Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond [Hardcover]

Doug Ramsey (Author), Malcolm Harris (Editor), Dave Brubeck (Foreword), Iola Brubeck (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0961726679 | ISBN-13: 978-0961726676 | Publication Date: March 2005 | Edition: 1st

Extensive biography of jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond, one of the major jazz figures of all time, written by noted jazz critic Doug Ramsey. Large format (10x11"), hard bound with dust jacket, 372 pages, 190 photos, matte paper; complete with discography of all Desmond recordings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... attractive combination of affection and candor... A serious, thoughtful book, as lucidly written as a first-class literary biography..." -- Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

"A major piece of jazz scholarship, the book cuts no corners." -- Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

"Every jazz musician should be lucky enough to get a biography as thoroughly researched and luxuriously produced." -- Paul deBarros, Seattle Times

"Rarely in the annals of jazz biography has a subject's career been documented so thoroughly... a monumental work." -- Downbeat Magazine, July, 2005

...an invaluable addition to jazz literature. I knew Paul Desmond, but I found so much more I did not know. -- Nat Hentoff, noted critic and jazz writer

The detail of the research is astonishing. The writing is exquisite. I've never seen a biography like it. -- Gene Lees, Editor of "The Jazz Letter"

This is the finest biography we've had of an important jazz figure. -- Dan Morgenstern (Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies)

About the Author

Doug Ramsey is a veteran print and television journalist, who has written extensively on jazz and jazz personalities.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Parkside Publications, Inc.; 1st edition (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961726679
• ISBN-13: 978-0961726676
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure delight, but not nearly exhaustive enough, April 23, 2005

By 

R. LaRue (Crozet, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond (Hardcover)

If you have, like me, have been wondering for years why no one has written a biography of Paul Desmond before now (Desmond died over a quarter of a century ago), and if you are, like me, a long term fan of his music, then--again, like me--you will probably be both thrilled and disappointed by this book.

The only thing really wrong with it is...it just isn't enough. What is there is wonderful--especially a treasure trove of letters to and from Desmond and his father, from which Ramsey pulls long passages. The photos, too, are terrific, with many pictures of Desmond as a youth, and throughout his career. Most importantly, his early life in music is extraordinarily well documented. Ramsey has really done his homework here.

Sadly, though, his mature working life (mostly with the Dave Brubeck Quartet)is given very short shrift. I don't know whether the information was not available, or whether Mr. Ramsey just got tired of the research and writing and wanted to get the book out; but the end result is that we have almost no story of Desmond's many concert tours or studio sessions.

For example the DBQ's trip through Eastern Europe (musically recorded as "Jazz Impressions of Eurasia" is not covered in any depth, and DBQ's trip to Japan, from which came the wonderful album. "Jazz Impressions of Japan," is not mentioned at all. Nor is there any mention of how the songs on these albums came to be written or recorded.

What was a practice session with the Quartet like? We are not told. What happened in the studio, what was the give and take? WE have no idea. In fact, we get very little insight into the life and music of Desmond the recording artist in the studio, or the man and his music on the road.

WE also do not have much in the way of his evaluation by the critics or other musicians. True, the commentaries of the musicians he worked closely with have been searched out, but I would have expected more anecdotes about other players comments. True -there are several solo transcriptions and commentaries by musicians and scholars but these do little to give us and idea of how other musicians

Even more annoying is Ramsey's tendency to quote himself, from liner notes and reviews, and to also quote liberally from already published material. If you've tried to read everything you can find about Desmond, then you've already read a sizeable chunk of the book in other sources.

Still, I suppose it is rare that the first biography of a great public figure is also exhaustive. This book will be like a delicious slice of cake. The only sad part is you can't have another, not yet, at any rate.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, September 11, 2005

By 

Scott Leslie "tinman2000" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond (Hardcover)

Paul Desmond was once one of the most well-known figures of jazz, stemming from his fame with "Take Five" and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. And with all his mysteries, self-destructive habits and enigmatic qualities, it seems like he would be the perfect subject for a biography. So it's a bit of a shock that "The Public & Private Lives of Paul Desmond" is his first and only biography and appears nearly thirty years after his death.

Luckily, many of his contemporaries, friends, and fellow musicians like Jim Hall and Dave Brubeck are still around so author and Paul's one-time friend Doug Ramsey does a pretty solid job here getting their take on the man. Ramsey also leans heavily on dozens of writings Desmond left behind so you get a extremely personal look at how Paul lived, worked and saw the world.

In terms of drawbacks, however, there are many. Ramsey seems to rely almost exclusively on letters at times as if he couldn't be bothered to dig deeper (for instance, Paul's childhood is particularly sketchy and has several gaps). I was really looking forward to this book because I'm a huge fan of the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet and detailed stories on them are surprisingly few and far between. And Ramsey does do a strong job developing the Brubeck/Desmond tandem and their various quartets - until 1958 that is. Then Ramsey tends to gloss over most of the classic Quartet's albums and much of their history. For instance, why did clarinetist Bill Smith sub for Paul on several albums? Why did Dave keep Paul in the group when he became unreliable and began missing concert dates? And just how did the classic Quartet work together in the studio? Ramsey doesn't always tell us.

There's a lot of patchwork here. Ramsey throws a lot of things into the mix like concert reviews, articles, some extraneous reviews of Desmond songs by other musicians, etc. so sometimes the book doesn't quite gel. And will someone please tell Doug to give it a rest with the grandstanding? There's several pictures of Doug, several past articles and reviews by Doug, and a monster author bio of Doug that could be a book in itself!

I'm also assuming Parkside Publications was really rushing it with the production on this book because there are spelling mistakes all over the place. Coming from a publishing background, I probably noticed more than most - but there was at least one or two every few pages. It doesn't spoil your reading of the book certainly, and the generous photos and layout are fantastic, but c'mon, all those mistakes are just embarrassing.

However, Ramsey's limitations don't take away from the fact that Paul Desmond's story is simply fascinating, and this was a book I didn't want to end. (Even more so given the scant books out there on Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, the whole classic Quartet era, and the unlikely possibility there are more on the horizon.) In the end, it uncovers a man that was funny, intriguing, secretive, multi-faceted, and in many ways, very sad considering he died relatively young with so much left unanswered, and was really beginning to come into his own musically after a prolonged creative dry spell. And maybe Paul Desmond's a forgotten man today. But Ramsey's book makes a strong case that he doesn't deserve to be.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars dense text, great layout, July 24, 2005

By 

M. Bauer "M." (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond (Hardcover)

"Take Five" offers a huge amout of historical information about Paul Desmond. It is beautifully illustrated, with photos, copies of letters, and a few transcriptions of solos. It is a large, heavy, coffee table book.
Don't expect a flowing, narrative biography of Desmond's life. This book is more a collection of chronologically organized facts and extensive quotations. A great resource for anyone interested in Desmond, but it reads more like a research volume than an absorbing biography of a wonderful musician.