Riding On A Blue Note: Jazz And American Pop [Paperback] Review

When I was first getting seriously into jazz, this book (along with MartinWilliams's The Jazz Tradition) was the principal critical aid.Since thenI've reread it for pleasure countless times, for it's not only criticallyperspicacious but also has considerable literary merit.Da Capo isrighting a longstanding wrong by putting this book back into print, as theoriginal Oxford University Press edition has been unavailable forsometime.Not only new converts, but old sweats who happened to miss it thefirst time around should read this book, or just anyone who likeswell-written prose.One of the nice things about reprints is the chancefor an author to put in a contemporary word, and it's very nice to see thatthis book has a new preface by Giddins, written almost 20 years after theintroduction to the first edition.He comments with bemusement on theyounger writer represented in these pages, and gives valuble information onthe publishing history of Riding On A Blue Note, as well as updating theRed Rodney piece somewhat.
Though this is a book primarily about jazz, itlives up to it's subtitle (Jazz and American Pop) by including chapters onBing Crosby, Otis Blackwell, Bobby Blue Bland, the Dominoes, and FrankSinatra, though Giddins gives fair warning in the old intro that they arestudied from the viewpoint of a jazz critic.In fact, the chapter entitled"Just How Much Did Elvis Learn from Otis Blackwell?" is one ofthe most fascinating in the book as it attempts to uncover some of thetangled, subterranean back-and-forth influences between black and whitemusic.The chapter on Red Rodney ("Adventures of the Red Arrow")is funny as hell and functions as an entertaining short story even if it issomeday proved to be a Rodney-perpetrated hoax.I'm tempted to say thatGiddins is particularly sound on Ellington, Count Basie, and Dexter Gordon,but then I would have to add that he also does well by trombonist JackTeagarden, Irving Berlin, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie,and Charlie Parker... Though I hate to sound like a jacket blurb, the factis that this truly is one of those rare collections in which every essay isa gem, both informative on first reading and a delight to reread.The onlydrawback is that Da Capo charges top dollar for their paperback reprints,but it's worth it. Giddins has written several other fine books over theyears but there's something special about this one.

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Product Description:
"The most imposing figure in jazz writing today" (JazzTimes) on artists from Duke Ellington to Elvis Presley to Irving Berlin-all with that pervasive "blue note" of jazz in common
Gary Giddins, winner of the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award, has a following that includes not only jazz enthusiasts but also pop music fans of every stripe. Writing here in a lyrical and celebratory style all his own, Giddins dazzlingly shows us-among many other things-how performers originally perceived as radical (Bing Crosby, Count Basie, Elvis Presley) became conservative institutions...how Charlie Parker created a masterpiece from the strain of an inane ditty...how the Dominoes helped combine church ritual with pop music...and how Irving Berlin translated a chiaroscuro of Lower East Side minorities into imperishable songs.
"Nobody writes with greater style and authority about American music than Gary Giddins. The great musicians are all here-from Professor Longhair to Charlie Parker-and it's a pleasure to enjoy their company with a fine writer." (Pete Hamill)

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Bebop: The Music and Its Players [Paperback] Review

It is gratifying to find such a carefully written study of bebop -- a study which focuses from start to finish on the music. We know that many of the musicians had troubled lives and suffered with drugs and discrimination. The social and personal dimensions of bebop, however, have received ample attention in books, movies, and TV shows. This book is almost unique in providing a readable and scholarly analysis of the music. Owens faced a number of choices as to how to present his material, and he made the intelligent choice each time: Focus on the music (rare), not the details of "personal problems" (common); present just the right level of technical detail, never vague but never overly pedantic; trace the historical development of the music rather than an abstract description or a "how to play bop" approach (also common); and my favorite: organize the discussion around the idioms and masters of specific instruments -- sax, trumpet, piano, and so on. This last choice enables him to provide fresh insights as to how specific stylistic innovations on different instruments finally produced the characteristic ensemble style of bebop. I've bought two copies and I'm constantly recommending this book to friends.

