ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the argument for a strong relationship between jazz and black political consciousness since the early 1940s, and focuses on the limits of this argument. The rapid changes in jazz musical styles are clearly related to changes in entertainment venues, recording technology, and the processes of commercial organisation surrounding entertainment music. The chapter presents Leroi Jones' works which the author have drawn on to develop the foregoing account of the development of modern jazz in its socio-political context all bear the marks of the high expectations produced by the social polarisations of the 1960s. While Jones, Frank Kofsky and Ben Sidran correctly indicate some of the links between black collective consciousness and jazz, they overestimate the strength and autonomy of these connections. Consequently they overlook the parallels between the evolution of jazz and the other arts and the way these developments are related to a large cultural and social configuration.
