Customer Reviews (1)

Cool!
This book is for composers and improvisers who are interested in creating new music and are searching for tools and knowledge to do so.The author shows the musical elements - melody, rhythm, harmony and tone color - in their purest form and suggests ways in which they can be organized.Provides the needed materials, formats, and examples. ... Read more

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This radical new analysis focuses on Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans, among many other composers, and includes musical examples from the author's own work. ... Read more

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With his essays on jazz for a variety of publications, including The Atlantic, 7 Days, and The Village Voice, Francis Davis has established himself as a major voice in jazz criticism.In the Moment, his first collection, published in 1986, won praise from both the jazz and general press. down beat called it "a collection as useful to future generations for how it captures this moment in musical evolution as for how it alters our vision now." The New York Times Book Review compared it to "a well-blown solo."

In Outcats, Davis presents a new series of critical essays, artist profiles, and pieces that skillfully combine both modes. In the 1950s,Paul Knopf, a now forgotten and even then obscure pianist, coined the word "outcat" to describe himself as "an outcast and a far-out cat combined."In using a word originally meant to convey jubilant defiance, Davis recognizes its undertones of alienation and cultural exile.Some of his subjects are outcats because of their politics, drug problems, or musical iconoclasm.But Davis defines all jazz performers--"including the most famous, influential, and housebroken"--as outcats, by virtue of the scant recognition given them by contemporary society.

Like In the Moment, Outcats is an indispensible guide to the best in recent and reissued jazz.Davis illuminates the unusual aspects of famous performers--Duke Ellington composing an opera, for example, or Miles Davis talking about his move into pop--while deftly analyzing their music.His subjects range from the mainstream to the experimental, from the familiar to the forgotten; from Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Wynton Marsalis to Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, and Sun Ra.Whether challenging the portrayal of Charlie Parker in Bird or admitting to his own fondness for the rock singer Bobby Darin, Davis writes with wit, sensitivity, and candor.As Pauline Kael describes him, "He gets at what he responds to and why--you feel you're reading an honest man." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great essays on the fundamentals of jazz
Regardless of your familiarity with jazz history, its people or its forms, this collection of essays is great for the fan or the first time listener interested in learning more. Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, and Lester Young get scholarly appreciations, but so do Sun Ra, Henry Threadgill, Steve Lacy, and -- really showing the author's capacity for inclusiveness -- Bobby Darin, which isn't as farfetched as it seems. Essays are grouped into composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists, with a fourth section devoted to historical essays, encouraging the interested reader to explore more of a particular style. Davis assumes the reader will know a little about jazz, but his enthusiasm for his subject matter makes this book lively reading about America's most original musical form. ... Read more

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American composer, pianist and orchestra leader Duke Ellington was the first genuine jazz composer of truly international status. In this book Ken Rattenbury offers a thorough musical analysis of Ellington's works, assessing the extent to which Ellington drew on the black music traditions of blues and ragtime and the music of Tin Pan Alley, and examining how he integrated black folk music practices with elements of European art music. Rattenbury investigate's Ellington's methods of composition, focusing on works written, performed and recorded between 1939 and 1941, years that witnessed the full flowering of Ellington's genius. He also discusses the criteria Ellington used to select his musicians. After examining two early Ellington compositions for piano, he closely analyzes full scores of five significant pieces transcribed from their original recordings and including all extemporized solos and variations in performance. These transcriptions range from a duo for piano and double bass to compositions for Ellington's full orchestra.Rattenbury draws from Ellington's observations, and those of his orchestra, as well as from his own extensive musical knowledge, to provide new perspectives on Ellington's life and music, and the evolution of the jazz tradition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ellington for beginners
This excellent study of several Ellington's classical composition is very interesting for us who are not musical scholars but want to gain some insight in the mechanics behind Ellington's art. I suppose it will also serve as a great introduction to Ellington for musicologists who are not yet acquainted with his work.

Good and less good about this book
The good thing about this book is, that it tries to describe the style ofEllington through musical analysis documented through transcriptions innotes, and it shows how Ellington was influenced by blues, ragtime and TinPan Alley. We are though not told everything about Ellington as composer,as one might gather from the title. It is strange that the author doesn'tmention the tradition of categorization of the various styles of Ellington,nor do he explains, why he has ignored this tradition. The book must beunderstood as a contribution to the full investigation of Ellington ascomposer.

Jørgen Mathiasen, Musicologist and jazzhistorian, ... Read more

Product Description
This text is a sequence of biographical portraits of key jazz figures (whose innovatory work as improvisers ranks them with major composers), surveying important developments in the genre. Jazz was dubbed by Bernstein as "the only original American art form". Its fascination lies both in its musical innovations and in the rich social history to which it bears witness. That history is recounted here from its beginnings, through the lives of nine great jazz-men, each of them offering an individual contribution to jazz. All these musicians were great 20th century composers, but since jazz is essentially an improvised musical language - themes and choruses being merely a starting point for the solos which follow - it is in this sense that their composing should be understood. In the context of popular culture, jazz is also inextricably linked with the history of American blacks, from slavery to civil rights. This text is part of the 20th-century composers series, examining composers in a biographical context, and offering a comprehensive study of key figures in the creation of 20th-century music.None of the books in the series presume a knowledge of specialized terms or musical notation. Each book in the series features a list of works, a bibliography, and a discography.Amazon.com Review
Do "jazz greats" belong with the likes of Bartók and Puccini?The editors ofPhaidon's 20th-Century Composers series think so. This readable volumesurveys the careers of a dozen influential figures in the developmentof jazz, from BuddyBolden and Sidney Bechet toWyntonMarsalis and KeithJarrett. Author David Perry avoids an overly analytical approachto a largely improvisational art, while still marking the ebb and flowof jazz style over the decades. When it comes to the lives of his"greats," he is steadfastly honest in recounting theirfailings (personal and musical) without judgment. The only quibble onemight have with Perry's approach to his subject is that he seems tohave discounted the undisputed importance of a number ofnon-black contributors to the growth and development of this music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Right on Mark
Perry does an excellent job of telling a disinterested life of each of the musicians he proflies, from Sachmo to Miles.The plates are great.Anyone looking for a biography on the great jazz musicians should definately buy this one. ... Read more

