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Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz. By Todd Decker. Berkeley: Uni - versity of California Press, 2011. [xii, 375 p. ISBN 9780520268906. $29.95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.
For most, any mention of Fred Astaire conjures up an image of an impressive dancer who happened to sing popular songs on occasion. However, Todd Decker asks us to consider Astaire from another perspective. In Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz, he examines Astaire's use of jazz and his contributions to the world of jazz. Since Astaire was working at a time when jazz and popular music were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable, this project is no small order. Decker lays out how Astaire contributed to jazz by detailing how he focused on jazz throughout his career, how he worked with jazz artists, and how he reflected jazz styles in his dancing. This is his first book, though a second book, Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical (Oxford University Press, Broadway Legacies series), is expected in 2012.
Decker convincingly portrays Astaire as a performer whose main activity was not just dance and song, but who was dedicated specifically to jazz dance and music; so specifically, in fact, that if jazz were removed from Astaire's repertoire, little would remain. It is perhaps a correct assumption that fans of neither Astaire nor jazz consider him a jazz artist. While the first group may be happy to add jazz to Astaire's list of accomplishments after reading Decker's book, the second may remain reluctant.
Decker's work is divided into three parts. Part 1, "Astaire among Others," includes two chapters. The first, "There's a Differ - ence and Astaire Is It," compares him to other dancers and singers who were active during his career. The second, "I am a creator," situates him within the music-makers of...