The Oxford Companion to Jazz [Hardcover]

Bill Kirchner (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2000

Jazz and its colorful, expansive history resonate in this unique collection of 60 essays specially-commissioned from today's top jazz performers, writers, and scholars, including Bill Crow, Gerald Early, Samuel A. Floyd Jr., Ted Gioia, Gene Lees, Max Morath, Dan Morgenstern, Gunther Schuller, Richard M. Sudhalter, and Patricia Willard. Both a reference book and an engaging read, this Companion surveys the evolution of jazz from its roots in Africa and Europe to today. Along the way, each distinctive style and period is profiled by an expert in the field. Whether your preference is ragtime, the blues, bebop, or fusion, you will find the chief characteristics and memorable performances illuminated here with a thoroughness found in no other single-volume jazz reference.
The Oxford Companion to Jazz features individual biographies of the most memorable characters of this relatively young art form. Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and the divas of jazz song--Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan--come to life in thoughtful considerations of their influences, often turbulent personal lives, and signature styles. In addition, this book looks at the impact of jazz on American culture--literature, film, television, and dance--and explores the essential instruments of jazz and their most memorable players. Looking beyond the U.S., the commissioned jazz authorities also consider its profound interaction with the music of Brazil, Latin America, Europe, Japan, Africa, and Canada and Australia.
Authoritative and concise, The Oxford Companion to Jazz provides a quick reference source as well as a dynamic and broad overview for all lovers of jazz, from novices to aficionados.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This new collection of 60 essays surveys the entire history of jazz and purports to contain "a thoroughness found in no other single jazz reference." The essays, written by 59 current jazz performers, writers, and scholars, are much longer than the typical Oxford Companion entry. The average length is 13 pages, although the range is anywhere from 7 to 22 pages. There is one black-and-white photograph per article. The essays provide overviews of different styles and periods. Other topics include the roots of jazz, biographies of performers, examinations of individual jazz instruments, an analysis of the impact of jazz on American culture, and a discussion of jazz outside the U.S. Arrangement is loosely chronological.

Does this volume rival the 1,358-page New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (1988) for the title of "most comprehensive dictionary of jazz ever published"? Possibly. Although the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz is arguably more reference-friendly because of its alphabetical arrangement and see also references, the Oxford book has an excellent index. However, because of the essay format, it is sometimes difficult to find information on a specific performer or term. For this reason, some libraries may wish to consider putting this volume in the circulating rather than in the reference collection.

The scope of the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and the Oxford Companion to Jazz is similar, although Grove offers unique, unparalleled coverage of jazz nightclubs, festivals, and libraries and archives with significant jazz collections. Unlike Grove, which provides bibliographies and selected recordings at the end of individual entries, Oxford only offers a selected bibliography at the back of the book and an "Index of Songs and Recordings" to facilitate finding where a song is discussed in an essay.

Though Grove was reprinted in 1994, it was not updated. The Oxford book includes a greater number of recent jazz artists. In an informal search for 27 current jazz artists, 50 percent of them were mentioned in Oxford, while only 25 percent were found in Grove. For example, Grove appears to exclude drummers Joey Baron and Dennis Chambers, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and more-mainstream musicians like Joshua Redman and Jo Lovano, all of whom are mentioned in Oxford. Some of the current artists also appear in another Oxford publication, Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999).

Libraries with a jazz collection will find this new volume a welcome addition, whether its purpose is to act as a reference resource or provide insightful stack reading. According to Kirchner, the intended audience is everyone, from novices to seasoned jazz aficionados; the book does indeed have a wide range of appeal. Some of the essays are downright scholarly, while others are less erudite in tone (though not in content). Recommended for all university, college, and public libraries with patrons interested in jazz. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"More than a treatise on jazz, this book is a compilation of articles on all phases of the music, contributed by musicians and professional writers who speak for the art firsthand. Highly recommended for everyone interested in jazz."--Benny Carter

"No book on jazz has ever attempted the scope of this monumental collection of 60 studies by 59 writers. Commissioned and organized by editor Bill Kirchner into an interlocking mosaic, its 800 pages examine and evaluate every aspect of the origins, ongoing development, and offshoots of jazz--and its myriad personalities--to a degree which makes this the one indispensable publication in the field. The Oxford Companion to Jazz is both a reference work for the serious scholar and a rewarding book to be dipped into by the casual reader"--George Avakian

"This work is an effective single-volume device, leading current listeners to the music while including enough newer scholarship to retain the interest of connoisseurs."--Library Journal

"An ambitious panorama of genres, biographies and analyses... a durable addition to the literature of music...these essays should lead to an irresistible urge to hear more."--Nat Hentoff, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The Oxford Companion to Jazz probes every aspect of the music, from the rhythmic virtuosity of ragtime and stride piano, to the transformation of jazz from music for happy feet to cerebral bebop for the mind...Like jazz itself, The Oxford Companion to Jazz marries form and imagination." --John Mark Eberhart, The Kansas City Star

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 864 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st edition (October 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019512510X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195125108
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,232,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a gold mine!, June 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Oxford Companion to Jazz (Hardcover)

Somewhere on earth there is probably a jazz musician who does not know Bill Kirchner. But he or she must be in deep cover; Kirchner is known and esteemed by jazz people all over the U.S. and abroad. Oxford could not have chosen a better editor for this compact but wide-ranging volume than Kirchner: composer, arranger, saxophonist, historian, record and radio producer, educator, leader of the Bill Kirchner Nonet, and all around class act. The book begins with an astute pairing of historical essays -- Samuel A. Floyd Jr.'s "African Roots of Jazz" and William H. Youngren's "European Roots of Jazz" -- and with vigor and style takes it from there. This is not a mechanical or academic collection. Rather it reflects the savvy, open-mindedness, erudition, and general panache of its editor's musical intelligence. Like the finest of the big bands, the result is unique, quirky, highly flavored and accented -- and not to be missed!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the Novice and Specialist, March 1, 2003

By 

Lauren S. Kahn (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Oxford Companion to Jazz (Hardcover)

OK, I will be up front about this: Bill Kirchner is married to my sister. So, I am biased. He is a very nice guy and my sister is nice too. I wouldn't harm them.

Having said that, my sister (who is also a musician) may be married to the author but I know very little about jazz. I fall into the category of people who have heard about the major musicians but really do not understand improvisation; I can't read music. So, I bought this book as a family obligation and with some trepidation.

Wow! This, I can read! The articles are well written and even a jazz ignoramus like me can understand most of them. If you are a novice as I am, you will learn a lot and also be able to understand more of what you are hearing when you listen to the music. I know I want to buy more DVD's--including Bill Kirchner's, of course.

For those of you who know jazz, I am certain that some of the articles in this comprehensive book will tell you things that you never knew. Others will enhance what you already knew. This book should be in everyone's history library--and not just in the libraries of jazz fanatics--because jazz is the gift America has given to the music world and is synthesized from contributions by many of our immigrant groups.

Enjoy and listen up!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A great compendium of early to mid fifties jazz!, September 7, 2005

By 

Hugh Mckee "Jim" (SEQ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oxford Companion to Jazz (Oxford Companions) (Paperback)

This gets three stars due to its lack of material dealing with the current scene. The stuff on the fifties and and earlier is the main focus of this book, with some excellent discussion of particular players. It is Amerocentric, I guess thats understandable as jazz is an American idiom, but there is a lot of great jazz in Europe and Japan too.
Perhaps a better title woudl have been "The Oxford Companion to classic American Jazz."