Nation Topics - John Szwed | The Nation

How Alan Lomax became the most significant Baedeker of America’s folkways.

Thelonious Monk was a more nuanced figure than the flimsy characterization of a way-out jazz cat could ever convey.

Is jazz really dead--or has it simply moved to a cooler location?
Four new books take a scholarly look at a musical genre that is on the
wane in America, but finding new life and new audiences in Europe.