Keeping Time

Keeping Time is a collection of source readings on the controversies and critical issues of jazz history. Shifting emphasis away from the widely available facts on the lives and work of the major jazz musicians, it directs attention towards issues of reception and the meanings jazz has had for the people who have loved, hated, supported, and argued about it. Through contemporary journalism, reviews, program notes, memoirs, and other documents, Keeping
Time shows that jazz is about issues and ideas that have affected people deeply in a great variety of ways. Brief introductory comments precede each excerpt, explaining the context of the selection and pointing out issues for discussion.