Africanness in action : essentialism and musical imaginations of Africa in Brazil /

Africanness in action : essentialism and musical imaginations of Africa in Brazil /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Diaz, Juan Diego, author.
Imprint:	New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.
Description:	xi, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	Currents in Latin American & Iberian music Currents in Latin American & Iberian music.
Subject:	Music -- Brazil -- Bahia (State) -- History and criticism. Music -- Brazil -- Bahia (State) -- African influences. Blacks -- Brazil -- Bahia (State) -- Music -- History and criticism. Blacks. Music. Music -- African influences. Brazil -- Bahia (State) Criticism, interpretation, etc. Music.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12575130

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780197549551 0197549551 9780197549568 019754956X 9780197549582
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"This book discusses how musicians from Bahia, an emblematic African diasporic location in northeastern Brazil, think about, discuss, compose, rehearse, perform, and stage music inspired by what they perceive to be their own African ancestry. It argues that these musicians assert Afro-Brazilian identities and connect to the African continent and other diasporic places by creatively engaging essentialized notions about African music and culture: instead of mechanically reproducing these tropes, they emphasize them or downplay them. The book theorizes these preconceived notions about African music, culture, and performance as tropes of Africanness, emphasizing that they exist in two interrelated realms: as essentialist ideas in discourse and as concrete practices and sounds. Six commonly encountered tropes of African music are analyzed: the notions that its most important parameter is rhythm and that it is dominated by percussion; that it is meant to be danced to or deeply embodied rather than intellectualized; that it always touches on the sacred; that it is spontaneous and improvisatory; and that it reflects communalism rather than individualism. Through four case studies from Bahia (a jazz big band called Orkestra Rumpilezz, a symphony orchestra called the Orquestra Afrosinfônica, and two berimbau orchestras led by capoeira practitioners), the book demonstrates the nuances of musical creation in the African diaspora, acknowledging the genuine impact that essentialisms have on Bahian music while showing that they may not be an essential part of the musicians' African roots"--
Other form:	Online version: Diaz, Juan Diego, Africanness in action New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. 9780197549582

Description
Summary:	When many people think of African music, the first ideas that come to mind are often of rhythm, drums, and dancing. These perceptions are rooted in emblematic African and African-derived genres such as West African drumming, funk, salsa, or samba and, more importantly, essentialized notions about Africa which have been fueled over centuries of contact between the "West," Africa, and the African diaspora. These notions, of course, tend to reduce and often portray Africa and the diaspora as primitive, exotic, and monolithic. In Africanness in Action, author Juan Diego Díaz explores this dynamic through the perspectives of Black musicians in Bahia, Brazil, a site imagined by many as a diasporic epicenter of African survivals and purity. Black musicians from Bahia, Díaz argues, assert Afro-Brazilian identities, promote social change, and critique racial inequality by creatively engaging essentialized tropes about African music and culture. Instead of reproducing these notions, musicians demonstrate agency by strategically emphasizing or downplaying them.
Physical Description:	xi, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780197549551 0197549551 9780197549568 019754956X 9780197549582