Customer Reviews

Thinking in Jazz : The Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series)

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The blurb on the back cover of this book has a slight understatement... It begins, "A landmark in jazz studies,"
Not since the advent of the long playing record and the publication of Leonard Feather's "Encyclopedia of Jazz" has anyone made such an enormous, substantive, light shedding contribution to Jazz (outside a recording studio.) This book is a must for everyone... and in fact, its divided into two parts... one which *is* for everyone, and goes into how musicians come up, hone their skills, learn to interact, develop and whatnot, and then the second half, which is more for musicians and features close to 400 pages of musical examples - - a text book in musical studies itself.

As a musician myself, I have long suspected that Jazz isn't just a bunch of patterns and scales. It is a culture, an attitude, an approach, and way of thinking... this book not only confirms it, but it substantively will take you into the mind of its foremost vetarans and practitioners. With its balance between information that's anecdotal as well as analytical, and Berliner's excellent writing style (despite the size of the book, he just draws you in the pages flow by one by one) - - this is must reading...

Almost a half a century ago Leonard Feather told us about the masters, now Berliner draws us into their minds. It is my hope that Jazz students (and fans) alike will begin taking up this book as they begin their journeys, and as a result, it invigorates and revitalizes the music as its never been before !

Paul F Berliner is an ethnomusicologist at Northwestern (his previous book was _The Soul of Mbira_); here he turns his methods to the realm of jazz. His book is organized according to the learning process through which jazz improvisors proceed, from their first picking up an instrument to becoming masters of their art; rather in the mode of an ethnographer, Berliner learned a lot of this first-hand, picking up the trumpet again (he had been a classically-trained trumpeter when younger) to gain experience of how one goes about learning to play jazz. He also interviewed dozens of musicians, both famous players (Max Roach, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz, Fred Hersch, Kenny Barron) & little-known journeymen (usefully, there's a lot of stress on bassists & drummers, who are often overlooked in writings on jazz in favour of charismatic soloists). These interview materials are quoted extensively in the book, & it'd be valuable enough just for that, but it's also a thoughtful, expansive account of how jazz, and jazz musicians, are created. My experience is that the uninitiated tend to either treat improvisation too casually (assuming that anyone with adequate instrumental technique & musical theory can automatically improvise), or with excessive awe: this book is useful for anyone curious about improvisation, & indeed even experienced players & teachers will find it interesting.

One nice feature of the book is the clarity of its organization. The main text is about 500pp long, written in clear, untechnical prose, with only a few illustrating diagrams or musical examples. The majority of the musicial examples are instead placed in a succeeding 250pp section: the high point of this is a series of four _full_ transcriptions of classic jazz recordings. By "full" I don't mean from end-to-end (indeed usually they're only a few choruses): rather, I mean that they are transcriptions of the entire band's activity, not just the soloist's line. The recordings transcribed are: Miles Davis's versions of "Bye Bye Blackbird", "I Thought About You" & "Blues by Five"; & Coltrane's version of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise".

As those names suggest, this book's aesthetic range is fairly narrow: basically bop & hard bop, whether filtered through the classicist bop aesthetic of Barry Harris, the pianist-pedagogue who is one of the book's touchstones; or through the neo-conservative aesthetic of Wynton Marsalis. (The book's other real touchstone, though not actually interviewed, is Betty Carter--a large percentage of the musicians interviewed were at one point Carter's sidemen.) The avantgarde, for instance, only gets a few peeks, notably in the figure of Ronald Shannon Jackson...though again, he's more often cited for his work with Betty Carter than with Cecil Taylor or Ornette Coleman! There is one engaging heart-on-sleeve affection here that upsets this neoclassism, though: Berliner is a big fan of Booker Little, & the text & musical examples frequently turn to his work. Nice to see Little get such sustained attention.

The book is written, as I've said, quite clearly: the downside is that it's a little bland & studiedly impersonal. The interviews are also evidently cleaned up a bit: no humming & hawing or grammatical errors, very little slang, no swear words. While jazz musicians are a very articulate bunch, I somehow doubt the original interviews were quite this smooth.

That's really the only criticism I have of the book. It does of course have its limits--one can imagine a very different book might have resulted if musicians like Charlie Haden, Paul Bley, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell or Sam Rivers were interviewed--but is nonetheless about as accurate an account of the informal, often very much heuristic educational process that leads an aspiring musician from his first efforts towards a mastery of the idiom.

