[Scott DeVeaux will hold a book discussion and signing at
Barnes & Noble, in Charlottesville, Thursday, Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.]

			                                              
                                                          Jan. 16, 1998
                                                          Contact: Jane Ford
                                                              (804) 924-4298

                          THE BIRTH OF BEBOP

	As the influential mid-century jazz movement known as bebop
moves from being a cultural phenomenon to an historical phenomenon,
Scott DeVeaux, associate professor at the University of Virginia's
McIntire Department of Music, presents the story of its genesis in a
new book, "The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History"
(University of California Press.)
	"Today, as we approach the 21st century, many of the bebop
musicians are dead," said DeVeaux.  "As the music outlives the
lifespan of its creators, the cultural meanings of jazz inevitably
change."  Today the once-progressive bebop is viewed as establishment
conservatory music.  "It's important to understand it in the context
of its time and the perspective of the black musicians who created
it."
	One of a very few musicologists with a specialty in jazz
studies, DeVeaux applies a contextual approach to the story of bebop,
a central chapter in the history of jazz in the 1940s that influenced
all areas of jazz that followed.  Through oral histories and
interviews, critical musical inquiry and a keen look at American
cultural history, DeVeaux tells the story of this uniquely American
art movement.  Weaving musical examples throughout the book, DeVeaux
reveals the economic climate, racial issues and the jazz music world
in the decades leading to the civil rights movement.  As a practicing
musician, "I feel I have the tools to do this which a cultural
historian does not," said DeVeaux. 
	In the interviews DeVeaux discovered that the bebop artists'
music, careers and African American heritage revealed a more
complicated view than an "evolution or revolution" approach to
history.  The birth of bebop comes as a result of economic as well as
artistic decisions musicians made.  Looking through the eyes of jazz
musicians including Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie
and Thelonious Monk, he answers the question: "Why did the young
professionals of the bebop generation choose to abandon swing and create
a new musical genre?"
	The Nation magazine said of "The Birth of Bebop," "Like a cat
burglar in a caper movie, [DeVeaux] carefully makes his way through
the crisscrossing beams of artistic identity and commercial
imperatives, cultural yearnings and racial barriers, bourgeois
ambition and the burning need to Raise Hell With (if you will) All
Deliberate Speed. The fun comes in watching DeVeaux get there."  
	DeVeaux writes widely on jazz and is the author of "Jazz in
America: Who's Listening?" and co-author of "The Music of James
Scott."  He is on the editorial board of American Music, is series
editor for the Oxford University Press Readers on American Musicians,
and recently served on the board of trustees of the Sonneck Society
for American Music. 
                                ###
	For more information contact Scott DeVeaux at (804) 982-2946
or skd9r@virginia.edu. Television reporters contact our TV News Office
at (804) 924-7550.

	For a review copy of the book contact Amy Torack, publicity
manager, University of California Press at (510) 642-4562.

              U.Va. news online: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews