Buck Clayton's Jazz World [Hardcover]

Buck Clayton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195205359 | ISBN-13: 978-0195205350 | Publication Date: March 5, 1987 | Edition: First

Buck Clayton's Jazz World is the autobiography of one of the most significant trumpeters in jazz. Clayton is best known as a trumpet player for Count Basie (he joined that band in its first days of fame in 1936 and stayed until he entered the army in the early 1940s). He was also one of Billie Holiday's favorite accompanists.
Clayton's reminiscences cover 75 fascinating years of jazz history, not only in the United States but also abroad. One of the most intriguing sections of the book deals with his improbable adventures in Shanghai in 1934-36 as leader of a jazz band and his extended stays in Europe since 1949 as one of a large group of expatriate black American jazzmen. His work with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Jummy Rushing, and many others is recounted in detail. The book also chronicles Clayton's more recent career as an arranger and composer. In addition, he has lectured in jazz studies at Hunter College in New York.

About the Co-Author

Nancy Miller is a leading New York photographer who specializes in jazz-related subjects.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About the Author:
Buck Clayton, the renowned jazz trumpeter and bandleader, played in the Count Basie Orchestra in the 1930s.
About the Co-Author:
Nancy Miller Elliott is a leading New York photographer who specializes in jazz-related subjects.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First edition (March 5, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195205359
• ISBN-13: 978-0195205350
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Parsonians and/or Jazz Buffs, a Must-Read, December 17, 2008

By 

wfgodot (godawful ok) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buck Clayton's Jazz World (Hardcover)

Great book, the best autobiography of a musician I've ever read, and one of the best by anyone, period--Buck Clayton tells story after funny story after poignant (and funny, and enlightening) story--this book's a delight to read. I say that because it's true (and not only because I grew up across the alley from the old Clayton homestead in Parsons, Kansas; Buck's mother used to cut my mom's hair and I'd tag along when I was three or four, not knowing that, really, 2313 Grand could be thought of as a shrine to a great musician who'd long-since left town and made his way to fame). True, the jazz-fan reader will especially love this once Buck returns to California (after an adventure riding boxcars west, he'd returned home to graduate high school) and begins his climb to success--the names of great jazzers fall like spring rain. But Parsonians will truly cherish the long first chapter, in which Buck recounts his adventures and exploits growing up--it's a mini-history of life for a young black man in the early twentieth century in a small Kansas town (not far from Ft. Scott, and Gordon Parks's great book "The Learning Tree") and his eye for detail (and, of course, his splendid storytelling) brings back a lost world. Few will know that W.E.B. Dubois came to Parsons--and stayed with the Claytons--to organize supporters and make speeches in southeast Kansas; I sure didn't, but it's all here, all this and much, much more, beautifully told.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very readable and informative book on jazz and musicians., September 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Buck Clayton's Jazz World (Hardcover)

Buck Clayton shows himself to be a most articulate musician, covering his life and times from the midwest to California to China. His period with Count Basie was, of course, the most important part of his career, and one wishes that Clayton had written more incisively about that time. But, he writes so well that the book is always entertaining, up to and including his later years when he was forced to play Dixieland music in order to work.