Black Talk (Da Capo Paperback) [Paperback]

Ben Sidran (Author)

Book Description

Series: Da Capo Paperback | Publication Date: March 22, 1983

Black Music—whether it be jazz, blues, r&b, gospel, or soul—has always expressed, consciously or not, its African "oral" heritage, reflecting the conditions of a minority culture in the midst of a white majority. Black Talk is one of those rare books since LeRoi Jones's Blues People to examine the social function of black music in the diaspora; it sounds the depths of experience and maps the history of a culture from the jazz age to the revolutionary outbursts of the 1960s. Ben Sidran finds radical challenges to the Western, white literary tradition in such varied music as Buddy Bolden's loud and hoarse cornet style, the call and response between brass and reeds in a swing band, the emotionalism of gospel, the primitivism of Ornette Coleman, and the cool ethic of bebop. "The musician is the document," says Sidran. "He is the information himself. The impact of stored information is transmitted not through records or archives, but through the human response to life."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Sidran is a performing and recording musician, producer, composer, host of radio and television music programs, music historian, and writer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 22, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306801841
• ISBN-13: 978-0306801846
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,106,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hardly bad., June 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Talk (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

"Bad" is jazz argot for "great," which this book certainly isn't. Not that the book is misleading or unreadable. But in the post-Wynton era, the most constructive efforts have been toward taking jazz beyond the obvious, overly familiar, acceptance of its place in an oral cultural tradition. (Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were improvised, oral poems delivered in a culture that had no written alphabet, but where does this take us?). To get a keener understanding of why jazz is not simply a folk tradition but an art form, about what makes jazz different from rap and hip-hop, the reader should attend to the analyses of Gunther Schuller, Wynton Marsalis, Billy Taylor. For penetrating and provocative insights into the oral basis of the music, the reader should examine Leroi Jones' "Blues People." Or for an "oral history" of the music itself, the reader couldn't do better than Shapiro and Hentoff's "Hear Me Talking to Ya." Were it not for the author's reknown as a popular performer, it's doubtful this book would remain in print, at least not without substantial revision and expansion.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars should be standard reading for improvising musicians, May 10, 2000

By 

T. Bekken (Austmarka Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Talk (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

I strongly disagree with the reader from Kenosha, WI, who claims that this book is obvious and dated. When it was first published, nobody had ever attempted to take the oral tradition of black music seriously. Sidran's book was the first real go at such an approach, and for that alone, it's required reading for any musician with an interest in black music forms. It is true that his thoughts are everywhere today, and that some of his ideas have become canon-like, but why should that stop us from reading them? Like the reader from Kenosha, WI, we are all free to disagree with Mr.Sidran's line of thought. Personally, I find the book a lot more interesting than any of his recordings. It is well written, at at times even entertaining.

5.0 out of 5 stars The psychological influence of an oral culture on music., April 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Talk (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

Mr. Sidran is a songwriter, singer and jazz pianist. He holds a doctorate in American Studies from Sussex University and has hosted a number of National Public Radio programs on jazz involving weekly interviews with Jazz musicians, the latter forming the basis for his work "Talking Jazz: An Oral History" [1992]. In this work, Mr. Sidran helps us understand that the basis for many of the unique Black contributions to the creation of Jazz music stem from the fact that these features were derived from the African oral cultural tradition. He goes on to explain that an oral culture is different from a literate culture [i.e.: European] since it is based on speech which is an improvisational and spontaneous act. In "Black Talk," Mr. Sidran discusses how singular elements of black music such as a "vocalized tone" and a "peculiarly black approach to rhythm" helped Jazz evolve into a unique American art form. One of the most, instructive, illuminating and unique books about Jazz ever written.