My paper will examine jazz music as a catalyst for social change, most specifically focusing on John Coltrane's role as a leader of the combined social/musical revolution of the 1960s. I will parallel performances of Malcolm X's speeches with live performances of the John Coltrane Quartet, examining the affects evoked between the two, and touching on performance theory and cultural contexts to compare the two figures' roles as leaders of the civil rights movement. I will also look at the affects displayed by the audiences of each performance, and how their reaction helped spur the national movement to social change.

In future research and essays, I wish to continue to look at jazz as a catalyst for social change, perhaps looking at hip-hop's role in a later cultural revolution, and how modern jazz as the emergent, is attempting to blend jazz with hip hop in a new cultural and musical revolution now called the Stretch Movement. I would like to examine how the politically and culturally revolutionary work of modern musicians such as Christian Scott, Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, and Avishai Cohen pushes the barriers of both music and society.

I would also like to explore, throughout, the affects found in music, looking at music as a "universal language" spoken fluently by the best of musicians. Jazz is all about feel, and the dynamics and phrasing used to play a sad song versus those used to play a triumphant one are parallel to the facial expressions we use when we tell a story. The dynamics create a range of intensity, and the phrasing, a tone. The way a groove fits a section, or how a syncopation creates a hiccup in the feel are all relevant in looking at the message a song tries to send. In these, we should find accurate characteristics of the musical tendencies (the musical facial expressions) respond to each affect, as experienced at low and at high intensity.