Customer Reviews

Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (History of Jazz)

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Jazz criticism tends to run in two groups: one, the biographical/anecdotal (often marvelous to read), and two, word pictures of how the music made the writer feel (often awful to read). Gunther Schuller's "Early Jazz" does what any undergraduate musicology major would do: examine the music note by note, and explain what's going on. While this is not an easy book to read for people like me who have no musical training (or talent, for that matter), it is an absolutely essential book nonetheless. Schuller goes through each major musician and movement of the twenties, and shows exactly what is occurring. What worked best for me was to have the recording he was discussing playing while I read, so I could hear what he was talking about. Anybody in love with the early music of Armstrong or Ellington needs to tackle this book sooner or later.

I can't believe that no-one has reviewed this wonderful book until now. It is one of the cornerstones of jazz criticism, and the first one not written by one of these annoying pipe-smoking, foot-tapping listeners you always notice sitting at tables beside the bandstand at jazzclubs, but by a very fine musician who has actually been 'one of the cats'. O.K., he is a French horn-player, but jazz buffs who are 'in the know' with the work of Julius Watkins and John Graas won't mind. But seriously: His chapters on Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton (some thirty years before the Dirty Dozen Brass Band decided to dedicate a whole CD to the music of this first truly 'jazz composer'), but especially Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington will enlighten everyone who is looking for a critical assesment of the music and is tired of the endless re-telling of the phoney 'romantic' stories surrounding this music. And for the people who think they know about everything: One chapter is enirely dedicated to what is known as 'territory' bands, the bands that only played their home town and the region around it. Many a gem of inspired music can be unearthed in this chapter. P.S. O.K., I'm biased. Mr. Schuller autographed my hardcover copy of the book when he was conducting the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, and I gatecrashed at a rehearsal.

Hardly a stone is left unturned in this look into the early development of jazz. It provides a thorough introduction to a wide range of subjects and artists, carefully reviewing each of numerous recordings.

This is not a biographical account of the lives of the early jazz artists, but is an analysis of the styles and development. From the deep south and the roots of the music, into the Midwest and Southwestern styles, the author is thorough and careful in his look.

Much more than an introduction, this certainly would be suitable for a college course in jazz development.

You don't have to be a musician, you just have love music to get something from this book. You don't even have to love jazz, but if you want to know where it all started and how jazz came to be, starting with the blending of African and European music, this is an excellent book. It's not too complicated for the layman to appreciate. If you can't understand or internalize the charts contained within, don't worry, they are explained well.

You can argue with Schuller, and in fact, that's half the fun. He's not always right, but he's always interesting. If you're listening to early jazz and an unfamiliar band comes on, you'll be unable to resist looking them up in this book, so put the book next to the radio.

the author gunther does a magnifent job of affording a history of the evolution of jazz, this in a most scholarly fashion. thus making at times somewhat academic effecting a use of words whose understanding may be elusive to the ordinary reader.