Jazz Books

[CGR]

I've read loads of Jazz biographies and I've just finished Stuart Nicholson's "Jazz and Culture in a Global Age" which was rather good and I'm now looking for something else to read.


Any suggestions?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I've read loads of Jazz biographies and I've just finished Stuart Nicholson's "Jazz and Culture in a Global Age" which was rather good and I'm now looking for something else to read.


Any suggestions?

A book I'd very much like to read, Tom Perchard, "After Django, making jazz in post war France"...
"After Django begins with the famous interwar triumphs of Josephine Baker and Django Reinhardt, but, for the first time, the focus here falls on the French jazz practices of the postwar era. The work of important but neglected French musicians such as André Hodeir and Barney Wilen is examined in depth, as are native responses to Americans such as Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The book provides an original intertwining of musical and historical narrative, supported by extensive archival work; in clear and compelling prose, Perchard describes the problematic efforts towards aesthetic assimilation and transformation made by those concerned with jazz in fact and in idea, listening to the music as it sounded in discourses around local identity, art, 1968 radicalism, social democracy, and post colonial politics."

But it seems aimed at an academic market and is therefore pricey.

BN.

[Joseph K]

Miles's autobiography is a sine qua non, its fancifulness notwithstanding.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

You're very probably read it but I thought Robin Kelly's biography of Monk ("American Original") was excellent and not just for Monk. Kelly is a good writer on a load of related topics.

[Serial_Apologist]

A book I'd very much like to read, Tom Perchard, "After Django, making jazz in post war France"...
"After Django begins with the famous interwar triumphs of Josephine Baker and Django Reinhardt, but, for the first time, the focus here falls on the French jazz practices of the postwar era. The work of important but neglected French musicians such as André Hodeir and Barney Wilen is examined in depth, as are native responses to Americans such as Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The book provides an original intertwining of musical and historical narrative, supported by extensive archival work; in clear and compelling prose, Perchard describes the problematic efforts towards aesthetic assimilation and transformation made by those concerned with jazz in fact and in idea, listening to the music as it sounded in discourses around local identity, art, 1968 radicalism, social democracy, and post colonial politics."

But it seems aimed at an academic market and is therefore pricey.

BN.

That looks interesting - might try to persuade the local library to obtain a copy. It is widely accepted that black American jazz musicians welcomed chances to work and/or live in France in the postwar period, but one wonders just how general that feeling was among even the jazz=loving populace. I was just yesterday listening to that great Coltrane Paris concert of 1962 which Joseph has been recommending, at a friend's place, and he was remarking with amazement at the booing from the audience there.

[Joseph K]

That looks interesting - might try to persuade the local library to obtain a copy. It is widely accepted that black American jazz musicians welcomed chances to work and/or live in France in the postwar period, but one wonders just how general that feeling was among even the jazz=loving populace. I was just yesterday listening to that great Coltrane Paris concert of 1962 which Joseph has been recommending, at a friend's place, and he was remarking with amazement at the booing from the audience there.

Speaking of which, Lewis Porter's book on Coltrane is also a necessity.

[Jazzrook]

I'd recommend Gerald Horne's 'Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music'(Monthly Review Press 2019).

"An enthralling view of jazz history from the underside. An essential contribution to our understanding of how racial capitalism shaped American music."
Robin D. G. Kelley

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

I'd recommend Gerald Horne's 'Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music'(Monthly Review Press 2019).

"An enthralling view of jazz history from the underside. An essential contribution to our understanding of how racial capitalism shaped American music."
Robin D. G. Kelley

JR

Thanx

[Ian Thumwood]

I have a mountain of books to get through even though I have read loads already through the lockdown. A lot of these books have either been about aircraft, Roman history (I am an avid reader of anything to do with archaeology) and Phillip Kerr's "Bernie Gunther" series which I find very entertaining. Oddly enough, I picked up a book this week which I think will appeal to Bluesnik which is called "Up jumped the devil" by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow. The book is subtitled "The real life of Robert Johnson."

I have read several books about veteran blues musicians including an excellent book about Blind Willie McTell which is simply one of the bets history books I have read and something I would recommend even if you don't like blues. I am hoping that this new book is as good and will let you know my opinion.

Picking up the comment by Joe about the Miles Davis autobiography I wonder how well this book would read in 2020. I remember at the time finding the book impossible to put down and buying a copy as a hardback as I was so interested to read his story. I would have to say that , looking back, the book captures Miles' personality and voice expertly yet , as a tool to getting to grips with an artist's work, it is pretty hopeless. Miles offers very few insights and the book is little more than an attempt for him to try to look relevant. I believe that it came out in about 1989 /90 and I would suggest that Miles' opinion would sit really uncomfortably these days with the passive of years. I have to say that I think it offers no real revelations about the music and simply underscores what an unpleasant character he was. For me, it is just a foul-mouthed rant and effectively little better than the kind of football autobiographies which build upon the non-stories from the red-top newspapers with little real detail to explain the experience of playing football or working under different managers. All in all, the Miles book is just posturing and salacious gossip. You will learn precious little about the music from this book. I have to say that few people who have led exceptional and interesting lives have really managed to step up to the mark when writing an account of their lives.

