Jazz Geek

Jam

Jam is a passionate tale of money-hungry musicians, sleazy record companies, over-adoring fans, the majesty of jazz, and ultimately, a creative soul who is true to himself and to his art.

Geek Rock

Geek Rock: An Exploration of Music and Subculture examines the relationship between geek culture and popular music, tracing a history from the late 1960s to the present day. The term “geek rock” refers to forms of popular music that celebrate all things campy, kitschy, and quirky. In this collection of essays, contributors explore the evolution of this music genre, from writing songs about poodles, girls, monster movies, and outer space to just what it means to be “white and nerdy.” Editors Alex DiBlasi and Victoria Willis have gathered eleven essays from across the world, covering every facet of geek culture from its earliest influences, including Frank ZappaCaptain BeefheartDevoThey Might Be GiantsWeird Al YankovicPresent-day advocates of “Nerdcore” Geek Rock offers a working history of this subgenre, which has finally begun to come under academic study. The essays take a variety of scholarly approaches, encompassing musicology, race, gender studies, sociology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Geek Rock will be of interest to readers of all backgrounds: music scholars, college and university professors, sociologists, and die-hard fans.

The performer is an impassive woman, clad in a scarlet cocktail jacket and short black skirt, poised at the pedals in perilous high heels, looking bored but very correct. Vicki Aram is freakishly young-looking 55: beautiful in a hard, huge-eyed, heavily made-up way. Her voice is high and ethereal. "I was born in County Durham. My parents were music-hall entertainers. I learnt the piano when I was a young girl and, although I hated it, my mother-a remarkable woman-considered it as important a part of my education as cleaning bathrooms and washing clothes." Vicky's CV reads like an A to Z of London hotels, with the occasional, now defunct, jazz venue thrown in. But her voice, which I heard on tape, is pure jazz, fragile, melancholy, tremulous as a softer Billie Holliday. She sings like she's from Harlem, like she's black. Superbly. The Sunday Times FEB. 1991