Seeing Jazz: Artists and Writers on Jazz

Improvisation, spontaneity, fusion, freedom, innovation. Jazz has always been about more than music, and the ideas and moods of jazz have sent ripples through every branch of the arts. Produced by the Smithsonian, this spectacular compilation is the first to look at both art and literature inspired by jazz. Seeing Jazz showcases the music's riotous liberating influence with over one hundred beautiful images, including paintings, photographs, sculpture, multimedia works, and textile art. Inspired by the rifts and remains of jazz, here are pieces by Romare Bearden, James Phillips, JeanMichel Basquiat, Gjon Mili, Henri Matisse, William Claxton, Stuart Davis, Ann Tanksley, Archibald Motley, Ed Love, Gordon Parks, Man Ray, and many others. More than sixty cool literary selections from some of the twentieth century's hottest writers complement and enrich the arrangement of artworks. With an introduction by Columbia University jazz scholar Robert O'Meally, this exhilarating concert of jazz, art, and literature will enthrall jazz fans, art lovers, and literary hipsters alike.

Visit the Smithsonian Institutions' site on jazz.