[Joseph K]

Ian, I must have read Miles's autobiog about 8 years ago - perhaps I should read it again, but from what I recall it featured quite a few vivid tales, humour and what not, though it might be a bit close to the bone for some, a bit salacious. I did enjoy reading it - perhaps I'll read it again some time soon and see what I liked about it...

[Ian Thumwood]

I am already half way through Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow's book "UP jumped the devil: The real life of Robert Johnson" and am flagging it up as I am confident that this is something Bluesnik would love. I cannot put this book down. It is the culmination of 50 year's worth of research and represents probably the best picture we are ever going to get of what Robert Johnson was like. It is a fascinating account and rigorous enough to also satisfy the historian in me. The "real" story is no less fascinating that the myth. I thoroughly recommend this book.

[Jazzrook]

Laurie Pepper's 'Why I Stuck With A Junkie Jazzman'.
What would Art have done without Laurie?

https://londonjazznews.com/2014/06/20/book-review-laurie-pepper-art-why-i-stuck-with-a-junkie-jazzman/

JR

[CGR]

Laurie Pepper's 'Why I Stuck With A Junkie Jazzman'.
What would Art have done without Laurie?

https://londonjazznews.com/2014/06/20/book-review-laurie-pepper-art-why-i-stuck-with-a-junkie-jazzman/

JR

Yep great book. Read it a couple of years ago. You really need to read Pepper's autobiography "Straight Life" first.

[Serial_Apologist]

I am about to launch out on a book, maybe more than one, covering developments in British jazz since 1980, during which era the overall scene was still relatively small compared to today's. It may take more than one volume: the trouble (as I've found in the past) consisting in finding a publisher willing to put out maybe more than that if the subject is to be adequately covered (in my estimation). I have been trying to do this for almost 20 years now - the difficulties being the exponential expansion of the range and numbers of practitioners to be covered, while wanting to give as many as possible a fair crack of the whip. Successive issues of Berendt's Jazz Book suffered from such logistics and I want to avoid this even if it means splitting the story into separate "episodes". Earlier books on Britjazz (eg Heining, Nicholson) have tended to concentrate on the period roughly top-and-tailed by the opening of Ronnie's and the end of the 1970s, during which time the scene was still relatively small compared to today's, and jazz had acquired radical associations which would become diluted in what promoters and commentators saw as the main trends of the 1980s. Any ambitious enough to embark on this journey on those earlier radical premises could be in danger of hoisting him or herself on their own petard!

Someone needs to do the follow-up, and I guess as no one else seems to be onto it (or only bits of it!) this has to be me! Fortunately I have amassed a roomful of written stuff - mags, leaflets etc - for this purpose. I still consider jazz to be the healthiest of the musical genres in terms of the room it supports for expansion and its possibilities for originality and creativity. Some on here may have guessed (assuming I had not met you) at my true identity from my standpoints; I have to make up my mind whether or not the time has arrived for me to "come out", though I shall probably keep my forum name, since friends think it suits me! The jazz thread will prove an inestimable source of ideas among others: if and where anybody here has offered views useful to the project I will of course ensure they are duly acknowledged and referenced, and will PM them to make sure they are OK with how what they have said might be used by me.

[Joseph K]

I am about to launch out on a book, maybe more than one, covering developments in British jazz since 1980, during which era the overall scene was still relatively small compared to today's. It may take more than one volume: the trouble (as I've found in the past) consisting in finding a publisher willing to put out maybe more than that if the subject is to be adequately covered (in my estimation). I have been trying to do this for almost 20 years now - the difficulties being the exponential expansion of the range and numbers of practitioners to be covered, while wanting to give as many as possible a fair crack of the whip. Successive issues of Berendt's Jazz Book suffered from such logistics and I want to avoid this even if it means splitting the story into separate "episodes". Earlier books on Britjazz (eg Heining, Nicholson) have tended to concentrate on the period roughly top-and-tailed by the opening of Ronnie's and the end of the 1970s, during which time the scene was still relatively small compared to today's, and jazz had acquired radical associations which would become diluted in what promoters and commentators saw as the main trends of the 1980s. Any ambitious enough to embark on this journey on those earlier radical premises could be in danger of hoisting him or herself on their own petard!

Someone needs to do the follow-up, and I guess as no one else seems to be onto it (or only bits of it!) this has to be me! Fortunately I have amassed a roomful of written stuff - mags, leaflets etc - for this purpose. I still consider jazz to be the healthiest of the musical genres in terms of the room it supports for expansion and its possibilities for originality and creativity. Some on here may have guessed (assuming I had not met you) at my true identity from my standpoints; I have to make up my mind whether or not the time has arrived for me to "come out", though I shall probably keep my forum name, since friends think it suits me! The jazz thread will prove an inestimable source of ideas among others: if and where anybody here has offered views useful to the project I will of course ensure they are duly acknowledged and referenced, and will PM them to make sure they are OK with how what they have said might be used by me.

Good luck with the book! And yes your forum name is witty, good & apt.