Free Action

Advancing the New Jazz Studies by focusing on questions of intermediality and cultural catalysis, this book demonstrates the role jazz played in the re-making of West German culture in the post-war era.

Andrew Wright Hurley is a Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and historian who has written widely on jazz in Germany and around the world, on popular music and contemporary German fiction, and on German-Australian colonial entanglements.

Introduction 1. Atmospheric Conditions Permitting: Germany's Second, More Enduring Jazz Age 2. In Phase: Jazz, the Spoken Word and Recited Lyrik (Poetry) 3. Drums, Trumpets and Memory: Jazz as an Ambiguous Stimulant for the Post-War West German Novel 4. Black Performers, Jewish Ghosts, and the Illustrated Travel Journal: The German Jazz Photography Album of the 1950s and 1960s 5. Hearing and Seeing Jazz in Film and TV 6. Visualising Jazz in Graphic Design: "Music Captured by the Retina" 7. From Freedom in Paint to the Jazz Action: Jazz and Fine Arts 8. Conclusion