SOURCE: “Jazz Fiction: It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing,” in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 14, No. 4, Winter, 1991, pp. 61-66.

In the following essay, Moody examines jazz fiction from Dorothy Baker to William Kotzwinkle.

The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being played.

—Andre Previn

Despite its rich history, American origin and colorful characters with names such as Bird and Dizzy and Fats and Willie the Lion, few writers of fiction have entered the world of jazz. Those authors who have attempted jazz fiction have done so either by peppering their stories with famous jazz names—often wrong ones at that—or sprinkling liberal doses of what they consider to be jazz jargon in the dialogue. From...