Bücher der Reihe Jazz Under State Socialism

Jazz has never been simply music. From its very inception, jazz has been imbued with social meaning. This is what makes this kind of music an interesting field of study not only for the music historian, but also for the sociologist and the cultural historian. This title deals with this music.

Jazz brought challenges in the areas of racial issues, the politics of the Cold War between East and West, and in the exploration of boundaries of artistic freedom. This volume deals with the impact of these changes on the career development of jazz musicians - even beyond 1989 - in terms of various phenomena.

This book studies the different roles that jazz played in Poland in the course of the 20th century. Igor Pietraszewski, sociologist and jazz musician, depicts how jazz was forbidden under Stalin, accepted and even supported in the Polish People's Republic and then welcomed in the open market of the Third Republic.

During the Cold War, jazz became a cultural weapon that was employed by both sides. In the Eastern Bloc countries, new jazz scenes emerged. This volume explores the history and roles of jazz in Poland, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic States by means of several case studies.

Jazz in der DDR war vielfältig, subversiv und oft nonkonform. Besonders in Jazzklubs, die überall im Land verstärkt ab den 1970er Jahren ins Leben gerufen worden, manifestierten sich beständige Reibungspunkte zwischen Staat und jungen Jazzbegeisterten, die eigensinnig ihre Musik hören, aufführen und veranstalten wollten. Jazz galt für seine Anhängerinnen und Anhänger dabei als eine Art Lebensentwurf neben statt gegen den SED-Staat.Anhand einer breiten Regionalstudie der Jazzszenen im damaligen Thüringer Raum untersucht das Buch mittels Zugängen aus Biografieforschung, Kulturtransfer und Alltagsgeschichte soziale Kontexte, musikalische Aneignungsformen sowie kulturbehördliche Kontrollstrukturen und das vielfältige Vorgehen der Staatssicherheit gegen Jazzmusik und Akteure zur Zeit der DDR.

This volume undertakes a comprehensive examination of issues of translation, adaptation, and intertextuality in Hungarian popular music. Focusing on the period of state socialism, the authors provide various examples of how musicians ¿ professionals and amateurs alike ¿ borrowed songs from distant times and places, reinventing them in a new political, technological, and esthetic environment. The case studies deal with a wide range of genresand styles that played an important role in Hungary, such as operetta, protest song, folk, jazz, pop, and rock. Placing the Hungarian experience in a regional context, the collection also gives insight into the music scenes of the neighboring countries through a major comparative study on the Beatles adaptations in the Eastern Bloc.