The Parisian Jazz Chronicles: An Improvisational Memoir [Hardcover]

Mr. Mike Zwerin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2005

In his Beat-like jaunt through the Parisian and European jazz scene, Mike Zwerin is not unlike Jack Kerouac, Mezz Mezzrow, or Hunter S. Thompson—writers to whom, for different reasons, he owes some allegiance. What makes him special is his devotion to the troubled musicians he idolizes, and a passion for music that is blessedly contagious.

Many jazz fans will know Mike Zwerin for his witty, irreverent, and undeniably hip music reviews and articles in the International Herald Tribune that have entertained us for decades. Based in Paris, or, rather, stuck there, as Zwerin likes to say, he has been a music critic for the Trib since 1979. Zwerin also had a distinguished career as a trombonist. When he was just eighteen years old, he was invited by Miles Davis to play alongside Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and Max Roach in the band that was immortalized as The Birth of the Cool.

The Parisian Jazz Chronicles offers an engaging personal account of the jazz scene in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. Zwerin writes lovingly but unsparingly about figures he knew and interviewed— such as Dexter Gordon, Freddy Heineken, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Chet Baker, Wayne Shorter, and Melvin Van Peebles. Against this background, Zwerin tells about his own life—split allegiances to journalism and music, and to America and France, his solitary battle for sobriety, a failing marriage, and fatherhood.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In his deliberately digressive memoir, Zwerin applies the style and spirit of improvisational jazz to the form of memoir. As a longtime columnist for the International Herald Tribune and a trombonist who has played with Miles Davis, Zwerin brings intimate knowledge of both forms to the task. At the outset, it is unclear whether this can be a successful project: how exactly do the rhythms and improvisations of jazz translate to the page? Zwerin adopts multiple personalities, writes about himself in the third person, mixes in unused nuggets from his Trib columns and evaluates his memoir as he writes it. ("The multiple identities...are clumsy devices and probably cop-outs," "This is beginning to sound like a Viagra commercial.") But perseverance pays off: what is initially troublesome reading gels as Zwerin finds his groove and larger arcs unfold (expatriatism, the future of jazz and, most notably, his heroin addiction), and his storytelling tricks turn into excellent writing, taking the reader on junkets from Parisian cafes to Mogador as Zwerin-imagining himself as a double agent-reports and gigs and partakes in many, many heroin "sniffettes." The juiciest sections are the profiles of musicians like Davis, Chet Baker and Bob Dylan. Zwerin gives the reader intimate access to these musicians and produces unexpectedly graceful essays. Ultimately, it is Zwerin himself who must carry the story; it's a responsibility he's hesitant to accept, but he does, and it is his battle with heroin and to understand himself that provides the heart beneath the orchestrated misdirection.
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Review

"Mike Zwerin's insider's take on the musician's life follows Miles Davis in knowing what notes not to play: he sees everything, and says just enough. Zwerin has written inimitably for decades, and this book raises his work to new expressive heights. The clear-eyed, bleakly honest closing chapters lead to an earned, effervescent, ultra-Parisian turnaround and climax a stylish ramble through the obliquities of hip intercontinental life. A masterly take on cosmopolitan culture in our time."-Rafi Zabor, author of The Bear Comes Home and I,Wabenzi (Rafi Zabor )

"Mike has lived it and played it with the best. His transatlantic home has a rather beautiful and complicated relationship with jazz. Let this great journalist be your guide."-Robert Wyatt, musician (Robert Wyatt )

"Jazz musicians are by nature secret agents, meaning as they travel and perform throughout the world, they observe and take notes . . . all to be digested and used for source material in their art. Zwerin does just that, examining everything from language to the music and all of life in between. His observations on the differences between French and American culture warrant the price of admission, not to mention his insights into Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and other notables. Zwerin takes you for a ride that is informative, entertaining, and as hip as it gets."-David Liebman, jazz saxophonist (David Liebman )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (November 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300108060
• ISBN-13: 978-0300108064
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,875,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars my favourite hipster, May 27, 2010

By 

Kenneth Lutes "music lover" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Parisian Jazz Chronicles: An Improvisational Memoir (Hardcover)

I loved Parisian Jazz Chronicles. Very sorry to have found out about MZ's death in the past month. What a guy! Plenty Renaissance for me. I found a copy in a remainder bin on a neighbourhood walk in Vancouver BC. To hear from a real jazz man, dedicated lifelong player, great writer, Birth of the Cool band alumnus etc with such a communicative genius, hanging himself out to dry as required for honesty's sake. Tough with you, tough with me, romantic, fair, I love that. Hipster pretensions not always where you'd expect them to be located. One of my favourite lives. Sorry not to have encountered him earlier on, made some time.

Ken Lutes

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great gift!, December 6, 2005

By 

Paris Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Parisian Jazz Chronicles: An Improvisational Memoir (Hardcover)

Put this on your holiday gift list for the jazz fan who has everything - or who thinks he or she knows everything. This is not, as might be expected, a collection of Zwerin's columns for The International Herald Tribune, though that would have been a fine thing, too. This is, rather, a collection of riffs improvised out in the margins of those columns: what the interview subjects were really like, what was going on in the author's life, the vagaries of travelling around Europe in search of true jazz, the real thing, an authentic self. Lyrically written, it swings.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bonjour, hepcat, February 22, 2006

By 

David Meltzer (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Parisian Jazz Chronicles: An Improvisational Memoir (Hardcover)

Zwerin is no doubt an interesting cat -- not unlike David Amram -- deeply invested in a complicated past -- musician on the Birth of the Cool sessions -- expat in Paris & invaluable jazz columnist for the international Herald Tribune (the rag Jean Seberg peddled in 'Breathless') -- his cut & paste memoirs are so coy & cloying that this reader had to aggressivley cut through the grease to the scattered gems & direct-hits -- sketchy & self-lathering, these episodes can't quite reach beyond the vanity press ka ka -- the lingering odor of vanity w/ slithery insights & veritas are deeply bogged down by hep hip narrative-- Zwerin's book on the jazz scene in wartime Paris is much more sustained & useful -- check it out --