Technology and the Stylistic Evolution of the Jazz Bass

In this valuable study, the bass and its technological mediation are shown to have driven changes in jazz language, musical style, and even transformed creative hierarchies in ways that have been largely overlooked. Peter Dowdall reconciles technology more thoroughly into the jazz narrative by detailing and evaluating the instrument’s eventual electrification as well as evolving recording and digital technologies. Dowdall convincingly demonstrates how the implementation of these technologies has transformed the role of the bass in jazz, and with that, jazz music as an art form.