Freedom Sounds

Freedom Sounds addresses the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, and develops a new framework for thinking through the relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism by carefully addressing the hot button racial and economic issues that generated contentious and soul-searching debate.

Ingrid Monson is the Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music, Supported by the Time Warner Endowment at Harvard University where she holds a joint appointment in the departments of Music and African and African American Studies. Her research interests include jazz, African American music, and the music of Mali.

1.: Introduction
2.: Jim Crow, Economics, and the Politics of Musicianship
3.: Modernism, Race, and Aesthetics
4.: Africa, The Cold War and the Diaspora at Home
5.: Activism and Fundraising from Freedom Now to the Freedom Rides
6.: Activism and Fundraising from Birmingham to Black Power
7.: The Debate Within: White Backlash, The New Thing, and Economics
8.: Aesthetic Agency and Self-Determination
9.: Coda