Customer Reviews

Jazz

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I spent most of my liesure time & all of my discretionary funds for about 20 years trying to hear as much of jazz history as possible. I hosted a public radio jazz program for 18 of those years. I bought a copy of this book to lend to friends who ask me how to begin learning about jazz. It walks thru all the instruments & all the styles, & describes a fine initial library of CDs.

One small caveat: Fordham is British & has a slightly higher opinion of British jazz in general than American critics have. I love John Surman & Mike Westbrook & Tony Oxley & their fellows, but I automatically deduct half a star (figuratively speaking) from Fordham's reviews of his countrymen.

While this book is very well illustrated and contains much information, there are many key jazz trumpeters who are missing. Some that come to mind are Harry James, Doc Severnson, Leon Merian, Al Hirt, Arturo Sandoval (who Dizzy Gillespie sponsored when he requested political asylum from Cuba while on tour), and Maynard Ferguson. While there is a page on Bix Beiderbecke in chapter 3, he is the only white player in the entire chapter. There are many good white and Latino trumpet players.

In fact, Leon Merian was well ahead of his time. He was the first white trumpet player playing with a black band and had to sleep on the bus because he wasn't allowed in the black hotels. Unfortunately, segregation worked both ways. Unlike Bix, Leon is still playing strong at 75, is active in the industry (patented Jet-Tone mouthpieces), conducts clinics for trumpet players, and is an active member of the International Trumpet Guild.

Probably the best trumpet player of all time received only short notice--Wynton Marsalis. Perhaps because he is so young? To not include him as a jazz giant is overlooking his awesome abilities. Hopefully, Mr. Fordham is writing a complete book on just Mr. Marsalis--a truly remarkable, gifted, and generous trumpeter.

This is still a great book, there is just another one out there that Mr. Fordham can write to include the rest of the trumpet greats.

The chapter on the instruments is outstanding. It is both accurate and well illustrated.

I definately recommend this book as an essential element of a good jazz library.

This is a colorful, almost frenetically designed overview which touches on all aspects of jazz from its history to an anatomy of individual instruments and a discussion of techniques.

Of particular interest are the short biographies of 20 jazz greats and a discography. Among those profiled are Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Each bio includes a performance photo of the artist and a box showing key recordings, musical partners and styles. The discography is arranged by musical style from early singers to swing, bebop, modal jazz and fusion.

An excellent introduction and reference.

Sonny Rollins preface states this is a comprehensive and substantial book, and who can disagree with the Saxophone Colossus? This Jazz history is short, but rich on texture. The pictures included in the timelines are remarkable, such as Louis Armstrong first cornet, or a program cover from the 1949 Paris Jazz festival. The book, published in 1993, includes history through 1989, and includes such people as Wynton Marsalis, Keith Jarrett, and Brit Courtney Pine. The jazz giants section gives a little more history of key figures, and features some great pictures as Miles and Bird together, or Lester Young sitting back with pork pie hat. The gallery of classic recording could fuel anyone's collection for years, and many have been re-released on CD now.

I am not a musician but the section on the anatomy of instruments, provides a good introduction to such things as circular breathing on the saxophone or walking on the bass. I would have gotten more out of the techniques if I could read music, but was still useful in explaining such things as modal harmony, and even jazz dance.

I was given this book as a gift when I was just starting my jazz collection, and it has proved invaluable. It includes an overview of the history and development on the forms of jazz, a section on each of the major instruments, and a section containing one to two page biographies of some of jazz's legends that make for good reading while listening to their work. The best part, however, has to be the 'gallery of classic recordings'. Whenever I feel the urge to expand my collection I turn to the back and page through until something catches my eye. The reviews given have been dead on so far, and cover virtually all styles of jazz.

The only book I've read that gives a fairly complete overview of Jazz up until the modern era i.e. to include modern Jazz Icons.

I have the hardback edition of this (a large book 12" x 10") and its a great volume to get. First published in the UK in 1993 it covers the full spectrum of Jazz from its very humble origins in the 19th century right through to the very best contemporary recordings available at the time it was published. In short a 100 years of Jazz is covered.

Unlike some of the other excellent Jazz guides (like the AMG one for example) this doesn't attempt to cover every single album by every single major Jazz artist. What you get is a beautifully photographed section on the many different eras of Jazz with full colour pictures of the most important albums made, together recording details musicians and a brief appraisal of the album. So for example 'Early Funk' and 'Mainstream' both have 8 albums listed each.

Other areas of the book include 'Jazz Giants' in which Fordham writes knowledgably about 20 of the greatest artists including Scott Joplin, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett.

There are also sections on 'Techniques' (including harmony improvisation etc) as well as 'An anatomny of Instruments' (the voice, Trumpet, keyboards etc).

Its all very well written and whilst there are plenty of books out there that cover these different areas in a lot more detail, I have yet to find one that covers all these different aspects of Jazz as well as this one. Buy now before it disappears!