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About
A swinging cultural history of the instrument that in many ways defined a century
The twentieth century was barely under way when the grandson of a slave picked up a trumpet and transformed American culture. Before that moment, the trumpet had been a regimental staple in marching bands, a ceremonial accessory for royalty, and an occasional diva at the symphony. Because it could make more noise than just about anything, the trumpet had been much more declarative than musical for most of its history. Around 1900, however, Buddy Bolden made the trumpet declare in brand-new ways. He may even have invented jazz, or something very much like it. And, as an African American, he found a vital new way to assert himself as a man.
Hotter Than That is a cultural history of the trumpet from its origins in ancient Egypt to its role in royal courts and on battlefields, and ultimately to its stunning appropriation by great jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis. The book also looks at how trumpets have been manufactured over the centuries and at the price that artists have paid for devoting their bodies and souls to this most demanding of instruments. In the course of tracing the trumpet's evolution both as an instrument and as the primary vehicle for jazz in America, Krin Gabbard also meditates on its importance for black male sexuality and its continuing reappropriation by white culture.
The twentieth century was barely under way when the grandson of a slave picked up a trumpet and transformed American culture. Before that moment, the trumpet had been a regimental staple in marching bands, a ceremonial accessory for royalty, and an occasional diva at the symphony. Because it could make more noise than just about anything, the trumpet had been much more declarative than musical for most of its history. Around 1900, however, Buddy Bolden made the trumpet declare in brand-new ways. He may even have invented jazz, or something very much like it. And, as an African American, he found a vital new way to assert himself as a man.
Hotter Than That is a cultural history of the trumpet from its origins in ancient Egypt to its role in royal courts and on battlefields, and ultimately to its stunning appropriation by great jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis. The book also looks at how trumpets have been manufactured over the centuries and at the price that artists have paid for devoting their bodies and souls to this most demanding of instruments. In the course of tracing the trumpet's evolution both as an instrument and as the primary vehicle for jazz in America, Krin Gabbard also meditates on its importance for black male sexuality and its continuing reappropriation by white culture.
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Reviews
"The trumpet is the quintessentially all-American musical instrument--the one whose clarion tones proclaim our national character--and Krin Gabbard's Hotter Than That, an engagingly written, admirably concise study of its place in American popular culture, goes a long way toward explaining why the trumpet and its best-known players have set down such deep roots in our collective imagination."
Terry Teachout
"Krin Gabbard's thoroughly absorbing and original account of the trumpet in jazz and American life--written with a disarmingly anecdotal ease that should be the envy of any writer--argues that this ancient brass instrument didn't achieve its true potential until it was taken up by African American musicians in the early years of the twentieth century. His argument is as entertaining as it is unass
Gary Giddins
"What makes Hotter than That such an enjoyable read is that the author does many things very well in a comparatively short space. Hotter than That is a concise contemplation of the jazz trumpet from every angle: technological, cultural, historical, musical, artistic - and even psychological. For the first time we have a highly-readable survey of the horn by an author who is both a superior resear
Will Friedwald, jazz critic for The New York Sun