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Rhythm-a-ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation [Paperback] Review

DaCapo does it again, bringing back into print the best jazz criticism.I read this collection of Giddins' Village Voice essays a couple of years after it was first published by Oxford in 1985.The picture of jazz it captures from the early '80s is, for better or worse, not so different from the picture today.No revolutions, just an ongoing period of recombinations and the uneasy coexistence of various styles.

Giddins is catholic in his enthusiasms, but I was and continue to be more interested in the avant-garde.In addition to swing and bop players (including Monk, from whom he took his title), here are some of the players he writes about, mainly their recordings, but also some concerts -- Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Ronald Shannon Jackson, James Blood Ulmer, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, James DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, James Newton, Anthony Davis, Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, the William Breuker Kollektief, and Alexander von Schlippenbach's Global Unity Orchestra.

He concludes a review of the "Young Lions" performance, including the 21-year-old Wynton Marsalis, at the 1982 Kool Jazz Festival in NYC with these prophetic lines:"My intuition tells me that innovation isn't this generation's fate...the neoclassicists have a task no less valuable than innovation:sustenance. [M]usicians such as Marsalis are needed to restore order, replenish melody, revitalize the beat, loot the tradition for whatever works, and expand the audience.That way we'll be all the hungrier for the next incursion of genuine avant-gardists..." (161)Of course "this generation" cannot be reduced to the neoclassicalrevivalists, but to the extent that they have dominated the jazz world since the mid-'80s, Giddins had it right "on the money," in every sense of the word.

That tendency has now persisted long past the time it was (arguably) making a needed contribution.Contrary to Marsalis, the living soul of jazz is creative improvisation, not ossified composition!As of 2005, jazz is still in need of rejuvenation.Having a jazz museum at the Lincoln Center is fine, but jazz can only be kept alive outside of museums through constant innovation.

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Product Description:
In a companion to his collections Riding on a Blue Note and Faces in the Crowd, Gary Giddins has assembled a mosaic of pieces that provide an essential guide to the jazz world. Moving with ease from sweeping surveys of jazz history to precise, vivid assessments of individual performers including Thelonius Monk, the Marsalis brothers, Ornette Coleman, and David Murray, Giddins demonstrates once again why he is lauded as "the best jazz critic now at work" (Newsweek).

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Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001 [Paperback] Review

OK, Whitney Balliett never got into Miles Davis's electric stuff. So he's a Moldy Fig. To quote Miles, "So What?" For my money, he's still the greatest observer of the modern jazz scene. What makes him great is the accuracy of his observation: No other jazz critic ("Notes and Tones" was written by Art Taylor, a drummer) has been as generous as Balliett at letting the musicians speak for themselves. Reading his reviews, you often forget he's there. That never happens with Stanley Crouch, now does it? I don't like to think about how old Balliett is, nor do I like to think about what jazz criticism will be like without him. By the way: Balliett is not an exclusionary writer. You do not need a Hip Merit Badge to read and enjoy his work. He's a national treasure. Recognize his greatness while he's still here to enjoy it!

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Visions of Jazz: The First Century [Paperback] Review

