ABSTRACT
The transnational turns in jazz studies and American Studies have both sought to challenge narratives of American exceptionalism but in noticeably different ways. While much of transnational jazz studies explores histories of different geographic regions, American Studies has been transformed through an emphasis on empire. By exploring the centrality of empire in transnational American Studies, and by noting the ways in which scholars of jazz have begun to think about jazz as an imperial force, I suggest that a new focus on the relationships of empire and jazz could help transnational jazz studies fulfill some of its disruptive potential.
