Jazz Books To Avoid (and some to seek out)

[A Lark Ascending]

... you never get that thing that drives me nuts in writing about music - where the writer dreams up an interpretation and then proceeds to project it on the music, insisting that this is how it is.

This must be more or less the equivalent what I don't like about a certain type of books about music usually written by the sociologically inclined ... They've got an agenda and stipulate their "findings" (in accordance with their personal agenda) FIRST and THEN present the facts and evidence in a way that reeks very much like they go out of their way to make that evidence fit their intended "findings". Not very convincing and certainly awkward to read in many cases ...

Reminds me of the Marxist interpretation of history (and other 'schools' of history). What should be a worthwhile attempt to explore the past from a different angle than the usual establishment view, ends up as a desperate attempt to shoehorn history into the model of determinist phases - The English Civil War was the 'Bourgeois Revolution' etc.

The one I remember getting really annoyed with was Bill Cole's book on Coltrane. Though the recent prize goes to "Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz, 1960-1975" - the worst book I've read in years in any genre. Contains some useful information on the music of the period but reads like it was written by a GCSE sociology student utterly in thrall to a very clunky interpretative model several decades out of date.

Edited February 19, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[Big Beat Steve]

The new BN coffee-table book has so much awful writing it's insane, but the photos and album art are so well presented I can't dismiss it completely.

Don't have the BN one, but had the Verve one given to me for x-mas and while it's certainly not a thrilling read or anything, I find it quite interesting, regarding the entire story of JATP, Clef, Norgran etc.

The Granz book might be a better read, who knows, but the photos and stuff in the Verve book is pretty amazing, too - and different from BN, there were so many Verve covers around (so much stuff got re-packaged and re-compiled) that I really feel like I don't even know half of 'em.

As this has now turned into a recommended books thread, I'll put forward this fairly recent item, although the subtitle should perhaps have been "The Man Who Used Jazz to Make Money" :-)

"I want to fight against racism, to give listeners a good product, and to earn money from good music."

Fair enough, I'd think.

I have both (though I am only partially through the books by now), and I think they complement each other well. I agree that the Verve coffee-table book is not the best read in the world but it is quite OK anyway IMO. I have seen others that were written much more badly yet had much higher pretenses. The capsule bios in the Verve book are quite OK for the primary target audience, and the illustrations (and their layout) and sheer amount of data are stimulating enough, though I would have appreciated a bit more detail on the often-overlooked artists (who also were part of the Verve LABLE history) outside the trodden paths of the biggies but then I suppose you could not have marketed that book that easily to the more casual listeners who have a handful of Ella and Oscar records and now want to get something to look at while listening ...

As for the Granz bio, I agree about the fair enough "making money from a good cause" angle, and in the way he acted on numerous occasions Granz certainly proved that he did stand up for the rights of the artists he worked with. Remember the times most of this took place in. Like or face it or not, but from today's state of society a lot of this was the "dark age" and those who did not live through those times sometimes are a bit rash in faulting people like Granz for not going farther than they did or for not being more radical in their actions.

And I have a feeling any bio of Granz by necessity falls short on what it could have accomplished simply due to the fact that Normal Granz went out of his way to destroy documents and evidence from his life and his business so a lot that would have been of immense interested for the evaluation by historians just isn't there anymore.

What I don't like about the Verve coffee-table book, though, is that tendency (by THIS author??) to milk over and over again those William Gottlieb photo files at the LOC. The Gottlieb pictures ARE geat but as they have been used before in many cases and are publicly accessible on the LOC site they must be pretty well-known to anyone seriously interested in the music from that era by now, and besides, how many devades of jazz can you illustrate with photos from 1947 exclusively??

IMO this way of rounding up pictures from the same source over and over again is an wasy way out for the author and editor to save them the effort of doing some real searching for views from that era not seen too often before (which no doubt MUST be out there ...).

[Head Man]

......... "a country singer with long blond hair down to her ass."

... did it come with photos?

