Customer Reviews

The Oxford Companion to Jazz

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

 

 

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!

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!

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."

This a valuable book. How could it not be with more than 800 pages and contributions from such exemplary jazz writers as Gunther Schuler and Dan Morgenstern? But how much better a guide it would be if it also included articles by our best jazz critic, Gary Giddins. I strongly recommend Giddins's Weather Bird and Duke Ellington as supplements to this volume.
Ben Sonnenberg, New York

In this 60 essay-800 page-book, you can find almost everything about jazz, from its roots to the latests developements of the music, major artists and styles, jazz and literature, jazz and film, jazz clubs, jazz in Japan... Whether you are a novice or a jazzoholic, there is a lot to learn about this wonderful music. Hundred stars!

Mohamed SOULE

This a fantastic resource. It lists in nice tight graphs everything you'd want to know about jazz, except it left out some major festivals like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Not of detail for that see Our Heritage In The making, By Brian Federico. But this has it all and its a great book to have on your end table to read the little bits that may lead you to other bits from its cross referencing notes. Good Buy for the jazz expert.