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Provides an introduction to the life and biography of African American musician Duke Ellington, who influenced jazz and popular music. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A useful collection
This is probably the best book of interviews with contemporary jazz musicians in print. They derive from Ben Sidran's show on NPR, _Sidran on Record_; they date from the mid-1980s to 1990, & thus capture jazz during something of a resurgence as "classic" jazz become newly fashionable. But Sidran doesn't seem especially interested in following the neo-hard-bop line--Wynton & Branford Marsalis are interviewed here, but that's about it. Instead, Sidran is interested at once in the "classic" jazz players (most of the players he interviews are from the generation that came to prominence in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s); and also in emphasizing jazz as a pluralist idiom that feeds into many varieties of popular music. Thus he also interviews musicians like Dr John, Joe Sample, Charles Brown, Steve Gadd, Bobby McFerrin, even Donald Fagen from Steely Dan. He also touches on the avantgarde with interviews with Don Cherry, Archie Shepp & David Murray; & there are interviews with a few important nonmusicians: the recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder & Max Gordon, owner of the Village Vanguard. There are some marvelous interviews here--for instance, the one with the great Michel Petrucciani, where he sounds as joyous & rambunctious as on any of his recordings. Miles Davis is unusually relaxed--no revelations, but it's still worth reading. The interview with Keith Jarrett makes him sound as spacey & self-important as one would guess from his recordings. The interview with Don Cherry is an excellent memorial to an irreplaceable musician. Interesting to hear him talk about his & Ornette's hanging around Harry Partch, or going to hear a Stockhausen concert in the 1950s. -- Wynton Marsalis is mentioned several times by other musicians in the book, both positively (Betty Carter) & with doubts about his agendas & approach (Herbie Hancock); the interview with Marsalis isn't one of his most memorably opinionated & polemical, though it has its moments which will be catnip to Marsalophiles & -phobes alike. (E.g. the judgment that _The Birth of the Cool_ was irrelevant to the development of jazz & was merely "gorillaed into the history of the music"--a remark that is pretty crass in the context of a volume that also contains an interview with Gil Evans.) The Marsalis verbal tics & oddities of phrasing are well-displayed--e.g. the comment that the members of the Coltrane quartet "would just swing on the highest level of serious Negroid implication". The only problems with this book are a lack of an index, & the occasion mistranscription of a name (the bane of interviews). The transcriptions seem to be lightly edited, which is very welcome--I'm not a fan of interview volumes that preserve every stumble & hesitation. They read very well. For the record here are the subjects: Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Jay McShann, Red Rodney, Frank Morgan, John Hendricks, Max Roach, Willie Ruff, Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Horace Silver, Abdullah Ibrahim, Mose Allison, Sonny Rollins, Phil Woods, Johnny Griffin, Pepper Adams, Michel Petrucciani, McCoy Tyner, Max Gordon, Archie Shepp, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis, Rudy Van Gelder, George Benson, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Brown, Dr. John, Joe Sample, Jack DeJohnette, Denny Zeitlin, Don Cherry, Carla Bley, David Murray, Steve Gadd, Donald Fagen, Bobby McFerrin, Dave Grusin, & Bob James. While the book doesn't function as a serious historical survey, I think it's more stimulating & useful than any number of marmoreal histories of jazz. It's a book to set beside Art Taylor's _Notes and Tones_ & Nat Hentoff's old collection (if I remember rightly, the title's _Hear Me Talking to Ya_). ... Read more

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Never before in paperback: A rare eyewitness appreciation of a jazz legend

Bix has always inspired acclaim, for he was an unmatched master ofthe cornet. Ralph Berton was privileged enough to have been a fan-andyounger brother of Bix's drummer--just as Beiderbecke's genius wasflowering, before he died in 1931 at age twenty-eight. Listening frombehind the piano, tagging along to honky-tonks and jam sessions,Berton heard some of the most extraordinary music of the century, andhe brings Bix and his era alive with a remarkable combination of theexcitement of youth and the perspective of the five decades thatfollowed-decades that confirmed Bix's place in the pantheon of jazz. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Books should reveal truth, not spread baloney - I'd rate it no stars if I could
An earlier reviewer said "Berton bubbles over with cleverness."True- clever writing based on inaccuracies and half truths by all Bix's other contemporaries and the scholarly research done by others.
You'd be far better off reading Sudhalter and Evans' "BIX: MAN AND LEGEND".

The section on Bix's supposed Bisexuality comes across as Berton's fantasy /projection on Bix. Berton seems more fascinated with himself and his family than the subject of the book.

I think Bix, who was an easy going guy by all accounts, would have punched out Berton if he had lived to see this piece of tripe published.

Makes good kindling....

I've read dozens of jazz history books - this one's the best!
I simply could not put this book down, and when forced to, only thought of when I might be able to pick it back up again.Ralph Berton is an amazing writer. He combines colorful prose, great humor and rare insights into the soul of jazz, life, love and lest we forget, the tragic life of Bix Beiderbecke.

If you are a musicologist looking for studious research on this period of jazz, you will be frustrated by this book.If you treasure rich imagery that brings history to life, step into this wonderful time machine - and enjoy a guided tour of jazz culture in the 1920's.

one of my top 5....
i haven't read this in a while. i came across it in a little bookstore in san francisco, bought it and didn't put it down for a week. it is such an unbelievably rich experience. it does bear mentioning that the book doesn't wholly focus on bix. you end up not really caring. the portions dealing with bix are very profound and highly memorable.
ralph berton is a very sensitive writer. his ability to draw in the reader is formidable.
i loaned my copy to my mom, so i came to amazon to buy another copy.

Take with a grain of salt (and a slug of gin)
This book is essentially everything you wanted to know about the career, family and sex life of Ralph Berton -- oh, and then there's that guy Beiderbecke who keeps hanging around him.

Actually, it's not a bad evocation of a frantic era and how it ended.Berton paints some great word pictures of what it must have been like to travel with the Wolverines and party with a still young-and-healthy Bix.The skeptical or more serious reader, however, may speculate on exactly where the facts end and the fiction begins.

For a more even-handed bio, a better bet is Sudhalter/Evans' BIX: MAN AND LEGEND, which treats its subject with respect without turning into a dry listing of facts and dates.

Still, REMEMBERING BIX is a fun read for anyone in love with Bix, his music, and his times.