Edited February 19, 2015 by Head Man

[king ubu]

The new BN coffee-table book has so much awful writing it's insane, but the photos and album art are so well presented I can't dismiss it completely.

Don't have the BN one, but had the Verve one given to me for x-mas and while it's certainly not a thrilling read or anything, I find it quite interesting, regarding the entire story of JATP, Clef, Norgran etc.

The Granz book might be a better read, who knows, but the photos and stuff in the Verve book is pretty amazing, too - and different from BN, there were so many Verve covers around (so much stuff got re-packaged and re-compiled) that I really feel like I don't even know half of 'em.

As this has now turned into a recommended books thread, I'll put forward this fairly recent item, although the subtitle should perhaps have been "The Man Who Used Jazz to Make Money" :-)

"I want to fight against racism, to give listeners a good product, and to earn money from good music."

Fair enough, I'd think.

I have both (though I am only partially through the books by now), and I think they complement each other well. I agree that the Verve coffee-table book is not the best read in the world but it is quite OK anyway IMO. I have seen others that were written much more badly yet had much higher pretenses. The capsule bios in the Verve book are quite OK for the primary target audience, and the illustrations (and their layout) and sheer amount of data are stimulating enough, though I would have appreciated a bit more detail on the often-overlooked artists (who also were part of the Verve LABLE history) outside the trodden paths of the biggies but then I suppose you could not have marketed that book that easily to the more casual listeners who have a handful of Ella and Oscar records and now want to get something to look at while listening ...

As for the Granz bio, I agree about the fair enough "making money from a good cause" angle, and in the way he acted on numerous occasions Granz certainly proved that he did stand up for the rights of the artists he worked with. Remember the times most of this took place in. Like or face it or not, but from today's state of society a lot of this was the "dark age" and those who did not live through those times sometimes are a bit rash in faulting people like Granz for not going farther than they did or for not being more radical in their actions.

And I have a feeling any bio of Granz by necessity falls short on what it could have accomplished simply due to the fact that Normal Granz went out of his way to destroy documents and evidence from his life and his business so a lot that would have been of immense interested for the evaluation by historians just isn't there anymore.

What I don't like about the Verve coffee-table book, though, is that tendency (by THIS author??) to milk over and over again those William Gottlieb photo files at the LOC. The Gottlieb pictures ARE geat but as they have been used before in many cases and are publicly accessible on the LOC site they must be pretty well-known to anyone seriously interested in the music from that era by now, and besides, how many devades of jazz can you illustrate with photos from 1947 exclusively??

IMO this way of rounding up pictures from the same source over and over again is an wasy way out for the author and editor to save them the effort of doing some real searching for views from that era not seen too often before (which no doubt MUST be out there ...).

Fair point re: Gottlieb's photos - indeed the fat booklet for the forties JATP box contained plenty of Time/Life photos by Gjon Mili that don't seem to be as widely known and while you can watch some of them on the internets, they're not part of the LOC's collection and come with watermarks and stuff like that ...

And those photos are as wonderful and atmospheric, I'd say, as the ones Gottlieb took. Some examples here (not JATP ones but ones taken at Mili's studio):

http://time.com/3689431/giants-at-play-life-with-jazz-legends/

[AllenLowe]

1) Goldberg '50s very good

2) Humphrey Littleton/Jazz - V.1 excellent; V. 2 ok but disappointing

3) I like Robin K's Monk book, though I do know Larry K had some reservations (don't remember what they were)

4) That Devilin' Tune is still available in book form; Mark Gridley said: "this is the best jazz history ever written; until That Devilin' Tune, jazz history was misunderstood."

email me for copies

Edited February 19, 2015 by AllenLowe

[mikeweil]

I like: One Hundred Years of the Negro in Show Business is essential

One Hundred Years of the Negro in Show Business by Thomas Fletcher? There's a used copy for € 365.98 on amazon ....

[AllenLowe]

that's too bad because it really is an important book.

