Customer Reviews

Black Music

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Too often, Baraka is critiqued for his artistry or his politics alone--with Black Music, the floor gets opened to anyone or everyone with an opinion on jazz or blues music. Black Music is Baraka's smart, personally charged account of the forms and culture inherent to black music, and thus its political value as a testament to a nation within a nation. Reading Baraka's intimate thoughts on such a personal subject should be the sole impetus for the reader.

Jazz caught hold in the early twentieth century and has stayed strong through it. "Black Music" is a collection of jazz criticisms and thought from Amiri Baraka, also known as Leroi Jones. Focusing on the 1960s, Akashic books has reprinted this acclaimed volume as Baraka offers much insight into Jazz legends such as Johnathan Coltrane, Miles Davis, and many more. For anyone who wants an educated and scholarly look at 1960s Jazz, "Black Music" is an ideal selection.

After hearing Leroi Jones on Sunny Murray and the NYAQ's records, and reading little excerpts of some of his reviews in books on free jazz, I thought I'd pick this up and check it out. I did; it was OK; but not much more than OK. I felt like most of the information available here is readily found elsewhere, and that any new perspective he brings to the issues (meaning basically a black nationalist/radical one) is easily enough visible in other places--better to read Fanon or Malcolm X than to let that music play in the background in a jazz book like this one. If that's your taste you might be better off with John Szwed's book on Sun Ra. This book is OK though, and if you haven't already read a number of jazz books you might find it fresh and interesting--I simply didn't. Well written though.