# Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film - Hardcover

by **Kevin Whitehead** (Author)

Jazz stories have been entwined with cinema since the inception of jazz film genre in the 1920s, giving us origin tales and biopics, spectacles and low-budget quickies, comedies, musicals, and dramas, and stories of improvisers and composers at work. And the jazz film has seen a resurgence in recent years--from biopics like _Miles Ahead_ and HBO's _Bessie_, to dramas _Whiplash_ and _La La Land_. In _Play the Way You Feel_, author and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers a comprehensive guide to these films and other media from the perspective of the music itself. Spanning 93 years of film history, the book looks closely at movies, cartoons, and a few TV shows that tell jazz stories, from early talkies to modern times, with an eye to narrative conventions and common story points. Examining the ways historical films have painted a clear picture of the past or overtly distorted history, _Play the Way You Feel_ serves up capsule discussions of sundry topics including Duke Ellington's social life  
at the Cotton Club, avant-garde musical practices in 1930s vaudeville, and Martin Scorsese's improvisatory method on the set of _New York, New York_.

Throughout the book, Whitehead brings the same analytical bent and concise, witty language listeners know from his jazz segments on NPR's _Fresh Air with Terry Gross_. He investigates well-known songs, traces the development of the stock jazz film ending, and offers fresh, often revisionist takes on works by such directors as Howard Hawks, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Woody Allen and Damien Chazelle. In all, _Play the Way You Feel_ is a feast for film-genre fanatics and movie-watching jazz enthusiasts.  

### Author Biography

  
**Kevin Whitehead**, the longtime jazz critic for NPR's _Fresh Air_, has written about jazz, movies, and popular culture for 40 years. His books include _New Dutch Swing_ (1998) and _Why Jazz? A Concise Guide_ (2011). His essays have appeared in such collections as _The Cartoon Music Book_, _Discover Jazz and Traveling the Spaceways: Sun Ra, the Astro-Black and Other Solar Myths_. Whitehead has taught at the University of Kansas, Towson University, and Goucher College.  

**Number of Pages:** 400

**Dimensions:** 1.2 x 10.3 x 7.3 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** May 01, 2020

## Details

- **Price:** 44.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 44.99 USD | In stock |

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- Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film - Hardcover

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