[BeBop]

I like: One Hundred Years of the Negro in Show Business is essential

One Hundred Years of the Negro in Show Business by Thomas Fletcher? There's a used copy for € 365.98 on amazon ....

US$245 at Alibris

[clifford_thornton]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

thelonious monk robin d.g. kelley

forces in motion graham lock

who speaks for the negro robert penn warren

http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu

***

Not mentioned I guess because they are books NOT to avoid... ?

[Larry Kart]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

thelonious monk robin d.g. kelley

forces in motion graham lock

who speaks for the negro robert penn warren

http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu

***

the glut of u press jazz (& some blues, country) dogshit is mostly (mostly) well-intentioned (prices usually not insane, ubu, compared to texts in other fields) but between largely unknowing department chairs handing out paper & largely non-interventionist u press "editors" (but not line editors as you'd hope)... LOTS of mistakes in conception & writing happen.

avoid: ALL Whitney Balliett (you'll learn nothing true except how to fake it at slick magazine)-- hard to believe ANYONE would credit Balliett anything compared to, say, Edmund Wilson "To The Finland Station" or "Patriotic Gore" (doesn't matter if different subects, compare ideation) or George Steiner (read "My Unwrtten Books" first if unfamiliar) etc etc. Needless to say, jazz fans who've read Balliett and not the novels of Charles Chesnutt or at least five books by W.E.B. DuBois are missing forest for JAMF brand plastic trees.

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties." For all its virtues, there are some significant problems with Gunther's "The Swing Era." For one thing, he doesn't get Tatum. For another, too often he pretends to an omniscience that he doesn't possess. Yes, no one does when dealing with that much material, but Gunther either doesn't know or won't admit that he doesn't know some things. And don't forget Martin Williams' "The Jazz Tradition," Brian Priestley's "Mingus," John Litweiler's heroic "The Freedom Principle," and "The Otis Ferguson Reader" (if you can find a copy). About Kelley's Monk book, it was conscientious about factual detail, but I seldom if ever had the feeling that Kelley had much sense of what made Monk's music special. A witty and wise autobiography for anyone who is interested in British jazz is Bruce Turner's "Hot Air, Cool Music."

[AllenLowe]

AJ Albany's book on Joe is a classic, and one of the best books on jazz I've ever read. As is Sue Mingus' Tonight At Noon.

[BillF]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

thelonious monk robin d.g. kelley

forces in motion graham lock

who speaks for the negro robert penn warren

http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu

***

the glut of u press jazz (& some blues, country) dogshit is mostly (mostly) well-intentioned (prices usually not insane, ubu, compared to texts in other fields) but between largely unknowing department chairs handing out paper & largely non-interventionist u press "editors" (but not line editors as you'd hope)... LOTS of mistakes in conception & writing happen.

avoid: ALL Whitney Balliett (you'll learn nothing true except how to fake it at slick magazine)-- hard to believe ANYONE would credit Balliett anything compared to, say, Edmund Wilson "To The Finland Station" or "Patriotic Gore" (doesn't matter if different subects, compare ideation) or George Steiner (read "My Unwrtten Books" first if unfamiliar) etc etc. Needless to say, jazz fans who've read Balliett and not the novels of Charles Chesnutt or at least five books by W.E.B. DuBois are missing forest for JAMF brand plastic trees.

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties." For all its virtues, there are some significant problems with Gunther's "The Swing Era." For one thing, he doesn't get Tatum. For another, too often he pretends to an omniscience that he doesn't possess. Yes, no one does when dealing with that much material, but Gunther either doesn't know or won't admit that he doesn't know some things. And don't forget Martin Williams' "The Jazz Tradition," Brian Priestley's "Mingus," John Litweiler's heroic "The Freedom Principle," and "The Otis Ferguson Reader" (if you can find a copy). About Kelley's Monk book, it was conscientious about factual detail, but I seldom if ever had the feeling that Kelley had much sense of what made Monk's music special. A witty and wise autobiography for anyone who is interested in British jazz is Bruce Turner's "Hot Air, Cool Music."

