Joel Dinerstein

writer & professor
race, music & cool

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Jazz cool in the new millennium

January 22, 2019

Dublin’s Phoenix magazine features a monthly playlist and I was honored to create one aligning the current UK jazz resurgence with the US fusion of jazz and hiphop. Dig in here to hear the Sons of Kemet and Ashley Henry grooving alongside Kamasi Washington, Esperanza Spalding and the living New Orleans tradition. Sequencing the set made me nostalgic for my 10-year stint as the Monday morning jazz DJ on WWOZ-FM in New Orleans — but not for those 5am wake-ups.

Illustration by James Boast in The Phoenix.

Joel Dinerstein is the author of three books on cool, including the first history of the concept (The Origins of Cool in Postwar America), the first major exhibit of cool icons (American Cool), and a corporate history, Coach: A Story of NY Cool. My TED Talk, entitled "Why Cool Matters," can be found on YouTube. I am also the author of the award-winning Swinging the Machine, a theory of swing-era jazz and technology, and Jazz: A Quick Immersion, a short history and listening guide.

I am a cultural historian and Professor of English at Tulane University, and hold a Ph.D in American Studies from the University of Texas @ Austin.

In 2014, I curated the exhibit American Cool at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. American Cool featured 100 cool icons and 100 photographs, and it was based on my historical research.