Now a quasi-universal musical form present in all five continents jazz developed as a result
of a complex process of cultural exchange making it a true product of cultural globalisation.
Moreover this is a globalisation which spread not only from the West (the USA) towards the
rest of the world but also between the different countries that make up the rest of the world
and indeed from the rest of the world back towards Europe and the USA. In this sense jazz
today is quite clearly a musical genre practised on a range of different levels be they
transnational supranational or even local. Jazz has generated new communities of amateur and
professional musicians in the same country the same city and indeed sometimes the same area
within a city. While taking shape around a strong local musical tradition such communities
have nevertheless managed to retain a transnational dimension thanks first to the presence of
foreign musicians and second to the global nature of jazz itself.The aim of this book is to
explore the local and global dimensions of these jazz communities from the of the musicians
(bands and multicultural projects setting up abroad...) the audiences (clubs festivals...)
and media (radios magazines record labels...) in order to understand how jazz the quinte.
