{"id":94,"date":"2006-09-22T13:05:38","date_gmt":"2006-09-22T18:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-06-11T23:57:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:57:57","slug":"living-with-music-ralph-ellisons-jazz-writings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Living with Music: Ralph Ellison&#8217;s Jazz Writings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0375760237\/\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/61TFBTCMYPL._SL1200_-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"232\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-834\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/61TFBTCMYPL._SL1200_-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/61TFBTCMYPL._SL1200_-662x1024.jpg 662w, https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/61TFBTCMYPL._SL1200_-768x1188.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/61TFBTCMYPL._SL1200_.jpg 776w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><b>Ralph Ellison (2001)<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Ellison (1914-94) developed his love of music during his childhood in Oklahoma City, a bastion of Southwestern jazz in the 1920s and 1930s and the home of Jimmy Rushing, Charlie Christian, and the famous Blue Devils. As a young man, he lived with music, listening to it, analyzing it, and mingling with performers in the hopes of becoming one himself (he became a trumpeter). As editor O&#8217;Meally makes clear, jazz influenced both his thinking and writing. This fine collection consists mainly of previously uncollected jazz writings, among them &#8220;On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz&#8221; and &#8220;Homage to Duke Ellington on His Birthday.&#8221; These interesting and highly personal pieces offer details about a bygone era as well as insights into the formation of Ellison&#8217;s mind and the writing of Invisible Man and other fiction in which jazz and its processes figured so strongly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ralph Ellison (2001) Ellison (1914-94) developed his love of music during his childhood in Oklahoma City, a bastion of Southwestern jazz in the 1920s and 1930s and the home of Jimmy Rushing, Charlie Christian, and the famous Blue Devils. As &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/?p=94\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,13,8,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-culture","category-history","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/1140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mazamedia.com\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}