Human Conditions: ‘Black Music’ by Amiri Baraka

Close Readings

In Black Music, a collection of essays, liner notes and interviews from 1959 to 1967, Amiri Baraka captures the ferment, energy and excitement of the avant-garde jazz scene. Brent and Adam, both jazz critics, discuss Baraka’s intimate connections to major players in the scene, and how his work squarely tackles the challenge of writing about music. Published while he still went by LeRoi Jones, the collection provides a composite picture of Baraka’s evolving thought, aesthetic values and literary experimentation. Whether you’re familiar with the music or totally new to the New Thing, Black Music is an essential guide to a period of political and artistic upheaval.

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Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.

Get in touch: [e-mail]

Further reading in the LRB:

Adam Shatz: The Freedom Principle

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/may/the-freedom-principle

Adam Shatz: On Ornette Coleman

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n14/adam-shatz/diary

Philip Clark: On Cecil Taylor

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2018/april/cecil-taylor-1929-2018

Ian Penman: Birditis

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n02/ian-penman/birditis

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