Customer Reviews

Jazz for Beginners (Beginner's Documentary Comic Books, 42)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's funny. It also takes the subject by the horn(s). The passion of this music needs a voice that understands that you cannot build the house of jazz history with the master's tools...so it takes a different approach to the history, one that uses the "for beginners" form as a way of talking politics. That makes this volume essential for a basic understanding for what is at stake in the history of jazz. This is what Ken Burns (and my old friend Wynton) need as a corrective. No, I don't agree with all of it...but that outcome should always make one suspicious...

A Review by Tony Caramia, from the American Music Teacher magazine

'Jazz for Beginners might be a mislead­ing title in a magazine like American Mu­sic Teacher. It is not a method book instructing beginning students on which lick to play in a blues progression; nor does it show how to harmonize a song with fancy jazz harmonies. Rather, it is a book written for the adult who knows nothing about this most unique, American contribution to the musical landscape of the twentieth century. Jazz for Beginners outlines each of the major periods of jazz's development, "from the brassy opti­mism of Dixieland, through the fierce dignity of Bebop, onto the fusion of Jazz-Rock and Jazz HipHop."

'This book is a "Beginners Documen­tary Comic Book," and as such contains many fine pictures, etchings and drawings of the jazz musicians, instruments, places and recordings described. In addi­tion, the author provides a kind of running commentary throughout the narra­tive that, although occasionally bordering on the opinionated, helps to maintain the personal (and frequently humorous), style that eventually endears one to the book and the subject. For example: on each page, David asks questions (set in boldtype) that he then answers, such as "Aren't there any MALE Jazz Singers?" His answer: "Yes, of course...but nobody's sure who they are! Joe Williams is a blues singer. Or Jazz singer. Or both? (Whatever the hell he is, he's good!)." The language used in the book is true, fundamental, of the street and uncensored. It is not "dirty" or offensive; it is real, unfiltered, emotional and heartfelt--like the music it describes.

'David sprinkles quotations from jazz critics, musicians, magazines, record jackets and other jazz books on virtually every page, lending an interesting and eclectic format to his narrative; we get historical fact mixed with fiction, contemporary perspectives ultimately proven inaccurate like, "Bebop has set music back 20 years."

'I was fascinated by this book, its bold and riveting statements, its unbridled attempt to humanize the music, and to define jazz as more than a series of musical sounds. The author suggests that "Listening to a great Jazz solo is the closest I will ever get to being in a room with Einstein when he flashes on his Theory of Relativity...I am there with him at the moment he is creating it." There are many moments of profound insight, deeply personal observations from the author and the musicians who created the music, as well as those who participate in its ongoing evolution. This is a book for serious musicians, for open-minded individuals who seek knowledge and intellectual stimulation. Most importantly, this book is for those who strive to understand human beings as they struggle to survive and grow. Jazz is a music that, for so many, provides a means for self-expression, an outlet for the intense pain they feel. This book graphically and poignantly depicts their heroic efforts.'

Reviewed by Tony Caramia, Rochester, New York

AUTHOR RON DAVID'S COMMENT:
I do not know Tony Caramia, the reviewer. Never even emailed him to thank him for his review, which perfectly captures my intentions.
I openly and intentionally repeated that everything in Jazz for Beginners was MY opinion. I did that for two reasons: 1) to emphasize the FACT that virtually EVERY statement on Jazz (including who is/isn't a jazz musician) is nothing but the author's OPINION; 2) to encourage each reader to form his/her own OPINION fearlessly, passionately and unapologetically in the spirit in which Jazz is created.

1. I had no intention of conveying 'hate' for anyone, only giving credit where credit is due.
2. Scott LeFaro is indeed an important musician, but (in my opinion) LeFaro was a bassist for sophisticated, experienced listeners--not for Beginners. (Even so, every musician I did not mention leaves a little hole in the book.)
Thank all of you for caring enough to review the book.

As much as I would like to rate this book more positvely I really can't. Not only do I find the author's tone very arrogant at times but because the book is supposed to be an introduction for new jazz lovers the highly personal tone and comments the author makes about certain jazz styles and musicians is very innapropriate. How can someone who turns to this book for help in understanding jazz, sort through the biases the author has towards certain artists if this is their first jazz reading? I'm also sorry to say that the book also appears to have not gone through a proof-reading...there are several (10+) spelling mistakes in the first chapter alone. I suggest you browse through it at your library rather than buy it.

I bought this book for a college course called The History of Jazz and the Blues. I thoroughly enjoyed the other text we used for the course, which dealt with the blues half of the class. This book, however, I found to be poorly organized, biased from a musical standpoint, and just plain hateful and racist towards white people. I took the course and read the book to help me learn something about the culture and the music of jazz, which at the time I had very little exposure to. I was really amazed that this book would be taken seriously by anyone by the way it downplays the role and flat-out says racist remarks towards whites, calling them "palefaces" and such. It's a joke to believe that racism will ever end with that kind of hate speech being said. Blacks played a huge influence in not only the shaping of jazz music, but nearly every other kind of American music as well. From Stephen Foster to Scott Joplin to Robert Johnson to Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix, anyone who knows ANYTHING about American music isn't going to try to rob the credit that is rightfully due to blacks in shaping it. However, that doesn't need to be done in a hateful, childish way. There is a major difference between pride and hate, and clearly Ron David doesn't know that. I feel that it is important to know the history of the struggle that the music came out of, and that whites and blacks both respect the foundations of each others' music and how it came to be. Discrediting people like Benny Goodman and F. Scott Fitzgerald is a joke. Saying that Elvis only "ripped off black music" is a joke. Elvis and Benny Goodman wouldn't have said that they "invented" their music from scratch any more than a black musician would have said that. Music builds on the music before it; out of ragtime came jazz, for example. Suggesting that someone was innovative does not have to mean that they invented something out of nothing, and I'm sure they would say the same. Save your money and buy a good jazz CD instead.

Another in the seemingly endless series of "...for Beginners" books that began with a few Marxist tomes but later expanded into other areas. There are some useful bits and pieces here, but overall it's a rather narrow selection that spends too much time on the politics and history and not nearly enough on the music. Mingus is given a number of pages, and rightly so, given his stature as a composer and bassist- but there's not much about his music or why it's worth listening to. But where's Scott LaFaro? He was possibly even more influential than Mingus in redefining moden jazz bass playing, but there's nary a mention of him. There are too many omissions of this sort. Not one of the better books from this group, and not a good choice for someone interested in exploring jazz