Spiral Historiography. A balanced Alternative to teaching Jazz History

Jazz history is often presented in collegiate textbooks and classrooms as a linear, teleological, and chronological progression from one style to another. Some scholars have recently reacted against this pattern and have instead focused heavily on viewing jazz history through the lens of one or a few narrow perspectives such as race, economics, politics, gender, or similar topics. This paper argues that both of these approaches, taken separately, are flawed, and that therefore a more effective methodology might be to integrate the two by utilizing the abstract concept of a spiral. A spiral is a shape that, in three spatial dimensions, can have features of both cyclical or circular and linear movement. The combination of linear and circular motion can metaphorically be applied to represent both the linear-cyclical development of jazz styles and the linear-cyclical nature of viewing jazz history through a variety of topical lenses one after another. By applying the spiral approach to teaching both jazz styles and the various lenses through which they might be viewed, students can be taught to grapple with more complex historical narratives and to think more critically about how narratives are constructed.