After reading this book, one must admit that Paul Berliner has done his homework, and since the subject is the mammoth topic of the improvised music language, that is no small task. In fact, he states in the opening notes that this work begun as far as the late seventies, and many noted jazz musicians were involved in the concept and contributed to the final product - sharing personal stories, historical notes and specially revising the music examples that contitute a large part of this book. Trying to put a concept such as improvisation in written form, and more than that, trying to organize it in a system that would be helpful to understand and cultivate the protocol represents an amazing challenge to the writer, and I would say that Paul Berliner's approach not only accomplished that, but turned what would be a rather sterile read into a wonderful book. Of course, there are minor complaints (and all of them are subjective, by the way - such an an underlying feeling that he favours sound over form, sometimes dismissing contributions made by non-jazz musicians to the history of improvised music - despite the author's previous work with traditional african music), but what he achieved at the end must be hailed. An *AMAZING* book that will keep aficionados entertained for years.

An absolutely groundbreaking work that cuts through all the misconceptions about improv & tells what it's really like. Honestly, this is the only book of its kind that really resonates with musicians and has this level of scope, clear & cogent writing, organization, musical examples (what transcriptions!), and respected primary sources.

This is the single most comprehensive study that's been done of jazz improvisation, and perhaps of any kind of improvisation, period. Berliner interviewed over 50 working jazz musicians-including name players such as Gary Bartz, Lou Donaldson, Tommy Flanagan, Lee Konitz, Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach, and Red Rodney. He's also transcribed hundreds of musical examples, including rhythm section parts. Berliner discusses every fact of improvisation, learning the craft, influences, practice and rehearsal, riffs and patterns, repertoire, interplay, comping and soloing, emotional impact of performance, venues, the life of working musician, etc.

Requires the ability to read music if you want to follow all of the examples, though there is much you can follow otherwise.

This book is 883 pages. It took me months to read. I couldn't have read it any faster because one page often would set my own imagination to work about the information that Berliner packs into this opus. He as researched and desrcibed obscure details of how jazz/musical learning actually takes place. His book covers a lifetime of learning (jazz often requires at least that much) that musicians experience. This information is useful to people who want to learn how to learn and/or study and play jazz.

An incredible book with a wealth of first-rate information by jazz musicians telling how they learned their craft - and how they think on their feet while improvising. I loved it, as you can guess.

Despite the many pages, this was a very easy read. Berliner does a great job writing in a way that was well-written, yet easy to follow. I don't have a music background; however, I was interested in this read to find out how an expert learns and refines their craft. In this book, Berliner reveals the art of improvisation and how improvisation requires many years of dedication and learning. One cannot just pick up an instrument and begin improvising--even experienced musicians have difficulties with this. It isn't until someone has mastered their skill, learned from mentors, participated in apprenticeships and truly immersed themselves in their craft that they are able to improvise. And, it's a lifelong achievement to get to that point, as there are always ways to refine your craft. Thinking in Jazz explores the passion and the learning involved in being the best at your craft. If you are passionate about music, this is a must read!

Just to note: The last 300 pages or so consists of short musical examples sampling improvised performances by different sources. I wasn't able to benefit too much from this section since I don't have a background in music. But, even if you are like me and lack the musical expertise, the rest of the book is definitely still worth reading.

This is a very well written and thought out book. It is not really an instructional text, but it could be used that way. Most of the book is easy to understand, except for a few technical things here and there that only trained musicians would understand. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to study Jazz in a musical way or people who just want to expand their understanding of music in gereral. This would make a great book to use at universities. The last section of the book contains actual musical examples of what is talked about in previous chapters, so if you can read music this is a great tool for musicians of all levels.

I'm a jazz pianist. All the musicians I know who have read this book think highly of it, and I'm no exception.

It doesn't pretend to be an encyclopedia of everything jazz. It's a study of the nature of jazz improvisation, based upon the author's own experience as a trumpet player and his interviews with (then) living jazz musicians about their personal experiences and recollections.

The "story" is an enlightening one, even to someone like me, who has been a musician for a half century and met some of the people in the book. For jazz lovers and people who just want some insight into this wondrous genre, it's an absorbing read.

For practicing musicians, music students, and anyone else who knows at least some music theory, it's invaluable for its many detailed musical examples, the like of which I've seen nowhere else in any publication.

There's something in this book for everyone who wants to know more about the creative process in jazz.