Jazz Articles
By Dr. Mark Gridley

Is Jazz Popular Music?

This was the original manuscript for an article that was heavily edited by the publisher of The Instrumentalist magazine. It was ultimately published in its edited form in volume 41, number 8 (March 1987) on pages 19-22, 25-26 and 85. It won the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Educational Press Association of America for 1987.

Three Approaches to Defining Jazz

This article appeared in THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY, 1989, Volume 73, Issue 4, pages 513-531, and was reprinted in JAZZ: A CENTURY OF CHANGE: READINGS AND NEW ESSAYS, Edited by Lewis Porter (Schirmer, 1997).

It was developed from the “What is Jazz?” chapter of the Jazz Styles book by Mark Gridley (Prentice-Hall, 1978), An Outline of Jazz (copyright 1973 by Gridley), and a paper presented to the Allegheny chapter of The American Musicological Society on October 26, 1985 by Robert Maxham and Mark Gridley.

Misconceptions in Linking Free Jazz with the Civil Rights Movement: Some Dangers of Teaching Sociopolitical Context in Jazz History. (PDF download)

An in-depth examination of controversies regarding political origins for bebop and free jazz, from the College Music Symposium, Vol. 47, pages 139-155. Copyright 2008 by the College Music Society.

Perception of Emotion in Jazz Improvisation

An in-depth discussion of whether jazz is a reliable means for communicating emotion, including 15 studies on what listeners perceived in Coltrane's playing and what emotions Coltrane intended to convey, from pages 163-184 of Advances in Psychology Research, Vol. 62, edited by Alexandra M. Columbus; Copyright 2010 by Nova Science Publishers.

Trait Anger and Music Perception

Research evidence showing that listeners perceive their own emotions in music instead of perceiving the musician's, from Creativity Research Journal, vol. 21, issue 1, pages 134-137; Copyright 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group.

Are Music Perceptions Biased by Priming Effects of Journalism?

Research evidence showing how listeners can be biased by reading jazz journalism, from Psychology Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pages 55-60; Copyright 2010 by Psychological Publishing.