The History of Jazz Paperback – June 30, 2011

After having purchased and read Gioia's superb book on blues, I naturally wanted to read up on jazz and its history, and this book for the most part is extremely passionate, accurate, and has made points I had thought of myself, such as the indelible influence on jazz from both the blues and especially ragtime, particularly the works of Scott Joplin. I am pleased to have discovered Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Trambauer and ordered an incredible CD featuring the legendary cornetist, saxophonist, and as a plus, some tunes with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang spicing up the tunes. Truly, Beiderbecke, and others of the Chicago early jazz scene lifted the Dixieland New Orleans style from its somewhat flamboyant styles and started the movement that would become swing in a few years.
Plus, my admiration for Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Charlie Christian was verified by Gioia, certainly a far more educated person on jazz than most people ever will be. And this from a guy who also loves metal, blues, classic rock, the early rockers like the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, etc. The musician in me is attracted to so many styles it's ridiculous. We learn of the beginnings of Miles Davis' unbelievable early recordings, including the one album most consider maybe the greatest jazz album of all time, "Kind of Blue". Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, on through fusion and today's state of the genre are all well represented.
However, I must take great exception with this book for a good reason in my opinion, and it cost Gioia a star: he seems nearly indifferent to some of the greatest players ever, mainly the guitarists. And the B-3 organ, especially discounting the great Jimmy Smith and his many many albums with greats like Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green among them. Gioia even goes so far as to consider this form of bebop and hard bop as hackneyed, if you can believe that. Only scant attention is paid to Montgomery, who was and remains the greatest jazz guitarist in history. Eddie Lang is mentioned, as is Django Reinhardt, but only Charlie Christian in the author's mind seems to merit more than just passing commentary.
I find this one sided and unfair. Fact is, jazz guitar reaches more people, with titans like Burrell especially on his magnum opus "Midnight Blue" playing with an incredible combination of blues and hard bop style. No less guitar greats than Jimi Hendrix, who loved Burrell and Stevie Ray Vaughan sung his praises, with Vaughan performing a fine cover of "Chitlins Con Carne" Grant Green is receiving more attention now, ironically as he died from drug abuse in 1979. But his funky stylings are still popular, as are his brilliant earlier recordings with Sonny Clarke, Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey.
Pat Metheny is mentioned, but consider this list of guitarists Gioia deigned to even acknowledge, preferring instead to obsess over horn players and pianists as if guitars were hardly worthy of his attention. At no point do we read about George Van Eps, Pat Martino, Jimmy Bruno, Danny Gatton's fine jazz output, Russell Malone, or the incredible Stanley Jordan. Nor do we get any mention of Mike Stern, and other well known players.
This is not an oversight - it's a disrespectful and deliberate commentary on what Gioia clearly considers an instrument worthy of mention only in the most unavoidable instances. This is puzzling, as he clearly understands guitar music as evidenced by his book on the blues.
But the history of the wonderful world of jazz music is still well worth the time to read. I will not disparage other instrumentalists endemic to the form, but I must confess as a guitar player, I am biased about the exclusion of its importance. Frankly to me, monosyllabic instruments that can only play one note at a time are severely limited in their scope and have to rely on other musicians for chord colorings, expressive solos, etc. I really have difficulty telling one saxophone player from another unless the style is unusually prominent. For example, Coleman Hawkins, one of the longest lived heroes of jazz has a more laid back approach than John Coltrane. Benny Goodman managed to forge a distinct style on the clarinet, and Miles Davis in his "cool" phase had a great tone. The less said about his material beginning with "Bitches Brew" the better in my view, as it remains to me a convoluted unfocused barrage of tones that are the aural equivalent of pretentious and frankly, worthless modern art.
We are unlikely to see a more complex but readable history of the jazz world, however, and Gioia's research and knowledge are indeed encyclopedic. Just expect a LOT of coverage on saxophones.

If you happen to be new to the subject of jazz history - as I was 17 years ago when I read the first edition of this book, in paperback - then this book is a very good place to start. Back then I had only a minimal knowledge of the big names and movements in jazz history, but I was very eager to expand my jazz knowledge beyond the "smooth jazz" that was ruling the airwaves at the time. This is a great deal of information and I learned so much the first time (and ended up buying a lot of great CDs as a result), but many of the names and their stories went over my head. Also, logistically the paperback version features large pages, very long chapters, and small print. So it was very challenging to read when there wasn't much "white space".

Fast forward 17 years, to the second edition (on my Kindle, so I can adjust the print size), and on the second swipe of this book the pieces began to fall in to place. This is not a quick, easy read and when the author mentions styles of music and cites specific songs - you just want the book to jump out and start playing these songs! I heard spotify is a good way to do this but it would take months to finish the book if you tried to hear everything. The best "sound" companion to this would be the Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary from 2000, which I have watched several times. It's not completely comprehensive, that would take five times as long, but you can hear a lot of the styles and learn some of the basics. Then you can start enjoying America's greatest contribution to music. And you'll have your favorites as I do: Billie Holiday (what's my dog's name?), Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and so many more...

Ted Gioia writes a very unbiased book on the history of jazz. Many of the documentaries/books have lots of opinions, but Ted Gioia tries to remain neutral. We had to read this book for my first year in Jazz Studies at the Eastman School of Music