Customer Reviews

Jazz: The First Century

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This textbook covers basically all aspects of jazz. From the music's multi-cultured roots to the swing revival and every era in between, Jazz: The First Century presents a comprehensive timeline of ground breaking musicians(famous and obscure), and their most memorable compositions and recordings. The book shows how history influenced jazz, and likewise how jazz influenced history. It brings alive the original brass bands in New Orleans; the heyday of the prohibition years in Chicago, including Joe "King" Oliver's band showcasing Louis Armstrong on cornet; the development of styles such as swing, bebop, and fusion; and the rest of the world's interpretations of the music that grew up in America. I recommend this book to jazz enthusiasts who want a biography of the music, musicians who need a reference to classic jazz recordings, or anyone even remotely interested in recent music history. Did I mention that there is a list of key jazz albums? Also, a great index and many images!

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This book provides a superb overview of jazz, written by 28 leading experts. I have been listening to jazz for years, but have longed for a good, balanced, interesting overview of the subject that hits all the highlights. This one does that, and more. The 300 illustrations and the judicious, informative captions are worth the price of the book alone. Each chapter ends with a list of ten essential CDs, and there are more guides to listening in the back of the book. I learned a lot from the many sidebars, too, such as "Women in Jazz," "Jazz Standards," "Jazz in the Movies." A handsomely designed, great read!

now this is the kind of Book that I call must reading because it covers a Form of Music&the People that molded&brought it to Life in a Rich Classy way.it explores so many areas&brings it all back to home without missing a beat.this Book is a History Lesson on so many things.Jazz is a Wide range topic all onto itself&this Book Explores that&so much more.