Defining and representing all that jazz: An ethnographic study of an African American music in Kansas City

This dissertation examines multiple representations of jazz music within the American Jazz Museum (initially named the Kansas City Jazz Museum) as well as in selected clubs and venues in the renovated 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District and the local Kansas City community. The original intent of the museum's Executive Board was to tell the story of Kansas City Jazz as the lived experience of its creators who resided in the 18th &Vine District. I examine the tensions and conflicting perspectives that surfaced between the founding Executive Director Dr. Stewart and the exhibit designers regarding the presentation, representation and interpretation of jazz in the museum. Underscoring this dispute were differences in opinion about what story of jazz to tell, how it should be told, and who should tell it. Should the focus be on national jazz masters like Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington? or on jazz legends from the local community? Should the storyline represent the perspectives of the designers, guided by the interpretation of scholars and journalists? or should the interpretative voices of the local African American community dominate the narrative? The ethnographic and Afrocentric approach advocated by Dr. Stewart presented jazz as a lived tradition -- one that reflected the social conditions, cultural traditions, daily experiences, and the voices of the local African American community. The national, institutionalized approach, promoted by the Wetzel designers, would present jazz as an artifact by focusing only on the faces of its exponents. From Dr. Stewart's perspective, blending the local and national storylines would dilute the representation and confuse the story of Kansas City jazz.;My study of the issues of the presentation and representation of jazz in the American Jazz Museum extended to the clubs in the 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District. Although these local clubs have commonalities with the Blue Room, the club at the American Jazz Museum, each differs dramatically with respect to who frequents them and why they do so. This research therefore describes social situations in which people construct, shape, and interpret the representations of jazz within public spaces.;This study also consists of a small-scale statistical investigation of museum visitor responses to the American Jazz Museum exhibits. Specifically, I am interested in the demographic characteristics of the AJM visitor audience and how people of different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds interpret the various exhibits and the accompanying ethnographic films.;The American Jazz Museum combined with the various venues in the renovated 18th and Vine District provides examples of how a musical tradition can be represented and interpreted through multiple lens and contexts.