anxiety and urban decay, which flourished in American cinema during the postwar period. Yet, although the extent and nature of this "collaboration" has often been alluded to, it has rarely been examined in detail. Making significant use of archival sources and documentation, Jazz Noir seeks to correct this oversight, placing the films discussed in their proper historical context and utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that gives equal weight to the films--including such notables as Phantom Lady, I Want to Live!, and Taxi Driver--and to the indelible music that accompanied them.

Subjects

• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Jazz
• Jazz in motion pictures
• Film noir > History and criticism

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-219) and index.
• Includes filmography.

Contents

Kind of Jazz: Themes in the Study of Film Noir, Film Music and Jazz -- All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm: The Influence of Racial Myths, Dualisms and Ideology on Early Representations of Jazz -- Absolutely Functional? Jazz in 1940s Film Noir -- Touch of Kenton: Jazz in 1950s Film Noir -- The Last Syncopation: Jazz in Contemporary Film Noir -- Reminiscing in Chiaroscuro: Concluding Comments -- Timeline of Key Events in the Development of Jazz and Film Noir.

ISBN

• 0275973018
• 9780275973018

LCCN

2001054596

OCLC

• ocm48170869
• 48170869
• SCSB-14741430

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library