MUSIC
On Site, In Sound
Tropical Riffs
kirstie a . dorr
jason borge
Performance Geographies in América Latina
Latin America and the Politics of Jazz
In On Site, In Sound Kirstie A. Dorr
, E T I D ON S OUN IN S
PERFORMANCE GEOGRAPHIES IN AMÉRICA LATINA
In Tropical Riffs Jason Borge
examines the spatiality of sound and
traces how jazz helped forge
the ways in which the sonic is bound
modern identities and national
up in perceptions and constructions
imaginaries in Latin America
of geographic space. Focusing on
during the mid-twentieth cen‑
the hemispheric circulation of South
tury. Across Latin America jazz
American musical cultures, Dorr
functioned as a conduit through
shows how sonic production and spa‑
which debates about race, sexuality, nation, technology,
tial formation are mutually constitutive, thereby pointing to how people can KIRSTIE A. DORR
use music and sound to challenge and transform dominant conceptions
Gato Barbieri, Chapter One: Latin America (ABC/Impulse, 1973).
and modernity raged in newspa‑ pers, magazines, literature, and
film. For Latin American audiences, critics, and intellectuals—who
and configurations of place. Whether tracing how the evolution of
often understood jazz to stem from social conditions similar to their
the Peruvian folk song “El Condor Pasa” redefined the boundaries
own—the profound penetration into the fabric of everyday life of
between national-international and rural-urban, or how a Pan-Latin
musicians like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker
American performance center in San Francisco provided a venue
represented the promises of modernity while simultaneously posing
through which to challenge gentrification, Dorr highlights how
a threat to local and national identities. Brazilian anti-jazz rhetoric
South American musicians and activists created new and alternative
branded jazz as a problematic challenge to samba and emblematic
networks of cultural exchange and geopolitical belonging through‑
of Americanization. In Argentina jazz catalyzed discussions about
out the hemisphere. In linking geography with musical sound, Dorr
musical authenticity, race, and national culture, especially in rela‑
demonstrates that place is more than the location where sound is
tion to tango. And in Cuba, Chano Pozo’s and Dámaso Pérez Prado’s
produced and circulated; it is a constructed and contested domain
widespread popularity challenged the United States’ monopoly on
through which social actors exert political influence.
jazz. Outlining these hemispheric flows of ideas, bodies, and music,
Kirstie A. Dorr is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University
Borge elucidates how “America’s art form” was, and remains,
of California, San Diego.
a transnational project and a collective idea.
REFIGURING AMERICAN MUSIC A series edited by Ronald Radano and Josh Kun
Jason Borge is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of Latin American Writers and the Rise of Hollywood Cinema.
“Boldly investigating the post-1960 rise of political and social economies of South American music that anticipated and responded to the past, present, and future of colonial discipline, Kirstie A. Dorr works with populations that are too often left out of the narratives of hemispheric cultural activism. Dorr’s interventions are necessary and provocative, making On Site, In Sound a crucial and vivifying touchstone for the future horizon of U.S. Latina/o studies.”—ALEX ANDR A T. VAZQUEZ , author of Listening in Detail: Performances of Cuban Music
“Tropical Riffs is a dazzling transnational cultural history destined to galvanize the next generation of both jazz studies and Latin American studies. Erudite, stylish, and every bit as cosmopolitan as its subject, Jason Borge’s book brilliantly conceives of Latin American jazz as a thick cultural matrix connecting the music, film, journalism, criticism, and visual art communities of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, and Los Angeles. Few books have taught me so much.”— JOHN GENNARI , author of Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge
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S O U N D S T U D I E S / E T H N I C S T U D I E S / L AT I N A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S
M U S I C / L AT I N A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S
February 240 pages, 15 illustrations
March 280 pages, 13 illustrations
paper, 978‑0‑8223‑6867‑0, $24.95/£20.99
paper, 978‑0‑8223‑6990‑5, $25.95/£20.99
cloth, 978‑0‑8223‑6855‑7, $94.95/£79.00
cloth, 978‑0‑8223‑6987‑5, $99.95/£83.00
Available as an e‑book
Available as an e‑book