It's WONDERFUL......plain & simple!
I, too, read it a long time ago. I would have been crazy about this book even if I'd never heard of Bix. Every paragraph is a gem. Berton bubbles over with cleverness. I use expressions & phrases that I picked up from the book, every day! And like another reviewer, I would love to know what happened to Ralph Berton. ... Read more

Product Description
Jazz is thriving in the twenty-first century, and The New Face of Jazz is an intimate, illustrated guide to the artists, venues, and festivals of today's jazz scene. This book celebrates the living legends, current stars, and faces of tomorrow as they continue to innovate and expand the boundaries of this great musical legacy.
    
In their own words, artists such as McCoy Tyner, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Terence Blanchard, Charlie Hunter, Nicholas Payton, George Benson, Maria Schneider, Christian McBride, Randy Brecker, Jean-Luc Ponty, Joe Lovano, Lee Ritenour, and more than 100 others share intimately about their beginnings, musical training, inspiration, and hard-earned lessons, creating a fascinating mosaic of the current jazz community. 
    
Photographer Ned Radinsky contributes 40 amazing black-and-white portraits of these musicians doing what they do best—playing. An appendix offers resources for jazz education; an exclusive reading list; and the lowdown on those organizations and societies doing their part to promote jazz as a living, breathing art form. 
    
With an introductory word from Wynton Marsalis, a foreword by Marcus Miller, and an afterword by Sonny Rollins, The New Face of Jazz is an unprecedented window onto today's world of jazz, for everyone from the devotee to the new listener. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

great casual read
I bought this as a gift for my father-in-law but ended up reading it first. It's a great book to have around as one can just pick it up and read from it at one's convenience. There are insightful interviews from musicians I've heard of and from many I have not. Nevertheless, it's all great reading.

A missed opportunity?
On the whole, an interesting overview. But be warned! the title should be read as 'The New Face of United States Jazz', and some of the artists profiled are hardly 'new', and even some of the oldest, however worthy, may never become household names in the jazz house. To be fair, the subtitle is 'an intimate look at today's living legends and the artists of tomorrow.' But some might be tempted to say, 'today's living fossils', and all of the featured are artists of today rather than tomorrow: who knows where most of them'll be in ten years time? Largely gone and forgotten, one suspects. Also, some of the missing persons are puzzling. Why is Chris Potter not here? or Dave Holland? or David Berkman? Oscar Perez but no Danilo!.... I could go on. However, David Binney is here, saying interesting things as usual, as are Donny McCaslin, Charlie Hunter, the Mason brothers, Ingrid Jensen, Maria Schneider, and, probably the youngest, Esperanza Spalding (most of the women included are singers or pianists, of course, so I've cherry-picked a few important names who are not). These are of a younger generation but are hardly 'artists of the future': they are already well-established names! But they stand alongside old-timers of the likes of McCoy Tyner, Steve Swallow, George Duke and Phil Woods, who can hardly be considered to be part of any 'new' face. And then there's the rest of the world (yes, amazingly, there is a world of jazz outside the USA!). Any overview of 'The new face of jazz' must surely have to include all those Scandinavian, Polish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Indian, Japanese, Australian, English, and Scottish jazz musicians (let alone the vibrant scenes in Africa, the Caribbean and South America)? or are they just to be regarded as pale imitations of that 'genuine' American thing? I think not. In fact, as one of the musicians in this book says, the audience for jazz outside the USA is now more open to progressive ideas than anywhere in the genre's country of origin. To sum up, this is a disappointing and vexing book in many ways, but still worth buying for the occasional gems of wisdom and insight which are dispensed by those who have been included (by some largely unfathomable selection process), and a chance to encounter some new and very interesting artists. I'm off to listen to some Chie Imaizumi!

Staying True To The Artists.....
I was honored to be included among the artists profiled in this book and to be a part of the writer's holisticstatement of where Jazz is today. She didn't adjust or orchestrate the profiles, but maintained the integrity, the honesty of what was shared with her. We are real people, living our everyday lives, raising our families, paying our bills, who happen to make our living by writing, arranging, teaching, performing, perpetuating the music we have such a deep passion for. As a former studied musician herself, she understood us with an intuitive insight, knew what to ask, how to listen, how to present each of us in our own uniquenesses.

What a great overview of the many personal "faces" that show how far Jazz has come, of where it is today, and how it still plays such an intricate role in our American culture, our American story. Kudos to Cecily Janus for her artistry as a writer and as the sensitive messenger of our stories.

Great product!
Book arrived quickly and in perfect shape, and was even gift wrapped, which worked out perfectly since it was a birthday present!!Thanks!

Informative and personal
The New Face of Jazz is compendium of many of today's shining stars of jazz. Each entry features a brief analysis, followed by the artist's own words, describing his or her approach to music or making more personal observations. Artists of any genre or medium can learn from the artistic lessons of today's jazz greats. I admit to being less than thoroughly educated in the world of jazz, but I found the book both entertaining and enlightening. I listened to the music of those musicians I could find on Napster as I read the section on each, and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences of my life. I highly recommend this book, not just to jazz afficionados, but to anyone interested in music, or anyone pursuing their own creative path. ... Read more

Product Description

“The Jazz Ear will be a permanent part of learning how to listen inside the musicians playing.”—Nat Hentoff, Jazz Times

Jazz is conducted almost wordlessly: John Coltrane rarely told his quartet what to do, and Miles Davis famously gave his group only the barest instructions before recording his masterpiece Kind of Blue. Musicians often avoid discussing their craft for fear of destroying its improvisational essence, rendering jazz among the most ephemeral and least transparent of the performing arts.

In The Jazz Ear, acclaimed music critic Ben Ratliff discusses with jazz greats the recordings that most influenced them and skillfully coaxes out a profound understanding of the men and women themselves, the context of their work, and how jazz—from horn blare to drum riff—is conceptualized. Ratliff speaks with Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Joshua Redman, and others about the subtle variations in generation and attitude that define their music.

Playful and keenly insightful, The Jazz Ear is a revelatory exploration of a unique way of making and hearing music.

Customer Reviews (6)

very fast delivery!
it took only 2 days to get this book and it was almost like new.. so, very nice work!

rpm
If we were to know about the musicians in the book through interviews, it could be boring. The conversations style is very informal and if you listen to the music which the author heard to along with the musician, then you recreate that time for yourself. You will enjoy this book more, if you are still in the beginning stages of recognising music by the way of familiarity. There are some numbers like 4/4 which will require musical literacy.

Arrangement

Fascinating insights into the minds of jazz players
Normally when we think about musicians and "their music", we think about the music that they write, perform, and record. But author Ben Ratliff (jazz critic for the New York Times) decided to ask a different question. What do these musicians listen to and find influential? What are they thinking and hearing as they listen to the music? So Ratliff met with a dozen or so noted jazz musicians, asked them what tracks they'd like to listen to, and then relates to us the experience and conversations of listening to the music with the musicians. The result is The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music. It turns out to be fascinating stuff.

Though I am a musician and fancy myself a fan (though not a hardcore aficionado) of jazz, it quickly became clear to me that the plane these guys think on is just incredibly high. It is fascinating in its own way, though, listening to serious jazz players talk about how they think about jazz. My favorite part of the book, though, was the reference list at the back, where Ratliff lists each recording that he listened to with each of the musicians. It has been a great input for my personal playlist... so much to explore.

If you're a musician, like jazz, or just want to explore the minds of some great musicians, I'd recommend picking up The Jazz Ear. It's a short read, but quite worth it.

Jazz Is a Spacious House
Since I'm going to voice concerns about jazz writing in general, let me start by saying that I like this booka lot. I read it in one sitting and I underlined numerous passages to copy. Having said that....

Jazz is my favorite and longest held music, but unlike classical music, it suffers from a dearth of serious, sustained popular critical writing.There are exceptions to this statement, most notably Gunther Schuller's studies of early swing and Ellington. Some jazz musicians, principally composers and arrangers, have written at length on how to construct a jazz piece and do a solo. But most books on jazz today for a lay audience are either biographical or reminiscent in nature (John Szwed on Sun Ra and Miles, Andy Hamilton on Lee Konitz, Laurence Bergreen on Louis Armstrong, Bill Crow's hilarious and fascinating anecdotes about the jazz life) or journals and reviews (Whitney Balliett's Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1951-2000, Gene Lees's and Balliett's essays on various pop and jazz singers, countless collections of interviews). Even Gary Giddins's Visions of Jazz: The First Century, a book I like a great deal,is basically a collection of occasional essays, relieved by a few record reviews (e.g., of Hank Jones and Charlie Haden's Steal Away).

Ben Ratliff has been jazz critic at the New York Times since 1996. He knows the jazz scene, he knows his music and he writes sympathetically and perceptively about this elusive American music. This is a good book. I read it in one sitting. I had read it all it four hours after I picked it up and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Nonetheless, I was frustrated that it didn't do more than it does.

The hook in this highly readable collection of essays is that Ratliff asked a number of prominent jazz musicians to pick recordings, a maximum of six, to listen to and talk about with him. They didn't have to be jazz recordings. Several weren't: Wayne Shorter wanted to listen to Vaughan Williams, Pat Metheny to Bach and Ornette Coleman to a Jewish cantor recorded in 1916; Maria Schneider chose Martha Argerich's recording of the Ravel piano concerto in G major and Branford Marsalis selected Stravinsky and Wagner). One rule applied: they couldn't select a recording on which they themselves played. One musician, Ornette Coleman, refused to comply with that rule but then, Coleman has seldom followed other people's rules. Ratliff's idea was that in talking about others' music, his artists would reveal much about their own musical history, preferences and ideas. He was right. They did. The result is a set of fascinating interviews with some of the most important and representative artists in jazz today. In addition to the artists mentioned above, they include such luminaries as Bob Brookmeyer, Hank Jones, Dianne Reeves, Branford Marsalis Joshua Redman, Roy Haynes, Paul Motian, and Andrew Hill.

It's not a fault of this book to say that I wish he had included some other musicians. I would love to have heard from more musicians who live on the fringes of success -Roscoe Mitchell or Muhal Richard Abrams, for instance, from the AACM; soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, who seems to owe allegiance to no one except herself and has been woefully neglected b y listeners; David Murray, my personal favorite among modernists; Billy Bang; William Parker. And I hope someday someone writes about the European modernists, from Peter Brotzman and Evan Parker and Hann Bennink and Derek Bailey to Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Gianluigi Trovesi and Stefano Bollano.

Jazz is a spacious house. It's not to Ratliff's discredit that he hasn't spread his net wider, but I hope he keeps writing this series. And I hope that someday he combines his insights into this fragile, evanescent, glorious music and produces a capacious study of the music's sources, strengths and techniques.

For all music lovers
What a novel concept to take the world's best living jazz artists and ask them to bring five or six pieces with them to discuss.Then have a conversation about music and what is important to them in the pieces they have chosen.This will appeal to all music lovers, not just jazz afficionados, as the first conversation with Wayne Shorter describing why he likes Ralph Vaughan Williams's symphonies can attest.A great selection of living jazz legends - Shorter, Metheny, Rollins, Coleman, Redman, Marsalis, et al.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
When jazz musicians get together, they often delight one another with stories about the great, or merely remarkable, players and singers they've worked with.One good story leads to another until someone says, "Somebody ought to wrie these down!"With Jazz Anecdotes, somebody finally has. Drawing on a rich verbal tradition, bassist and jazz writer Bill Crow has culled stories from a wide variety of sources, including interviews, biographies and a remarkable oral history collection, which resides at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, to paint fascinating and very human portraits of jazz musicians.Organized around general topics--teaching and learning, life on the road, prejudice and discrimination, and the importance of a good nickname--Jazz Anecdotes shows the jazz world as it really is.In this fully updated edition, which contains over 150 new anecdotes and new topics like Hiring and Firing, Crow regales us with new stories of such jazz greats as Benny Goodman, Chet Baker, Ravi Coltrane, Buddy Rich and Paul Desmond.He offers extended sections on old favorites-Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, and the fabulous Eddie Condon, who seems to have lived his entire life with the anecdotist in mind. With its unique blend of sparkling dialogue and historical and social insight, Jazz Anecdotes will delight anyone who loves a good story.It offers a fresh perspective on the joys and hardships of a musician's life as well as a rare glimpse of the personalities who created America's most distinctive music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Jazz Anecdotes from A (Armstrong) to Z (Zoot)
Everyone knows who Armstrong is.Not everyone knows who Zoot is.But if you read JAZZ ANECDOTES you will learn that Zoot is Zoot Sims.Besides being a superb but underappreciated tenor sax player, Zoot was a fun-loving, witty character - as were many jazz musicians.JAZZ ANECDOTES collects hundreds of examples of the humor, high-jinks, and humanity of the jazz community - from the famous (such as Louis Armstrong), to the not-so-famous (such as Zoot Sims), to the now almost forgotten (such as Wingy Manone).(Wingy got his nickname after he lost one arm as a boy in a streetcar accident in New Orleans; Joe Venuti once gave Wingy one cufflink as a birthday present.)

The entries are arranged in chapters, either according to topic (e.g., "On the Road", "Cutting Contests", or "52nd Street") or individual musician (e.g., Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Parker, or Dizzy Gillespie).They are connected by unobtrusive but intelligent commentary by Bill Crow, the long-time jazz bassist who compiled the compendium.

JAZZ ANECDOTES makes for fun and informative light reading for jazz fans.It is perfect for the bathroom or the bed-side table.Here are a few brief samples:

*Shortly after Louis Armstrong's long-time valet Doc died, someone asked Louis what had been wrong with Doc.Louis looked at him with a sad face and said, "What was wrong with Doc?Man, when you die, EVERYTHING is wrong with you!"

*Lester Young had to hire a fill-in drummer for a gig.The fellow wasn't fitting in well.During a break, the drummer, trying to make conversation, asked, "Say, Prez, when was the last time we worked together?""Tonight", sighed Young.

*George Shearing, now 91, is the among the last in a distinguished line of blind jazz pianists.Late in his career, he, like many performers, offered CDs for sale in the lobby.He would pump them from the stage:"Remember, profits from these sales will go to help the blind.Not many of the blind, mind you."Shearing once defined "endless love" as "a tennis match between me and Ray Charles."

*A bum once accosted Al Cohn at the bus terminal and asked for a dollar to buy a drink.Al reached for his wallet, but then said, "Wait a minute.How do I know you won't spend this on food?"Al, of course, understood full well the yen.When a bartender asked him, "What'll you have?", Al would reply, "One too many".

*Between an all-day recording session and a night-time club date, Zoot Sims was sitting in a bar, complaining that he was exhausted and yet he still had a whole performance to get through.A woman offered him a Dexedrine spansule and, because she thought they were pretty strong, she suggested that he do what she did and "open one up and pour some of it out"."Pour some of it out!," exclaimed Zoot."Are you crazy?Don't you know that there are people SLEEPING in Europe?"

Laughs in Every Key
These are some of the funniest musician insider stories about bands on the road,club gigs, big concerts, band leaders, band personnel, instruments and all things related I have ever read. The stories span the Jazz years fromthe beginning to now and involve almost all of the most famous musicians, bands, and band leaders over the years.And they just keep coming in every organizational topic chapter he writes. "Put Ons" and "Great Lines" are among my favorite chapters, but there are many more.I read a little of it every night and laughed my way to sleep. Every jazz musician and jazz lover should have a copy.

According to the Recipient
According to my step dad, whom the gift was for...it was great. It arrived there a few days after his bday, but otherwise, he loves it! Thanks-

Q - "How Late Does The Band Play?"
A - "About half a beat behind the drummer."Or.Q - "How can a jazz musician end up with a million dollars?"A - "Start with two million." Or. Q - "What do you call a person that likes to hang around with musicians?" A - "A drummer."

Jazz Anecdotes by Bill Crow is much more than a collection of jokes skewed towards a jazz musician's cattywhumpus view of the world.It's even more than a collection of colorful war stories about life on the road, playing lousy clubs, and trying to keep a band together.It's really an insider's look at the world of jazz, and a wonderful one.If nothing else emerges from this book certainly one learns that only love could keep a jazz musician playing, given the obstacles of this lifestyle.

Fact and myth seem to bob and weave through these tales, which is perhaps appropriate.I am a little uncertain about Lester Young's claim that he started playing the sax only after giving up on the drums because he noticed that when a gig was done and girls were milling around the bandstand, the sax players quickly packed up their horns and left with girls on their arms while the drummer desperately tried to pack up and when he was done - left empty handed.

Jazz Anecdotes is rich in content, interesting for novice and aficionado alike.The careers of great individuals and the storied histories of seminal bands are examined in detail.What's fun is that some of the "legend" is worn off, replaced by the person.Jazz truly is America's greatest contribution to world culture, we should all be proud of it.It's worth remembering that the music is not a monolithic entity but an organic, dynamic thing - the product of a diverse and eccentric group of splendid individuals.Bill Crow's book takes you inside that world.

A Must-Read Jazz Book
I love every moment since I read this book. This book would take u on forever even if u're a craver for jazz music. It tells all the details from Wynton, Duke, Miles, Hirt, Coltrane, Bird, all of 'em right here on 1 book. Go get it or u'll miss out a world of good music. ... Read more

Product Description
John McLaughlin is a jewel among guitarists. After coming to prominence in Miles Davis’s experimental fusion bands of 1969/70, he became one of the early electric guitar superstars with his jazz-rock band Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971. In the years since then his career has covered a broad range of styles and genres. As comfortable on acoustic as he is on electric guitar, John’s music ranges freely through mainstream jazz, Flamenco and traditional European classical music, but always returns to electric jazz-fusion. A major part of his work has been the development of his own style of jazz fused with Indian music, and he was one of the first musicians to work in the now established genre of World music. This book presents a commentary on John McLaughlin’s music through his recorded works. It provides an analysis of his unique style and his remarkable achievements in both performance and composition. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1948, Betty Carter left her home in Detroit to sing in Lionel Hampton's big band. In the fifty years following, while the music business witnessed upheavals, transformations, and revivals, Carter held to the standards set by her bebop mentors. Even during difficult times, Carter continued to sing, nurturing a cult following that has steadily grown.
This book presents Betty Carter's contribution to the music world as a jazz singer, composer, arranger, and teacher. It also looks behind the scenes to show Carter's growth as a businesswoman who took charge of her career. In 1970 when major labels were hardly recording jazz, Carter formed her own record company. By the mid-1970s Carter's persistence began to pay off. After she won a Grammy in 1988 for Look What I Got, Carter emerged as a major force in jazz, as an exponent of the revitalized bebop scene, and as a mentor to the next generation of musicians. Her innovative approach to singing has inspired a whole generation of aspiring singers. In the process she helped spark the bebop revival.
Drawing upon revealing interviews with Carter, the author shows how ever-changing shifts in the music industry affected her life and influenced her music. He shows through his analysis of her musical examples how Carter absorbed various musical influences, from Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis, and made them her own. From her apprenticeship with Gladys Hampton, Carter grew to become a shrewd dealer who learned to do her own contracting, A&R, and marketing and distribution. By chronicling one of jazz's great singers and composers, the book sheds light on how early jazz musicians got their work to the public and how this process has changed during the past fifty years.
William R. Bauer is Assistant Professor of Music, Rutgers University.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

Window into the Jazz World
In 2008, a fascinating document of jazz history was revealed to the public: Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats, a collection of photographs of jazz musicians in New York taken by The Jazz Baroness, Pannonic de Koenigswarter (or Nica). In the 1960s, She 300 jazz musicians (the noteworthy, such as John Coltrane, and many others less known) what their three wishes were. The answers range from the profound to the pedestrian to the puckish to the prurient.

Two sets of answers stand out to me:

Saxophonist, Ornette Coleman:

1. Eternal life.
2. Love.
3. Happiness.

Pianist, Mary Lou Williams:

1. To love God more.
2. To do His will.
3. That he should save souls through me.

Think on these things.

Nica also photographed the jazz folk she loved and supported, using her inexpensive camera, giving the photos a raw, granular, and "you-are-there" quality. This unique book is a testimony to yearning, lament, and hope: a unique window into the jazz world of a generation ago.

There's ONE WISH that may tell the whole story
all the quotes are as expected with few exceptions...money, wisdom, health, excellence, family, playing, being remembered, growing, learning, etc... and then there's the ONE WISH from Miles, one wish that says volumes... about Miles, and perhaps about a history of the music and all theose who lived and performed it each day. great pix thru-out, but that one quote is what I will always remember. read it and think.

Great Inside Look
This is a wonderful piece of jazz history done in a very personal fashion. For anyone who appreciates the founding fathers of jazz, this book is a must - no brainer!!

Great Obscure Photographs From The Past
This is, of course, a collection of photographs from the jazz past. Though the images are not dated, it seems that most were taken in the 1950's-70's. There have been a number of books featuring pictures of jazz artists by professional photographers such as William Claxton and Herman Leonard. What I like about these are they are not glamour shots but for the most part they seem to be just candid poses that have not been published previously. The three wishes part of the book seemed to get responses ranging from modest hopes for better mastery of their instruments and more creativity to financial success.Of course most know that Bird died at the Baroness de Koenigswarter's Stanhope apartment. She has had many songs named in her honor such as Nica's Dream and Nica's Tempo. Some of the pictures included are of Pepper Adams, Cannonball, Art Blakey, Roy Brooks, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Sonny Clark, Klook, Trane, Junior Cook, A.T., Walter Davis, Jr., Diz,K.D.,Joe Farrell, Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, Bill Hardman, Barry Harris, Hawk, Elmo Hope, Philly Joe Jones, Wynton Kelly, Mingus, Blue Mitchell, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Miles, Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Bud Powell, Freddie Redd, Max Roach,Sonny Rollins, Charlie Rouse, Horace Silver, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Lucky Thompson, Bobby Timmons, Wilbur Ware. The preceeding is truly a list of greats and there are many I didn't mention. Go for it.

Three wishes. . .
This book is a great insight into the Artistic and "Down to Earth" Human side of these Great Jazz Artists. The late Pannonica de Koenigswarter had an affinty for jazz (especially Thelonious Monk)and for capturing the "True Essence" and sometimes "Spirituality" of each of the artists she interviewed and photographed for this book. It's an amazing book if not just for the candid polaroid's she takes of each musician. I would highly recommend this and also watching the DVD Straight no Chaser the kife documentary of Thelonious "Sphere" Monk, which shows a lot of footage of The Baroness and Monk's interactions and how she truly was a patron and a "Friend of Jazz and it's many wonderful Artists" of this time period. definitely worth the purchase! Thank you to her "niece" (?) who writes the intro. . . who was very instrumental in getting this book published. ... Read more

Product Description
This is Whitney Balliett's long-awaited "big book." In it are all the jazz profiles he has written for The New Yorker during the past 24 years. These include his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Mary Lou Williams, done when these giants were in full flower; his recent reconstructions of the lives of such legends as Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Teagarden, Zoot Sims, and Dave Tough; His quick but indelible glimpses into the daily (or nocturnal) lives of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus; and his vivid pictures of such on-the-scene masters as Red Norvo, Ornette Coleman, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Art Farmer, Michael Moore, and Tommy Flanagan. Also included are such lesser known but invaluable players as Art Hodes, Jabbo Smith, Joe Wilder, Warne Marsh, Gene Bertoncini, Joe Bushkin, and Marie Marcus.

All these profiles make the reader feel, as one observer has pointed out, that he is "sitting with Balliett and his subject and listening in." The book can be taken as a kind of history of jazz, as well as a biographical encylopedia of many of its most important performers. It can also be regarded as a model of American prose. Robert Dawidoff said of Whitney Balliett"s most recent book, Jelly Roll, Jabbo and Fats, that "few people write as well about anything as Balliett writes about jazz." And the late Philip Larkin wrote in 1982 of the "transcendence of Balliett's prose."Amazon.com Review
An earlier version of American Musicians appeared in1986. Now the author has added 17 essays to the collection,and the result is a highly personal encyclopedia of jazz history,written with Whitney Balliett's trademark lyricism. Few critics candescribe a piece of music with this kind of delicacy andprecision. And the comments that Balliett elicits from his subjectsare themselves worth the price of admission. Here, for example,pianist John Lewis goes right to the heart of jazz improvisation, andgives us a hint of what lays behind it: "When I take a solo, I try notto look at my fingers. It distracts me from music-making . . . I thinkabout other things, even other music. If you break through those mererules, destroy them, that's good, and it can become quite a marvelousexperience. It's not just sadness or joy, it's something beyond that,perhaps exhilaration, but that's rare." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

He Always Writes in Perfect Tune
I have been a musician and writer for over 50 years, and glory of glories, in Whitney Balliett's book, American Musicians II, he achieves perfect pitch in his prose when capturing the heart and soul of what music is, and the men and women who make it happen. His stories pulse with an energy that is seemingly boundless.Here is a man who has somehow gotten inside these legendary figures, some of whom I knew and many of whom I've heard in person. Balliett lets you listen through his own ears, giving you a guided tour not only of the notes on the page, and then as they take flight in the air, but also of the fascinating daily lives of these gifted individuals.I can't play like Art Tatum, but Balliett lets me sit beside him as he lays down his "perfect storm" of notes, at the end of which is this huge rainbow whose image we carry in our mind forever.If you love good music and good writing, you've come to the perfect book.Balliet is no longer with us, but he has left us a legacy that should be treasured for 32 bars unto infinity. Ron Levin, revronl@aol.com

Whitney Balliett's elegant solos.
If Whitnet Balliett were a musician, he'd probably be someone like Teddy Wilson, whose sometimes spare but dancing lines were always distinct, no matter the context. Balliett's musings on the more important jazz musicians, published originally in The New Yorker, are models of criticism that never betray his love and admiration for the music. It is unlikely that anyone will ever write as well as he has about America's most important contribution to the arts. ... Read more

Product Description

Jazz Notes is the literary equivalent of a remix CD-cool sound-bytes strategically crafted from Don Miller's classic Blue Like Jazz, combined with brand new material that offers the author's fans an inside look at some of the unforgettable-and outrageous-characters and stories from the original best seller. Jazz Notes captures the essential Don Miller with non-religious reflections on how Don's incredible spiritual odyssey got started; what happened to Don at one of the most liberal colleges in the world to help him experience faith and grace for the first time in his life; a recasting of Don's marvelous "confession booth" story; and how Don discovered the secret to really loving other people-and himself. Jazz Notes includes a bonus audio CD with Don Miller interview.

BLUE LIKE JAZZ Highlight Notes:

• 1 million copies sold
• 45 appearances on the NY Times Bestseller List-and counting
• A publishing phenomenon that continues to sell more books each year it is in the marketplace!
  

Customer Reviews (6)

The Human and Honest Christian
This book gave me greater courage to be truly honest before God, myself, and other Christians.

The Gift of Adventure in Faith
This is a specialty book, a little bigger than picket size, hardback, a good gift format, which is so popular right now.Miller here provides some personal reflections and background on the personal experiences and concepts presented in his earlier book Blue Like Jazz.

Miller is a refreshingly honest and personal writer.He has a self-deprecating style that will have you bursting out in laughter at some unexpected comment!He can portray his own inner struggle in a way you will identify with!

You can go through the experiences with him, and as he opens up his thinking process, you can think through the challenges and concepts that he was experiencing.Miller shares his safari of moral and spiritual questing and clarifying.He was a member of a church, but uncertain, and found some questions not being dealt with.He proceeded to learn from the world at large and reference that to his Christian background.

He found the figure and teachings of Jesus a continuing solid focus, which continued as a core of values and moral reference.His writing here is hilarious as he shares some of the unusual experiences he and some friends go through.He chose to go to a college known for its radical, antichristian attitude.

He wanted to explore the philosophical context and learn what was motivating some of these students.In this context, he continues to ask whether being a Christian makes sense on that campus or in this modern world.He and some friends take some radical approaches to implement the teachings of Jesus, as opposed to the standard church ideas of how to be a Christian.

For instance, he and his small group of Christian friends decided on a special activity for Renaissance Weekend.They decided to set up a confession booth, address as monks, and take confessions.Only this wasreverse confession.

They decided they would confess, as Christians, for all the current failures and historical sins of Christians in their society and through history.They approached this with trepidation, not really sure what this would entail or exactly how they would go about it.After they began the activity, it so surprised the first person that he went around telling everyone else and it brought about a reconciliation on the campus.

This puzzling, novel approach the young Christians took facilitated bridging a social gap and clarifying some misconceptions about Christians and the Christian message.Miller and his friends tried to bypass the old negative churchy conceptions by focusing on Jesus and the way they were trying to follow him.

Miller shares this and many more experience in Blue Like Jazz.In Notes, he provides some more personal reflections on the background of the events and how the process of trying to be like Jesus has gone for him.The tone you feel is that Miller has found life is a Wonder, an adventure.In faith, the adventure takes on deeper meaning, and Faith allows you to question and probe without fearing the answers you will find!

This is a hilarious and poignant gift booklet.Enjoy it and give it to someone you love!

Delicious
Allow me to begin with a short excerpt:

"Many of our attempts to understand and define the Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands my complexity." (page 101)

Buy one for your car, put one in your iPod, keep one in the office, have one in every bathroom, and make sure one is on your night stand. A perfect gift for a friend. What can I say, I adore Donald Miller's stuff, even when Thomas Nelson published this remix of his classic, Blue Like Jazz.

That being said, the audio CD that accompanies the book is a dismal disappointment. Somebody at TN had the bright idea to mix some awful background music with Don reading a selection of his prose. Hey, Thomas Nelson --- kill the background music!!! It was a terrible distraction when one is attempting to focus on the essence of what Don is saying...it didn't work.

A great contribution. A wonderful gift for a friend. Use the CD as a flying saucer with your neighbor's barking dog whose is chained up in their backyard 24-7.

In summary, reading Donald Miller has this effect on me, "Wonder is the feeling we get when we do just that --- let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. And I don't believe that there is any better worship than wonder." (p. 109).

Thank you Thomas-Nelson and Donald Miller

A good Donald Miller primer
Have you read Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" yet? If not, you may be in lagging behind. This bestselling 2003 book, written in a Kerouac stream-of-thought personal essay style with a touch of Anne Lamott's irreverence (that makes you feel guilty for laughing at religious people) and some honest down-to-earth self-deprecating genuineness seems to have touched a chord in people worldwide. So far, the book subtitled "Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality" has sold more than a million copies and not only remains among the top selling inspirational books in the nation, but each year it outsells the previous year--for five straight years after its publication. That is phenomenal in any market.

Anyone who has read "Blue Like Jazz' can never forget Miller's opening story. He writes:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

"After that I liked jazz music.

"Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

"I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened."

After that, who would not want to read what follows? But for those who have yet to climb aboard, I might suggest that you look into a shorter version of the book: a little hardback gift book entitled "Jazz Notes: Improvisations on Blue Like Jazz." It is a just-released selection of excerpts from "Blue Like Jazz," a sort of literary equivalent of a remix CD--cool sound-bytes combined with brand new material that offers the reader an inside look at some Miller's unforgettable--and outrageous--characters. "Jazz Notes" is the essential Donald Miller with non-religious (often irreligious) reflections on how his incredible spiritual odyssey started; what happened to him that helped him experience grace and faith for the first time, right smack in the middle of one of America's most liberal colleges; a recasting of the marvelous "confession booth" account; and how he discovered a surprising way to really love other people--and himself. On top of all that, "Jazz Notes" includes a bonus audio CD of some of the book's timely excerpts read by Miller.

