British Jazz on Record 1960-75 - New Book (expensive)

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75 – by Richard Morton Jack


01/12/2023 by Colin H 12 Comments

01/12/2023

‘This utterly engrossing feast focuses on the ‘golden period’ of British jazz, when boundary-breaking and experimentation first broke through. Featuring large sleeve reproductions (both front and back), period reviews, historical overviews and vintage music press adverts, Labyrinth finally puts this music on the pedestal it rightly deserves’ – Jon Newey (editor, Jazzwise)

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Labyrinth is a massive hardback book, 375pp in length, printed on high-quality art paper, with an embossed cover and cloth quarter-binding, written by Richard Morton Jack (Galactic Ramble, Psychedelia, Nick Drake: The Life).

It celebrates over three hundred albums, offering detailed background info about each, alongside excerpts from original reviews and masses of high-quality images that reproduce their fabulous artwork and labels at near-full size. It also features a fascinating introduction by Tony Reeves (Mike Taylor Quartet, New Jazz Orchestra, Colosseum etc).

Covering abstract jazz, avant-garde jazz, serial jazz, free jazz, Indo-jazz, jazz-rock and more, it tells a story Britain should be proud of: open-minded and creative musicians pushing the boundaries of their art in the face of penury and indifference, and welcoming influences from a range of other cultures via immigrant musicians such as Joe Harriott (Jamaica), Amancio D’Silva (India), Guy Warren (Ghana) and Harry Beckett (Barbados)..."

You pays your money...

[smittims]

Thanks for drawing our attention to this. From the picture it looks as if it's a large format (A4-ish?) if it has 375 pages.

I wonder how many jazz fans actually want to read about jazz history. I sense an irony in an essentially living art having a printed history or analysis, notwithstanding that I found Gunther Schuller's Early Jazz ( OUP, 1968) which coincidentally runs to just over 370 pages, fascinating; its massive sequel The Swing Era rather less so. But I agree that the subject deserves a monument of some sort.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Well I think jazz history is legitimate and the music deserves a serious historiography. And indeed it has an audience. The problematic is if there is a wider readership outside universities etc at c.£60 + which is what I think this is going for. But they presumably have done their costings. And British jazz fans of an age are nothing if not nostalgic!

Alternatively, I've just paid c. £10 for a historical profile/analysis of Shostakovich which I think is excellent value.

[Ian Thumwood]

I agree with Smittims comments about Schuller but with the caveat that Schuller led the field with this kind of approach to jazz which had hitherto been victim of autheors such as Rudi Blesh and Hughes Panassie. I can remember one book I read by the latter which was merely an excuse for HP to outline his likes nd dislikes as opposed to serious analysis. As someone who loves histroy in general, I think that the standard of books about jazz is now substantially higher and a good proportion are actually good history with proper research. Three books stand out for me in understanding earlier styles of jazz and they would be Magees's book about The Original Creole Band which outlines an element of jazz development prior to recorded jazz which I felt explained exactly where early forms of jazz existed and their context. There is also a really good book about Fletcher Henderson which not only chronicles the development of this important band but also is peppered with musical transcriptions which probably put it outside of the general audience for jazz. My Dad could not be tempted to pick it up as he could not read music, for example. Anyone who can, will find this as a kind of "perfect" analysis of the history and music. The recent book about Chick Webb is also invaluable in understanding the musical culture of the late 20s and 30s and how bands were formed, musicians learned, arrangement were written and also how the business operated at the time.

I find that books about jazz are not value for money insofar that they usually get read cover to cover very quickly. They can be expensive and I find them very difficult to put down. The same can be said fr books about early blues music. As Bluesnik says, they can be expensive. These days, I prefer to read jazz books which are more niche as opposed to general histories. These days, books abut jazz are less about opinions or a series of anecdotes about particular musicians which used to be the staple until the 1980s. Ulitmately, these kind f books lead up to autobiograpahies likes Miles' which was pretty useless in understanding the music although I enjoyed it at the time, The standard of historic research has improved massively but I feel this is the same with a lot of historical writing no matter the period / topic under consideration. With the rise in the use of technology with things like archaeology and the availability of dcuments on line, I think we are living in a golden ages of history writing both from a popular and specialist point of view. History books form a large chunk of my reading material these days.

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree with Smittims comments about Schuller but with the caveat that Schuller led the field with this kind of approach to jazz which had hitherto been victim of autheors such as Rudi Blesh and Hughes Panassie. I can remember one book I read by the latter which was merely an excuse for HP to outline his likes nd dislikes as opposed to serious analysis. As someone who loves histroy in general, I think that the standard of books about jazz is now substantially higher and a good proportion are actually good history with proper research. Three books stand out for me in understanding earlier styles of jazz and they would be Magees's book about The Original Creole Band which outlines an element of jazz development prior to recorded jazz which I felt explained exactly where early forms of jazz existed and their context. There is also a really good book about Fletcher Henderson which not only chronicles the development of this important band but also is peppered with musical transcriptions which probably put it outside of the general audience for jazz. My Dad could not be tempted to pick it up as he could not read music, for example. Anyone who can, will find this as a kind of "perfect" analysis of the history and music. The recent book about Chick Webb is also invaluable in understanding the musical culture of the late 20s and 30s and how bands were formed, musicians learned, arrangement were written and also how the business operated at the time.

I find that books about jazz are not value for money insofar that they usually get read cover to cover very quickly. They can be expensive and I find them very difficult to put down. The same can be said fr books about early blues music. As Bluesnik says, they can be expensive. These days, I prefer to read jazz books which are more niche as opposed to general histories. These days, books abut jazz are less about opinions or a series of anecdotes about particular musicians which used to be the staple until the 1980s. Ulitmately, these kind f books lead up to autobiograpahies likes Miles' which was pretty useless in understanding the music although I enjoyed it at the time, The standard of historic research has improved massively but I feel this is the same with a lot of historical writing no matter the period / topic under consideration. With the rise in the use of technology with things like archaeology and the availability of dcuments on line, I think we are living in a golden ages of history writing both from a popular and specialist point of view. History books form a large chunk of my reading material these days.

It's a crying shame that nevertheless humanity seems rarely capable of learning lessons from history, whose worst mistakes are presently being repeated to destruction all over the world.

[Jazzrook]

It's a crying shame that nevertheless humanity seems rarely capable of learning lessons from history, whose worst mistakes are presently being repeated to destruction all over the world.

Yes, the silent complicity of most of the British media over current war crimes is deeply depressing.

JR

[Tenor Freak]

I daresay it's got an entry for this one which I guess is as rare as rocking-horse's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaobGZOjTQk

[Jazzrook]

Richard Williams on ‘Labyrinth’:

https://www.thebluemoment.com/2024/03/08/the-artwork-of-British-jazz

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Richard Williams on ‘Labyrinth’:

https://www.thebluemoment.com/2024/03/08/the-artwork-of-British-jazz

JR

He's certainly right about the Blue Notes' 1968 Very Urgent, which astonishes with its power to this very day, the way Cecil Taylor of that time still resonates.

[Jazzrook]

He's certainly right about the Blue Notes' 1968 Very Urgent, which astonishes with its power to this very day, the way Cecil Taylor of that time still resonates.

Yes, I’m very glad to have this on CD.
Here’s ‘Don’t Stir The Beehive’ with Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Ronnie Beer, Johnny Dyani & Louis Moholo:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=b0aJ7ruWgpE

JR