Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans
Richard Brent Turner
Indiana University Press
In his new book, Richard Brent Turner explores the history and                  contemporary significance of the popular religious traditions, identities, and                  performance forms celebrated in the second lines of the jazz street parades of black                  New Orleans. The second line is the group of dancers who follow the first procession                  of church and club members, brass bands, and grand marshals. Here musical and                  religious traditions interplay. Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New                  Orleans examines the relationship of jazz to indigenous religion and spirituality.                  It explores how the African diasporist religious identities and musical traditions                  -- from Haiti and West and Central Africa -- are reinterpreted in New Orleans jazz                  and popular religious performances, while describing how the participants in the                  second line create their own social space and become proficient in the arts of                  political disguise, resistance, and performance.