Frank Kofsky (1935–1997) was an American Marxist historian, author, and Professor of History at

California State University, Sacramento California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

, from 1969 until his death. A musician himself, Kofsky also wrote several books on

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, mainly concentrating on the avant-garde of the 1960s and the relationship between musicians and the industry on which they depend. In the liner notes for the Impulse! release of '' The John Coltrane Quartet Plays'' (A(S)-85), Kofsky gives an analysis on the transition from bop to the avant garde as it relates to Coltrane's career.

Works

*''Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation'' (1993: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995). *''Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music'' (1971); expanded and revised as ''John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s'' (Pathfinder Press, 1998). *''Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the History and Political Economy of Jazz'' (Pathfinder Press, 1998). *''Lenny Bruce: The Comedian as Social Critic and Secular Moralist'' (Anchor Foundation, 1974).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kofsky, Frank 1935 births 1997 deaths American music historians California State University, Sacramento faculty American Marxist historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers