Customer Reviews

The History of Jazz

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A very good history of jazz, that covers all the important figures and movements, with a bit of critique and opinions thrown in, but never too flagrantly. Gioia also raises some interesting questions, especially as to where jazz will move next. The writing itself is entertaining and fast moving, and the research is certainly first-class. Some people have criticized the 2nd half of the book, dealing with modern jazz, as not as intricate or detailed as the first half. That's unfair, because in all reality, there was a whole lot more going on in modern jazz than in the swing era and before...there's no way he could do it justice in a book devoted to the history of jazz in general.

My only complaint is the TIME he focuses on some people, but not on others. Tons are given to Armstrong, Ellington, and Parker, and rightfully so. Less time but still adequate for Coltrane, Rollins, Getz, Blakey and Brown. But some people are barely talked about (Cannonball Adderley and Freddie Hubbard are both prime examples) and others, especially in the last 20 years, are neglected completely. Joe Lovano is mentioned once, Michael Brecker NOT AT ALL. In fact, why are the Brecker Brothers, one of the most important fusion groups, not given any pages at all? Why are bands like Buddy Rich and Don Ellis only mentioned once or twice? This is my one real complaint with the book, but despite that, I still give it five stars, simply because the information is all very acurate, and delivered in an enjoyable and well-written manner, and since reading it, I have experienced a lot more jazz (especially West Coast and modal) than I probably would have otherwise. This is the best book one could buy for people who have been jazz fans for awhile, and are now ready to make the plunge into being serious afficionados.

(I don't know why I'm bothering to write book reviews since the last two I wrote -- which were grandmotherly inoffensive -- weren't put up, but here goes. . . )

Generally speaking, there are few entities in life as ill-informed, prejudicial and just plain stupid as jazz critics. Fortunately today we have Gary Giddins and Ted Gioia who in my opinion are ABSOLUTELY THE ONLY ONES worth reading (did I make myself clear?), and I've read them all. Simply put, Gioia's HISTORY OF JAZZ is the most judicious and intelligent book of its kind ever written, jam-packed with insights and points to ponder. Don't leave home without it.

Hey, don't take my word for it. Pick up a copy in your local bookstore or library, look up your favorite artists, and read. As Gary Giddens sez on the book jacket, "a miracle of concision." Right on, baby!

I greatly enjoyed this book. Ted Gioia gives us a readable and fairly comprehensible single-volume overview of the rich and varied history of Jazz. Given that Jazz means different things to different listeners, trying to sum up in a single (and not overly thick) volume the varied facets and manifestations is a difficult task, but for the most part, I think Gioia succeeds.

The first half of the book, which deals with Jazz through the Swing era, is by far the more informative and detailed. Listeners whose main exposure to jazz has been through the neoboppers and fusion artists of the last three decades will learn a great deal about artists everyone should be investigating and appreciating. Detailed sections on the early jazz pioneers and Dixieland virtuosos are informative and engaging.

If I were to find a fault with this book, it is with the second half, which deals with Modern Jazz, beginning with bebop. I have also read the NYT review, and I agree with that reviewer, who believes that certain important figures are given short shrift. For example, Gioia cites Joe Pass' _Virtuoso_ album as one of the six greatest Jazz guitar albums of all time - but he never lists the others, and I recall no mention at all of greats such as Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel. Additionally, the last three decades are largely (in my opinion) glossed over. While it's true that no great revolutions on the scale of Bop or Free Jazz have taken place, surely the Joe Lovanos, Joey DiFrancescos, and John Scofields of the world deserve a better and more detailed treatment.

This book is a perfect compliment to Ken Burns Jazz in most respects. Gioia's writing is lucid and descriptive. He seamlessly weaves social analysis with musical analysis. Anecdotes about jazz personalities abound. Some feel that he gives too much attention and credit to Charlie Parker. As a Parker admirer, I'd say the more the merrier. My only regret is that way too many 80's and 90's artists are conspicuously absent. Look at the impact, for example that the Jazz Crusaders (Joe Sample and Larry Carlton) Yellowjackets (Russell Ferrante and Jimmy Haslip) Dave Grusin, Bob James and David Benoit have had fusing Post Modern and Traditional elements (a very different result than the "fusion" of the early to late 70's). Ted was either disinterested or unable to connect these nuances to the larger scope of the history. Otherwise, to round out the Ken Burns version of the Jazz story, read this and fill in most of the blanks.

This is a first-rate history. Gioia writes with authority, but never distances the reader. Like an Ellingtonian suite, he structures the history of jazz in discernible movements and counter-movements that each evolve organically from their predecessors, while avoiding a mere chronology. Gioia gracefully executes the narrative in a tone that never exaggerates unnecessarily, and always judiciously considers and evaluates the place of each figure, style, instrument, movement, band, label and of course, important recordings and their influence. Gioia inevitably has his preferences, but he is far from prejudiced. This makes him a valuable commentator that should please fans and artists alike. Gioia's book is a major work which will become a standard account of the history of jazz and should be on everybody's reading list.

Anyone purportedly writing a "History of Jazz" faces a daunting task: A complex history of interwoven musical strands, the linkages and evolutions (sometimes skipping a generation), the geographic spread to Europe and elsewhere, the eventual fragmentation of jazz into diverse sounds and approaches, and the opinions of knowledgeable, rabid fans.

