Definitions of jazz have been contested since the word first came into usage. Debates about what is included in and what is excluded from ‘jazz’ intensified in response to the neotraditionalism of the 1980s, and Scott DeVeaux's (Reference DeVeaux1991) influential essay ‘Constructing the jazz tradition: jazz historiography’ led many jazz scholars to reassess received wisdom about the music's history. Jazz/Not Jazz: The Music and Its Boundaries does not aim to present a definitive history of the form: instead it offers the reader, through a series of 12 essays, a range of diverse perspectives on jazz history, each examining different ways in which jazz has been (and continues to be) conceived of and historicised, and paying particular attention to what lies at its peripheries. While focused geographically on the USA, the subject matter is not constrained in terms of time period, musical genre, or cultural or ethnic boundaries.

The book is organised into three sections. Part 1 deals with categorisation. Eric Porter's essay addresses the relationship between jazz and jazz studies, ultimately arguing that scholars in the field may still have a lot to learn from practitioners. Porter also observes that jazz is itself historiographical, constantly engaging with and reinterpreting material from its own past. Elijah Wald determines that Louis Armstrong's enduring affection for the ‘sweet’ music of Guy Lombardo serves to illustrate the extent of Armstrong's musical understanding; he then underlines the wider appreciation of (and achievements in) ‘white’ musical forms, such as classical music and ‘sweet’ jazz, among African Americans in the early 20th century. Charles Hiroshi Garrett outlines philosophical understandings of humour, before developing David Huron's study of humour in classical music and describing five ways in which humour can be produced in jazz. Ken Prouty leads the reader on an intrepid excursion into the dreaded ‘bottom half’ of the internet, where forum discussions and Wikipedia edit logs are shown to be a rich source of information about how online communities – their own boundaries often a source of contention – negotiate the boundaries of jazz. Finally, Christopher Washburne addresses the reasons behind the marginalisation of Latin American and Caribbean musical forms in jazz, using the careers of Arturo O'Farrill and Ray Barretto as contrasting examples of how musicians can exploit or mitigate their own marginality.

The second part of the book is concerned with practices. In the most musicologically detailed chapter in the book (illustrated helpfully with notation and formal outlines), John Howland charts the development of jazz-with-strings forms, and examines the class politics behind their pejorative ‘middlebrow’ connotations. Daniel Goldmark documents the influence of John Dorn on the Atlantic record label in the 1960s and 1970s, and reflects on the implications of Dorn's signings (who often played instruments not typically found in jazz) on the genre. Tamar Barzel considers the importance of Manhattan's ‘downtown scene’ of the 1980s and 1990s, and its relationship to other improvisation-composition movements elsewhere in NYC, while Loren Kajikawa addresses the invisibility of Asian American jazz musicians relative to the African American musicians from whom they gained inspiration (both musical and political).

Part 3 focuses on jazz education. Jessica Bissett Perea discusses vocal jazz, charting the emergence of vocal jazz ensembles and the challenges which they have presented to jazz educators in terms of balancing jazz style with choral technique. Bissett Perea also addresses the (gendered) schism between vocal and instrumental jazz. David Ake argues that the importance of college programmes has been greatly underrepresented in histories of jazz, and presents four myths which undermine the role of educators in the development of the music. The book closes with an inspiring essay by Sherrie Tucker, who asks what is meant by ‘jazz’ in the context of (new) jazz studies – not as a musical form, but in a broader context, analogous to, for example, the ‘women’ of women's studies and the ‘America’ of American studies.

Jazz/Not Jazz is a coherent and cohesive volume: its central theme is viewed from multiple angles and, happily, the result is a panorama rather than a patchwork. While employing different research approaches and methods, all 12 essays maintain focus on the issue of where the boundaries of jazz might potentially be drawn. Moreover, common threads emerge between the chapters: for example, Howland echoes Wald's arguments about the reality of the supposed ‘sweet’/‘hot’ divide, while Howland and Bissett Perea both spotlight musical ‘feminisation’ (through strings and vocals).

Porter's opening essay contextualises the current position of jazz studies, while Tucker's conclusion looks to the future and suggests potentially radical changes in the field; the opening and closing chapters are related in such a way as to bring the book full circle, while also leaving it open-ended. Although the book is not primarily concerned with telling the stories of peripheral jazz artists and movements, this is an inevitable thread given the book's theme, meaning that even the most knowledgeable scholar is likely to encounter something new within its pages.

Inevitably, the work of Scott DeVeaux is cited heavily throughout the book. This is not limited to ‘Constructing the jazz tradition’: much of the work here also draws upon or responds to his later ‘Core and boundaries’ (DeVeaux Reference DeVeaux2005). One reference which is seemingly absent from the book is Simon Frith's ‘Is jazz popular music?’, in which he argues that ‘The question is no longer why “popular music” as defined by academics does not include jazz, but why the jazz world doesn't regard jazz as part of popular music’ (Frith Reference Frith2007, p. 13). This is a particularly surprising omission from Tucker's essay, which touches upon the ‘boundaries’ and differences between jazz studies and popular music studies.

Jazz/Not Jazz aims to place jazz and jazz history in a different light, in order that potential new avenues for research might be illuminated; it will be interesting to observe the impact that this collection of unusual, entertaining and thought-provoking perspectives has on jazz studies.