Jazz religion, the second line, and Black New Orleans [electronic resource] / Richard Brent Turner.

ISBN:

9780253004109

9780253353573

9780253221209

Title:

Jazz religion, the second line, and Black New Orleans [electronic resource] / Richard Brent Turner.

Author:

Turner, Richard Brent.

Personal Author:

Turner, Richard Brent.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 182 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Introduction : Follow the second line -- The Haiti-New Orleans vodou connection : Zora Neale Hurston as initiate observer -- Mardi Gras Indians and second lines, sequin artists and rara bands : street festivals and performances in New Orleans and Haiti -- Interlude: The healing arts of African diasporic religion -- In rhythm with the spirit : New Orleans jazz funerals and the African diaspora -- Epilogue : A jazz funeral for "a city that care forgot" : the New Orleans diaspora after Hurricane Katrina.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Jazz -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Religious aspects.

Jazz -- Religious aspects -- Voodooism.

African Americans -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Music -- History and criticism.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2009

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
305.896073076335 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In his new book, Richard Brent Turner explores the history and contemporary significance of the popular religious traditions, identities, and performance forms celebrated in the second lines of the jazz street parades of black New Orleans. The second line is the group of dancers who follow the first procession of church and club members, brass bands, and grand marshals. Here musical and religious traditions interplay. Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans examines the relationship of jazz to indigenous religion and spirituality. It explores how the African diasporist religious identities and musical traditions--from Haiti and West and Central Africa--are reinterpreted in New Orleans jazz and popular religious performances, while describing how the participants in the second line create their own social space and become proficient in the arts of political disguise, resistance, and performance.

Author Notes

Richard Brent Turner is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa and author of Islam in the African-American Experience (IUP, 2003).

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Turner (Univ. of Iowa) has written an outstanding study of jazz religion and the second line in New Orleans, the "most African city" in the US. This study is both personal and academic, reflecting the path chosen by previous scholars of vodou such as Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Deren, and Karen McCarthy Brown. The study explores "the historical and contemporary roots of the relationship of jazz to indigenous religion and spirituality in the culture and performances of New Orleans' second lines." Turner examines the history of African diasporic religious influences and musical traditions through the performances of African dancing and drumming in Congo Square and the powerful spiritual influence of the 19th-century vodou priestess Marie Laveau. The second lines comprise the musicians and dancers of the various Mardi Gras Indian tribes that participate in Carnival events and the jazz funerals of the city. Turner includes a fascinating comparison of New Orleans' second line performers and the rara bands of Haiti. He reveals how the healing arts of vodou helped him through the grieving process with his mother's death. The book has photos and descriptions of contemporary jazz funerals. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. L. H. Mamiya Vassar College