Hot, cool and gone in the twenty-first century: Black male identity and the embodiment of early jazz improvisation

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the expiration of a historical ‘cool’ has been conspicuous among African American men, evidenced by a performance of cool that signals extreme self-importance and excess, in lieu of authenticity and improvisation. The former behaviours, heightened among athletes, musicians and media figures, emerge when black males transcend racial, sexual and class identities. From Kanye West to Chris Brown and the sports players Richard Sherman and Tiger Woods, there exists tension in the display of supremeness, masculinity and dandyism. In the last century, African American males entered and influenced mainstream culture through the expressive art of jazz and distinctive style. Thus, a case study of ‘hot, cool and gone’ phases in jazz will contextualize this modern turbulence in black male identity.