Ted Giola succeeds magnificently: This is the best single-volume history of jazz I've seen. While not without some minor flaws (see below), this is a comprehensive, generally very well written, and intriguing story of the genesis and development of jazz. It is a compelling story, and Giola writes without mythologizing jazz, or constantly needing to remind us that this is, indeed, art. The giants of jazz-- Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Holiday, etc. are critiqued rather than lionized.

Giola proceeds through the now familiar African, American, African-American, and European roots of jazz that emanated first from New Orleans. He traces its developmental routes through Chicago and New York, the Armstrong solo evolution, and the diverse "territory bands" such as those of Bennie Moten and Count Basie.

Fortunately, Giola does not limit himself to a strictly chronological narrative. He interrupts the timeline with revealing excursions into topics such as the development of instrumental styles (e.g., piano, trumpet), and jumps ahead to show the impact of early influences on later styles (e.g., Lester Young and bebop). He also pays attention to cultural, technological, and economic context, without letting these subtexts blare over the music. Giola knows music from the "inside" as well as the outside, and his discussions of jazz technique and harmonic and rhythmic innovations are detailed and precise. His deconstruction of various solos and styles is illuminating: Charlie Parker's "Indiana" is a version "where almost every bar features one or more altered tones-an augmented fifth, a major seventh played against a minor chord, a flatted ninth leading to a sharpened ninth...a textbook example of how bop harmonic thinking revolutionized the flow of the melodic line in jazz." Yet Giola is also astute in directing our attention to the "core of simplicity" ...the "monophonic melody statements" in bop.

Giola's critiques of various musicians are generally fair and accurate, and he discusses the famous as well as the overlooked. Every jazz fan, however, will probably find some favorite musician given insufficient coverage, or will disagree with a Giola critique. There's no mention of Carmen McCrae, about half a page on Sarah Vaughan, very little mention of European jazz, not much discussion of Miles Davis' or Basie's later work ("The Atomic Mr. Basie," for example). For my tastes, there is not enough on Mingus' sidemen (other than Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and he describes the Mingus Town Hall Concert as a fiasco. (Organizationally it was a disaster, but musically it succeeded.) Giola's statement that "Mingus was the closest jazz has come to having its own Ezra Pound," is baffling. To a large degree, however, these are editorial (the book is only 395 pages long), as well as critical decisions. Not everyone would agree, as I do, with Giola's dismissive statement that Kenny G. "sold over $20 million of emaciated pseudo-jazz to a devoted audience. A critic cannot and should not please everyone.

Giola commands our respect because of his thorough knowledge of jazz and its web-like variations and influences. He knows his material well, whether it's the origins of jazz or the "Third Stream" and "Free Jazz" movements of relatively recent years. I recommend this book very highly to both musician and non-musician alike, jazz aficionado and novice. You may read the book as an introduction to jazz, or to achieve a greater synthesis of what you already know. It may also serve as a springboard to more narrowly focused jazz writing, such as Rosenthal's "Hard Bop" or Lees' "Meet Me at Jim and Andy's." There is a general index, an index of songs and albums, 15 pages on recommended listening, eight black and white photos, some notes on sources, as well as suggestions for further reading. This book, and perhaps a copy of the "Penguin Guide to Jazz," could easily serve as the core of a jazz lover's bookshelf.

Pianist Ted Gioia offers a plethora of musicality and vivid portraits of artists ranging from Joe King Oliver to Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis and more. One can hear the music! Well written, concise. A musical feast. A historical Jazz concerto. Bravo! Bravo!

I have a reasonable library of jazz books (including The Horn by JC Holmes, American Musicians by Whitney Balliett, Reading Jazz by Gottlieb, etc, etc) but my top five are HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA by Hentoff and Shapiro; FOUR LIVES IN THE BEBOP BUSINESS by A.B. Spellman; STRAIGHT LIFE by Art and Laurie Pepper; THE STORY OF JAZZ by Marshall Stearns; and AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE by Val Wilmer. What do I want in a jazz book? I want information, authenticity, entertainment; and decent writing. Now I have to move Mr Stearns over to make way for Mr Gioia and his HISTORY OF JAZZ for I believe it deserves to be in that exalted company.

If I didn't already say it in the last review, a casual listener to jazz will enjoy this as much as anyone.

Ted Gioia, for me, managed to walk the fine line between hyperbole and inauthentic iconoclasm, purple prose and impotent erudition, racist apologia and racial pandering (on both/all sides), and the sleeping pill effect of both blanket chronological overview and meticulous historical data, regardless of perspective to give us a full meal and gift of a history of jazz that reads with the ease and enjoyment of a novel. I would have loved if he added another hundred pages to it all, allowing him to speak more about three topics in particular: 1) the socio-political implications of the culture of drugs among the musicians, 2) the transformation of jazz's link with debauchery through be-bop to that of spirituality and freedom in the American mind, epitomized via Coltrane in the 60's, and 3) the musical/theatrical/Griot/Delphic roles of the jazz singer in perpetuating the music and magic of the art form, from Armstrong to Bobby McFerrin. But with the kind of work Gioia has given us with this, I'll just have to shut up and write my own, and hope it holds up.

I highly recommend this book if you are a musician of any style (I am a jazz and opera singer). If you know someone who loves jazz, or has even a passing interest in its icons (the even handedness with which he explains Wynton alone makes the book worth having), the book is a great gift- you don't need a Doctorate in Music theory or semiotics to enjoy it. And if you are a jazz musician, you should own it. Period.

A fine book; a fine contribution.