Gary Giddins has performed a remarkable feat. He has covered one hundred years of jazz history in one volume. At 700 pages it is big for sure but it is well researched and very readable. At first glance it appears thatGiddins has structured and organized the book in the worst possible way byhaving one chapter on each of the seminal figures of jazz history, and insemi chronological order.
The pitfall here is that it lends itself to abook that looks like lots of note cards strung together. This structure canalso obscure the larger picture; jazz is not just the history of a bunch ofindividuals. Giddins very skillfully avoids both of these traps. Eachchapter is well researched, filled with anecdotes about the musician orgroup, and through the chapters flows the larger background of the historicmovements and issues in the development of jazz.
Giddins also approachesjazz with a refreshing "inclusiveness" and wastes precious little energy indefining what jazz is or in dismissing various movements as"unpure" or other such nonsense. In fact he makes the point rightup front that jazz owes as much to popular music for its genesis as it doesto spirituals or black folk music. In the chapter on Irving Berlin hepoints out that Tin Pan Alley was a mixture of black, Jewish and otherethnic blends of music, and in fact, Berlin was even accused of having anunderground railroad of black song writers in his back room that he wasghosting for. And this, at the time, was not meant as a compliment..
Ofcourse, jazz cannot be discussed in a vacuum and race plays an importantpart in its history. Giddins adds two bits of trivia, which I find speakvolumes in themselves about where we are and where we have come from. Onewas that Al Jolson lobbied Gershwin for the part of Porgy. He, thankfully,did not get it. Second was that Ellington's all black orchestra played inan Amos and Andy movie in the 30's and the producer had the lighter skinnedmembers of the orchestra blacked up with makeup for the scenes. I supposethis was to dispel any idea in the minds of the movie audience that theband might be integrated.
The book lacks a recommended discography, whichwould have been valuable. Giddins does comment on the recordings of hissubjects in their respective chapters so that is a big help. There is a 2CD companion set with the same title which is a nice-to-have but it islargely an afterthought and the only connecting material is the 4 inchsquare flimsy comment sheets that come with the CD which does not reallyrelate back to the book itself.
This is a essential book for any jazzlovers library.

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Jazz [Hardcover] Review

Starting with the iconic photo of Dexter Gordon on the dust jacket through to the last page, this book is an outstanding presentation of the history and musicology of America's classical music, jazz. It is a book that should be useful to the die-hard jazz fan, the jazz novice and everyone in between.

The book begins with a chapter on the basic elements of music, followed by a chapter covering the basics of jazz styles and improvisation. This introduction is followed by 17 chapters covering the history of the music, from its roots in spirituals, the blues, and ragtime up to the jazz (what there is of it) of today. There is also a useful glossary and a short section on record collection and jazz films.

Many books on jazz history are available, some covering the entire century-plus of the music, and others concentrating on certain periods. There are also a few books on jazz musicology, most notably Mark C. Gridley's outstanding "Jazz Styles". But Gridley pointedly avoids any discussion of the personalities and the non-musical activities of the musicians, as though they created their music in a vacuum. This leads to such oddities as a section on Bud Powell, for example, in which Gridley notes that Powell was "only sporadically active during most of his career", without explaining that Powell was a diagnosed schizophrenic who suffered not only from the disease, but also the horrific "treatments" of the day. Not for "Jazz" authors Giddins and DeVeaux is this `hands off the personal lives' approach. They include brief biographies of the most important musicians, warts (of which there are many) and all. This is essential, in my view, to understanding the music that these men (and a very few women) created.

But this book also contains sufficient discussion of the technical aspects of the music, if not employing quite the music school language of Gridley's book, which is fine with this non-musician fan, and probably for most readers. And while the authors must have their preferences, one will not find them imposed on the reader, as is common in some books. While I appreciate and use such books as the "Penguin Guide", I find Cook's and Morton's sometimes quirky and avant-garde taste not always to my liking.

An interesting feature of the book is a bar-by-bar (almost) account of some of the most important performances in jazz history. In order for this feature to be useful one must, of course, have the recordings to listen to while reading the discussions. Like many jazz fans and collectors, I have most of the performances in my record collection, but for those who don't, the authors provide a 4-CD set that goes along with the book, though at the hefty price of $60 on Amazon. This would be essential for the serious jazz novice without access to a jazz record collection; for jazz-o-files, it would be useful and convenient, but perhaps not worth the additional cost. I'm still trying to decide if it's worthwhile searching my collection for each of the correct tracks, or paying up for the CD set.

If there is any complaint that I could about this excellent book, and it is a minor one, is its the lack of discussion of the jazz scenes today outside the USA, where jazz continues to be vital a musical culture, while it atrophies here in its home country. The UK, and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe, along with Australia and even parts of Latin America are where jazz is prospering in the 21st century.

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