This study examines musical and social processes in American popular music through the creative life of Pittsburgh born jazz guitarist Jimmy Ponder. I contextualize Ponders technical and conceptual approaches with a historical analysis of developments in jazz during the mid-20th century. In examining intersections between jazz and other popular forms of music during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, I aim to identify Ponders musical identity, which encapsulates the totality of his musical existence. In this study, I focus on relating musical sounds to social contexts and the processes that give these sound meaning. Musical identity, as a tool for examining the creative life of the jazz musician, is comprised of the individuals approach to their instrument(s), recording, band leading, performance, song interpretation, and improvisation. From these approaches develops a voice with which the musician creates meaningful musical experiences (authentic performances) as well as engages certain social realities in public contexts (affective collective listening).
Though I choose here to label Ponder as a jazz guitarist, a central goal of this paper is to demonstrate how his musical identity hinges on the discourse between jazz and other commercialized music born from the African-American social experience. I address such genres within the African-American musical tradition as blues, R&B, soul-jazz, and fusion and explore how Ponder negotiated contemporary musical contexts, drawing forth various stylistic elements from which he formed his voice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-11302006-194600 |
| Date | 23 January 2007 |
| Creators | Harper, Colter |
| Contributors | Andrew Weintraub, Nathan Davis, Akin Euba |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11302006-194600/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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