Hey! There's a New Lee Morgan Bio Coming Out!

[Dan Gould]

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=132323

Looks like the author is more interested in Lee's music and life than his own beliefs about race relations, as the earlier Morgan bio was. Of course, for me, in-depth musical discussion will be just as much of a slog, the question is which type of slogging do I want? If there is a decent amount of biographical insight (according to the blurb, he had "had exclusive access to Lee Morgan's now-deceased brother, who was able to provide unparalleled insight into Morgan's personal and family life.") I think this is the bio I'll finally purchase.

[connoisseur series500]

Sounds good!

[sidewinder]

I enjoyed the previous Lee biography - didn't have a problem with the race relations angle as I believe it originated from some academic work (I think ) - but the more Lee biographies the better. Count me in !

With the forthcoming (2008) UK Hank Mobley biography and the reprint of Ian Carr's 'Music Outside', tis a great time for jazz in print.

[Dan Gould]

I enjoyed the previous Lee biography - didn't have a problem with the race relations angle as I believe it originated from some academic work (I think ) - but the more Lee biographies the better. Count me in !

With the forthcoming (2008) UK Hank Mobley biography and the reprint of Ian Carr's 'Music Outside', tis a great time for jazz in print.

There's a Hank bio coming? I had no idea, but that really gets a from me.

[sidewinder]

Yep - see here, under 'forthcoming'. By UK author/critic Derek Ansell. No idea of what it will look like/likely content though..

Ian Carr's 'Music Outside' has been mentioned in another thread but another plug from me here - for anyone with an interest in Brit Jazz (all 3 of us ) its an essential purchase !

Hank Book

Edited December 8, 2007 by sidewinder

[brownie]

Good to have a second book on Lee Morgan available!

[bertrand]

McMillan did his Master's Thesis at Rutgers on Lee - I have a copy of this.

The early years were covered much more in depth than the later years, partially due to his access to Lee's brother Jimmy. He was able to track down a lot of key people from Lee's past.

I gave him a few tidbits from my own research which were in the thesis; I wonder how much made it to the book. I haven't spoken to him in years.

Bertrand.

[btownsurvivor]

I like the Perchard book a lot. I like books with depth, where I can re-read various sections and gain additional insights, both my own and my enhanced understanding of the author's take. I don't think Perchard used Morgan's life as a vehicle for expressing a thesis on race relations. Rather, I think he honestly expressed his understanding of Lee's life as a function of and within his understanding of the socio-cultural fabric of the times. What more can you ask from an author ? The guy's an academic Brit after all ... do we expect him to act like he was a hipster on the scene at the time ?

Haven't read the new book, but jazz bios that try to mix-in analysis of the music itself always bomb for me, especially when they start mixing-in notated solos and such. 99% of the audience is not appreciating the music in this manner and so it's largely irrelevant to how an artist influenced society.

[Larry Kart]

Haven't read the new book, but jazz bios that try to mix-in analysis of the music itself always bomb for me, especially when they start mixing-in notated solos and such. 99% of the audience is not appreciating the music in this manner and so it's largely irrelevant to how an artist influenced society.

I know what you mean, I think, but also believe that it depends on how the analysis is done. If it's merely a way of stating in technical terms (and displaying in musical notation) what one can hear on a recording, what's the point? All that you've done in effect is draw a map in which one inch of map equals one inch of the landscape or put a label that says "leaf" on every leaf of a tree (unless there's some special, minute but vital, ambiguity at work that virtually demands musical notation for this thing even to be discussed further). But if you can point precisely to the specific musical facts that are the crucial ones -- a la the ways (to continue the tree metaphor) one might distinguish an oak from an aspen or a healthy, beautiful oak from one that's not in good shape -- then you may really have something. Example of such analysis are less common than one might wish, but a terrific one is Ted Brown's analysis of a Warne Marsh solo in Safford Chamberlain's Marsh biography "An Unsung Cat" (it's an appendix to the book). I recently lent the book to someone, but IIRC Brown is writing about a Warne solo on "Tickletoe." BTW, such an analysis can be meaningful even if one isn't that technically versed or a score reader (I am neither), because when Brown homes in on a key element in the solo and discusses its relation to other key parts and to the whole, it's fairly easy to re-listen to the solo yourself and get just what he's talking about.

[BruceH]

A bio of Hank Mobley is certainly welcome. I notice there's also an upcoming biography of Johnny Griffin coming from the same publisher!

[sidewinder]

A bio of Hank Mobley is certainly welcome. I notice there's also an upcoming biography of Johnny Griffin coming from the same publisher!

And bassist Ron Rubin's book of musical limericks ! I wonder if that one will also have some more extracts from his diaries - which have fascinating stuff from the 1960s. Jazzwise's article on Mike Taylor this month has some excerpts from them relating to Taylor - there's definitely a book to be had from presenting more of the same.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i am worried about a hank biography. i do not want to read a bio based around interperations of hanks music. this guy better have done some solid reserach

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

ps- whos writing it: know any info yet sidewinder?

[sidewinder]

ps- whos writing it: know any info yet sidewinder?

Critic and author Derek Ansell.

[andybleaden]

First bit of good news I have read for a long while

I have the other Lee Morgan book which I thoroughly enjoyed and will by this one too

As for the Hank....bout time too!

Yippee