Also excellent on British jazz (with lots of American connections) is:

[Big Beat Steve]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

t...

***

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties."

Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why?

I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B

BTW, @Larry Kart:

What exactly is it that you find faulty with Gunther Schuller's "The Swing Era", apart from the fact that he doesn't seem to appreaciate Art Tatum correctly, as you say? Really curious ...

Edited February 20, 2015 by Big Beat Steve

[BillF]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

t...

***

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties."

Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why?

I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B

Jazz Masters of the Forties has a hallowed place on my bookshelf, as to to a lesser extent, does ...of the Fifties. As you say, they do date from my "formative years".

[Teasing the Korean]

All of the Miles bios are full of holes--it seems every author has a period they dislike, skip over, etc. Maybe getting a different author for each decade is the answer.

Agreed, that way I can all avoid reading about the 1980s.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

t...

***

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties."

Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why?

I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B

Jazz Masters of the Forties has a hallowed place on my bookshelf, as to to a lesser extent, does ...of the Fifties. As you say, they do date from my "formative years".

I thought Ira's book was mentioned here under its current title "Swing To Bop." Whatever, it's essential.

[JSngry]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

t...

***

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties."

Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why?

I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B

Jazz Masters of the Forties has a hallowed place on my bookshelf, as to to a lesser extent, does ...of the Fifties. As you say, they do date from my "formative years".

I thought Ira's book was mentioned here under its current title "Swing To Bop." Whatever, it's essential.

Those are different books, albiet ones about the same general subject matters, are they not?

[Larry Kart]

unmentioned (here) essential (if not necessarily flawless)

notes and tones art taylor

raise up off me hampton hawes

jazz masters of the 1930s rex stewart

jazz masters of the 1950s joe goldberg

the swing era gunther schuller

the big bands george t. simon

t...

***

Also in the Jazz Masters series, Martin Williams' "Jazz Masters of New Orleans" and Richard Hadlock's "Jazz Masters of the Twenties."

Could it be that the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" volume by Ira Gitler is being given short shrift here? Why?

I may be biased because this was the first I read from that series (haven't read all of them yet anyway) and this was in my "formative years" so it had an impact but at any rate I Iike to revisit it from time to time, even though some of its findings may not reflect the latest state of the art anymore.B

Jazz Masters of the Forties has a hallowed place on my bookshelf, as to to a lesser extent, does ...of the Fifties. As you say, they do date from my "formative years".

I thought Ira's book was mentioned here under its current title "Swing To Bop." Whatever, it's essential.

Those are different books, albiet ones about the same general subject matters, are they not?

Oops. You're right. And both are essential. Over the years I've just smushed them together in my head.

[AllenLowe]

Jazz Masters of the '40s should have been co-credited to Dick Katz, who is quoted at massive length.

and btw, I am told by someone who I trust COMPLETELY that there are a lot of errors in Schuller's transcriptions in Swing Era.

Also, his homophobic statements about Pha Terrell and falsetto singing are not only disturbing, but show a real lack of knowledge of certain aspects of black culture.

Edited February 20, 2015 by AllenLowe

[sgcim]

I've just read a few books that were pretty interesting. I just finished "Lush Life" which had me in tears reading about the end of this great man's life.

I always find first person accounts of IMHO the 'golden age of jazz', 1955-65 fascinating, and David Amram's "Vibations" and Michael Zwerin's "Close Enough For Jazz"

fit the bill pretty well.

Amram's struggle against anti-semitism, and his fight for acceptance in the jazz world as a french horn player, and acceptance in the classical music world as a composer without any academic credentials, were quite inspiring.

As someone who was involved in the education of inner-city youth, I was fascinated by Amram's account of the effect of the lack of a male role model on the youth of the war years (1941-45). The fact that white kids were completely out of control during this period, should dispel any notions of race having anything to do with criminal behavior.