Of course, not everyone will like "Jazz Notes," or for that matter "Blue Like Jazz." For some Donald Miller is a bit too earthy, too worldly, too cynical. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But even the most shocked among Miller's readers will probably find themselves chuckling uncomfortably at the inconsistencies that plague modern Christianity or else squirming before the mirror this insightful young "prophet to postmoderns" sets before us.

Great gift version of BLJ
I have a lot of friends who simply would not devote the time to reading the original Blue Like Jazz, so Jazz Notes has been a great gift-book alternative. It focuses on the key elements of the original book, and I found the several pages of new material interesting.

I could say the same thing about the "bonus disc." A disc that clocks in under one hour is a good alternative to listening to hours upon hours of Don Miller reading his book, especially given that his spoken-word delivery isn't as dynamic as his words on a page. ... Read more

Product Description
Do you want to know when Duke Ellington was king of The Cotton Club? Have you ever wondered how old Miles Davis was when he got his first trumpet?
From birth dates to gig dates and from recordings to television specials, Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler have left no stone unturned in their quest for accurate, detailed information on the careers of 3.300 jazz musicians from around the world. We learn that Duke Ellington worked his magic at The Cotton Club from 1927 to 1931, and that on Miles Davis's thirteenth birthday, his father gave him his first trumpet. Jazz is fast moving, and this edition clearly and concisely maps out an often dizzying web of professional associations. We find, for instance, that when Miles Davis was a St. Louis teenager he encountered Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time. This meeting proved fateful, and by 1945 a nineteen-year-old Davis had left Juilliard to play with Parker on 52nd Street. Knowledge of these professional alliances, along with the countless others chronicled in this book, are central to tracing the development of significant jazz movements, such as the "cool jazz" that became one of Miles Davis's hallmarks.
Arranged alphabetically according to last name, each entry of this book chronologically lists the highlights of every jazz musician's career. Highly accessible and vigorously researched, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz is, quite simply, the most comprehensive jazz encyclopedia available.Amazon.com Review
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz series was Leonard Feather's franchise for decades, providing fans with large-format books that featured photos of jazzers and short bios detailing their background and recordings. When Feather passed away in 1994, though, his editorial partner Ira Gitler was left with the task of completing this new edition, then four years in development. It's much different from Feather's earlier volumes--The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 60s, for example--opting for an all-text coverage and a standard-size hardcover, emphasizing perhaps the book's inarguable value as a reference. For historical purposes, the book is vastly important, giving extremely concise rundowns of musicians' lives--so concise, in fact, that most multisyllabic words are abbreviated. For contemporary players, though, especially Europeans, the volume is spotty. Trumpeter Joe Morris, who wrote "Punch & Judy" and played throughout the 1940s and '50s with Johnny Griffin, Elmo Hope, and others is certainly important. But what of the living Joe Morris, who's not a mainstream player but who nonetheless possesses amazing skills that reach at least as far as his predecessor? And while trumpet virtuoso Michael Philip Mossman is here, where is John Zorn? This isn't nitpicking on the mainstream so much as it is recognizing that books like Jazz: The Rough Guide have stepped up to address the skimpy coverage of living, thriving musicians.

Having said all that, it's vital to note Gitler and Feather's strengths:they've canvassed the past thoroughly, reaching to Italy to include reeddynamo Gianluigi Trovesi and pianist Giorgio Gaslini (but not trumpeter PinoMinafra or saxophonist Carlo Actis Dato). They've also caught key players from the early 20th century and from the peak bebop and hard bop eras, as well as the 1970s, when the avant-garde and fusion reigned in an oddly shaped jazz world. But these biographies were always Feather's and Gitler's strengths, making earlier by-decade editions of the Encyclopedia so important. --Andrew Bartlett ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential jazz reference book
Back in the mid-1960s, as a high schooler just discovering jazz, I found a copy of Feather's "Encyclopedia of Jazz (1960)"; it was a revelation and fostered my enthusiasm and knowledge of the music and musicians. I still have it. But this completely new book is just as good, if not better. It contains brief biographical entries on 3,300 musicians covering all eras, styles, and genres under the wide umbrella of jazz. The entries, though concise, are thorough and trace each musician's career and recorded output. It should be on every jazz fan's shelf. Highly recommended.

Jazz Reference
As a librarian, I can't begin to explain the value of this volume for use by students and other patrons wanting concise but informative biographical information on jazz musicians -- a very popular topic for schoolreports.

The entries may be short, but they are complete, and can serveas a starting point for further research. ... Read more

Product Description
George Russell: The Story of an American Composer is the first biography of one of the greatest figures in jazz, written with Russell's full cooperation. Extensively researched with interviews from friends, family members, musicians, associates, and commentators on jazz, the book contains valuable insights that reveal many previously unknown facts about Russell's life. ... Read more

Product Description
Music and the Creative Spirit is a book of interviews with today's innovators in Jazz, Improvisation, and the Avant Garde, including Pat Metheny, Regina Carter, Fred Anderson, John Zorn, Joshua Redman, and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

about cultural and sociological state of jazz
I bought this expensive book on the recommendation of Pat Metheny (on his website), who is one of the interview subjects in the book.

I have found the book disappointing and frustrating.I guess I was hoping/expecting the musicians interviewed to be asked and respond to questions about learning and playing music, but there is very little of this.Instead the author endeavors to keep the conversation on the cultural and sociological status of jazz in contemporary culture.There is very little about music or musicianship, though occasionally one of the artists will mention these things in spite of the interviewers sociologically oriented questions.Often the musicians are being asked questions that are really outside the sphere of music, and call for cultural criticism.

Some of the artists interviewed do have opinions about the broader cultural and sociological background milieu in which jazz is performed and thus are able to discuss these matters intelligently with the interviewer.

If your interest is in the current status of jazz in contemporary culture, this is the book for you.If your interest is in the music that the interview subjects play, you will not find much here.

Their words resonate
The words of these great musicians/innovators/players really ring true and will both inspire you and get you thinking. Highly recommended. I am probably going to buy a few and give them as gifts.

Excellent resource
This book is very inspiring.The words of these phenomenol musicians speaks to inspiration and muse, cultural influences, and living in general.Most of the musicians here arejazz players, but their life experiences speak to improvisation, ideas, and the heart ofmusic in any genre.Any contemporary musician especially would find this a rich resource. ... Read more