A People's Music
Jazz in East Germany, 1945–1990

Chronicles the history of jazz over the complete lifespan of East Germany, from 1945 to 1990, for the first time.

Helma Kaldewey (Author)

9781108486187, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 December 2019

340 pages
23.4 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.67 kg

'Kaldewey's historical work A People's Music. Jazz in East Germany, 1945-1990 contributes valuable insights into the academic knowledge and discourses in the field of historical jazz research. She is providing a vast amount of new sources and rendering the topic of jazz under state socialism more accessible for international audiences, especially since research on jazz in the former GDR was mainly written in German-until now.' Martin Breternitz, German Society for Popular Music Studies

A People's Music presents the first full history of jazz in East Germany, drawing on new and previously unexamined sources and vivid eyewitness accounts. Helma Kaldewey chronicles the experiences of jazz musicians, fans, and advocates, and charts the numerous policies state socialism issued to manage this dynamic art form. Offering a radical revision of scholarly views of jazz as a musical genre of dissent, this vivid and authoritative study marks developments in the production, performance, and reception of jazz decade by decade, from the GDR's beginning in the 1940s to its end in 1990, examining how members of the jazz scene were engaged with (and were sometimes complicit with) state officials and agencies throughout the Cold War. From postwar rebuilding, to Stalinism and partition, to détente, Ostpolitik, and glasnost, and finally to its acceptance as a national art form, Kaldewey reveals just how many lives jazz has lived.

List of figures
Selected chronology
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. Jazz in Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–1945
2. Jazz in the Soviet Zone, 1945–1949
3. Jazz in the founding years of the GDR, 1949–1961
4. Jazz behind the wall, 1961–1971
5. The rise of new jazz, 1971–1979
6. 'A national treasure': jazz made in the GDR, 1980–1990
Archival sources
Appendix
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Jazz [AVGJ]