http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/jazz Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:33:09 -0400 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:33:09 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1901/the-jazz-ambassadors-intersections-of-american-foreign-power-and-black-artistry-in-duke-ellingtons-far-east-suite By Rebecca E. Coyne - Scholarly discussions of Ellington’s Far East Suite, a composition inspired by his travels to India and the Middle East, have tended to interpret its impressionistic depictions of the “exotic” either as evidence of a superior cultural sensitivity or as the straightforward continuation of a white Orientalist musical tradition. I propose a third view based on the overlapping and racialized power dynamics of jazz ambassadorship itself: Ellington uses conventional jazz tropes rather than absorbing foreign musical influences in the Far East Suite in order to assert the independent... Tue, 25 May 2021 09:12 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1901/the-jazz-ambassadors-intersections-of-american-foreign-power-and-black-artistry-in-duke-ellingtons-far-east-suite http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1704/jazz-is-my-story-a-historical-analysis-of-jazz-and-20th-century-african-american-literature By Anjali J. Misra - The period of time from the Bebop era to the present—mid-1940s onwards—has been an era of great cultural evolution in the United States, and in few groups more so than the African American community. A factor particularly significant in this journey, and one with which jazz music has been closely tied over the past century, is African American literature. This genre, more colloquially called black literature, has only been a formal notion since the Harlem Renaissance (from roughly 1919 to 1939), during which prominent black leaders sought to elevate black culture and status by producing... Wed, 15 Nov 2017 10:26 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1704/jazz-is-my-story-a-historical-analysis-of-jazz-and-20th-century-african-american-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1625/literary-repetition-and-revision-as-healing-harryette-mullen-and-suzan-lori-parkss-collective-solution-to-historical-trauma By Zeena Y. Fuleihan - Music functions as a source of healing in Toni Morrison’s Jazz, both to the bird who is inexplicably sad and for the broken relationship between Violet and Joe, the novel’s two main adult characters. The bird cheers up and regains its appetite once it hears music, and Violet and Joe begin to repair their love after a younger character brings a record player into their home. Borrowing from the musical forms of jazz, and more specifically jazz played by black musicians, Morrison structures her book as a series of solos from various characters, moving forward and backward in time to expand... Tue, 11 Apr 2017 09:09 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1625/literary-repetition-and-revision-as-healing-harryette-mullen-and-suzan-lori-parkss-collective-solution-to-historical-trauma http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/547/duke-ellingtons-jazz-narrative-of-the-african-american-black-brown-and-beige By Sawyer A. Theriault - Contrasting with the vague note-bending of the trumpet solo, the trombone plays a series of decisive notes, suggestive of a more strongly defined identity. The ostinato (repeated) solo-phrase of the trombone, for example, continually rises in pitch (between 5:16 and 5:25), creating a countermelody to the rest of the ensemble (Priestley and Cohen, 194). This antiphonal deviation between the trombone melody and the ensemble places the two sections in aural opposition. That opposition, or defiance, of the trombone’s voice contradicts the subdued voice of the trumpet, and provides an authoritative... Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/547/duke-ellingtons-jazz-narrative-of-the-african-american-black-brown-and-beige http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/542/jazz-writing-identity-and-multiculturalism-in-jazz-literature By Sawyer A. Theriault - By analyzing the thematic characteristics in The Amen Corner, the audience begins to understand the importance of self-identity in the play. In order to fully appreciate the relevance of Baldwin’s drama, the reader must first approach the important biographical aspects of the author’s life, which reveal themselves in his fiction. Perhaps one of the most important of these aspects was the absence of a supportive father figure in Baldwin’s life. His father, David “showed his wife and children little affection,” and as a result “Baldwin was timid and shy, and fearful... Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:09 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/542/jazz-writing-identity-and-multiculturalism-in-jazz-literature