TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz.
Throughout American literature, jazz has been a storytelling tool. Writers like Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison didn’t merely write about jazz — they wrote with it.
Ellison’s Invisible Man pulses like a jam session, featuring solos of self-discovery and improvisations on identity. Morrison’s Jazz twists language into riffs and rhythms, her prose echoing the music’s call and response.
Both saw in jazz a metaphor for life itself: resilience, freedom, and creativity born from struggle. The music gave them inspiration and structure—an art form where individuality and community constantly shape each other.
Ellison and Morrison remind us that jazz isAmerica’s story: constantly evolving, always seeking harmony, and consistently speaking truth through rhythm and sound.
This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of ColaJazz and South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.