Zwerin's book offers extremely candid views of a number of jazz groups he played with (Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson Band, Orchestra USA, and the Earl Hines group tour of the former Soviet Union), and glimpses of unheralded musicians (Conrad Gozzo, Jimmy Ford, Budd Johnson) that are unavailable elsewhere.

He talks about his time with the jazz group Orchestra USA, and there's a great shot of Phil Woods changing his reed, while Eric Dolphy is seated next to him.

Zwerin talks about how John Lewis would take all the solos away from Dolphy, and give them to Phil.
Maybe Dolphy should have tried to fit the character of the music, rather than ram all his outside stuff into every solo.
Dolphy was upset when he eventually got the boot.

[Larry Kart]

Chapter and verse on Schuller's erroneous transcriptions in "The Swing Era":

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/misunderstanding-in-blue-by-darcy-james-argue.html

[JSngry]

Zwerin's book offers extremely candid views of a number of jazz groups he played with (Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson Band, Orchestra USA, and the Earl Hines group tour of the former Soviet Union), and glimpses of unheralded musicians (Conrad Gozzo, Jimmy Ford, Budd Johnson) that are unavailable elsewhere.

He talks about his time with the jazz group Orchestra USA, and there's a great shot of Phil Woods changing his reed, while Eric Dolphy is seated next to him.

Zwerin talks about how John Lewis would take all the solos away from Dolphy, and give them to Phil.

Maybe Dolphy should have tried to fit the character of the music, rather than ram all his outside stuff into every solo.

Dolphy was upset when he eventually got the boot.

Considering that Lewis was one of the earliest "champions" of Ornette Coleman, I suppose that Dolphy could be forgiven for expecting different ears out of him than he got.

[MomsMobley]

Chapter and verse on Schuller's erroneous transcriptions in "The Swing Era":

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/misunderstanding-in-blue-by-darcy-james-argue.html

Not to defend anyone's errors but weird to see that guy get so sooooOOOOO worked up, especially in the contexts of

1) Gunther Schuller's multifaceted career

2) a pretty long ass book

3) the vast room for potential error in the writing, editing, printing of any book...

3a) especially before computers

3b) though, paradoxically, older books generally have a far higher stand ardd of production, proofreading etc than contemporary ones

4) consider the errors that frequently in numerous composer's scores, as written, copied, published.

I'd no more defend Schuller en toto than I would, say, Dick Sudhalther but his (their's) contributions to music(ology) are substantial.

Pretty sure Richard Rodney Bennett orchestrated yet I await Darcy James Argue's trascriptions (choreography optional)--

[MomsMobley]

Zwerin's book offers extremely candid views of a number of jazz groups he played with (Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson Band, Orchestra USA, and the Earl Hines group tour of the former Soviet Union), and glimpses of unheralded musicians (Conrad Gozzo, Jimmy Ford, Budd Johnson) that are unavailable elsewhere.

He talks about his time with the jazz group Orchestra USA, and there's a great shot of Phil Woods changing his reed, while Eric Dolphy is seated next to him.

Zwerin talks about how John Lewis would take all the solos away from Dolphy, and give them to Phil.

Maybe Dolphy should have tried to fit the character of the music, rather than ram all his outside stuff into every solo.

Dolphy was upset when he eventually got the boot.

Considering that Lewis was one of the earliest "champions" of Ornette Coleman, I suppose that Dolphy could be forgiven for expecting different ears out of him than he got.

What's even funnier is Dolphy provides pretty much the only sustaining moments of that whole project and I'm generally a John Lewis "fan." Phuckin' Phil Woods on the other hand... from jazz hot to (mostly) jazz schlock in how many bars? much as i might enjoy most of those musicians elsewhere, Eric was the ONLY one there with the true temperament for Brecht/Weill, which demands far more than slick note spinning and odd bits of 'quirky' orchestration to convey.

Edited February 21, 2015 by MomsMobley

[sgcim]

It should be noted that Zwerin was a big Dolphy fan, and stuck up for Eric all the way.

Dolphy was very upset about being let go.