All-Woman Jazz Bands and Gendered Beboppers: Gayl Jones and Gloria Naylor’s Jazz Fiction

Authors

  • Rocio Cobo Piñero

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, jazz has been identified with male performers and writers. Thus, the aim of this article is twofold: on the one hand, it underlines the significant role of women instrumentalists and bandleaders in the formation of a jazz counterculture, particularly during World War II; on the other, it connects the cultural meanings and the technical devices of 1940s bebop to Gayl Jones‟s novels Corregidora (1975) and Eva‟s Man (1976), and Gloria Naylor‟s The Women of Brewster Place (1982) and Bailey‟s Cafe (1992). This essay places special emphasis on bebop quoting, a jazz technique that has conventionally represented a site for the performance and signification of masculinity, but also allows female musicians and writers to deconstruct and question identity stereotypes associated with black womanhood.

RESUMEN: El jazz se ha identificado tradicionalmente con instrumentistas y escritores varones. Por ello, este artículo se propone un doble objetivo: por un lado, subraya el importante papel de las mujeres como instrumentistas y directoras de bandas en la formación de una contracultura del jazz, en particular durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial; por otro, conecta las técnicas del bebop y sus significados culturales con las novelas Corregidora (1975) y Eva‟s Man (1976), de Gayl Jones, y The Women of Brewster Place (1982) y Bailey‟s Cafe (1992), de Gloria Naylor. El presente artículo presta especial atención al bebop quoting, técnica jazzística que tradicionalmente ha representado un lugar de significación masculina, pero que también permite a las instrumentistas y escritoras deconstruir y cuestionar estereotipos asociados a la identidad/identidades de las mujeres negras.

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Published

2018-01-19

How to Cite

Cobo Piñero, R. “All-Woman Jazz Bands and Gendered Beboppers: Gayl Jones and Gloria Naylor’s Jazz Fiction”. Revista De Estudios Norteamericanos, no. 19, Jan. 2018, https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/4613.

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Articles
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