[KS] Jazz in Korea

[don kirk]

There hasn't been a lot of criticism of the "pernicious" influence of jazz. The club you mention got crowds in the late '70's and 1980s during the Park and Chun presidencies. I don't recall crackdowns on jazz per se-- not seen as a threat as long as apolitical. Seoul FM, as one station was widely known, carried quite a bit of jazz. (I don't think "Seoul FM" is called that any more since there are so many FM stations.) 
Don Kirk

--- On Wed, 11/16/11, johnfrankl at yahoo.com <johnfrankl at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: johnfrankl at yahoo.com <johnfrankl at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [KS] Jazz in Korea
To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 9:05 PM






I have heard a few times that Josephine Baker also performed on the peninsula. 


A search for "jazz" and "cafe" in the online versions of major daily newspapers will likely turn up a good amount of information, including conservatives' bemoaning the pernicious influence of both keywords. 


Best,


John Frankl

--- On Wed, 11/16/11, Robinson, Michael E. <robime at indiana.edu> wrote:


From: Robinson, Michael E. <robime at indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: [KS] Jazz in Korea
To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 5:39 AM


Jazz came to Korea by the mid to late 1920s.  Paul Winfield's band toured a number of times.  There were sporadically Jazz features on radio in the 1930s but it was not popular in the mainstream sense of pop songs.  There were Jazz Tabangs in the late 1960s when I first went to Korea, but not as many as Classical.  

Mike Robinson

-----Original Message-----
From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of John Eperjesi
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 7:46 PM
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] Jazz in Korea

Hi Everybody, I just joined the group, so thought I should introduce myself.  My name is John Eperjesi and I'm an Assistant Professor of English at Kyung Hee in Seoul.  I received my Phd in cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon and published a book on U.S. imperialism in Asia and the Pacific ("The Imperialist Imaginary").

I am planning to interview the owner of All That Jazz, which opened up in Itaewon in 1976, and I understand it is Korea's first jazz club.

I'm curious, what was the attitude toward jazz in Korea in the 1970s?
Did the authoritarian regime see it as a decadent western import like rock and roll?  Who was into jazz?  So I'm generally interest in the politics surrounding the culture.

Any important Korean jazz artists from that period?

I did read that jazz came to Korea in the 1920s, so if anyone has broader historical narrative, that would be appreciated.

btw, I am studying Korean, but am far from fluent so unfortunately can't read Korean documents.

Thanks in advance!
John


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