Camping It Up: Jazz's Modernity, Reginald Foresythe, Theodor Adorno and the Black Atlantic

This chapter explores the work of the little-known pianist, composer and bandleader Reginald Foresythe (1907–1958) in the context of his unique critical location as a black-British musician within Anglo-American jazz culture and the African diaspora. Foresythe warrants attention for his highly influential yet neglected contribution to 1930s ‘hot’ jazz during a crucial period in which the rapid proliferation and commodification of recorded jazz meant that it increasingly became the focus of searching critique. In this respect, he stands at a fascinating conjunction of three intersecting critical discourses.