Which jazz book are you reading right now?

[Big Beat Steve]

59 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I got a review copy when it came out and Milt Hinton signed mine during a Jazz Party.

$10.70 is a huge bargain, as I think it is long out of print and listed for around $30 to $40 when it was published.

Just out of curiosity:

How does the "Bass Line" book compare with the "OverTime" book of Milt Hinton photographs? Overlaps of contents? Duplications? Or all differnt?

 

[gmonahan]

Finally got a copy of Saxophone Colossus and plan to dive in today. It's certainly a big one!

[Ken Dryden]

6 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Just out of curiosity:

How does the "Bass Line" book compare with the "OverTime" book of Milt Hinton photographs? Overlaps of contents? Duplications? Or all differnt?

 

I don't recall any duplications, as I think OverTime was a follow up book that focused on photos not in Bass Line. There is also a third hardback book, Playing The Changes, that was published after Milt's death, that does duplicate some of the photographs from the first two volumes.

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks, Ken, for this explanation.

[Gheorghe]

it seems I have read another bass book one  about Paul Chambers but don´t remember the title, I had thought it´s "Bassline", so maybe it had another title, by the way a good book where all the much stuff he recorded is very very well documentated and  described . 

I think I remember a very very long time ago there was in Jazz Podium an article from Güther Boas, who did a trip to NY and met a lot of the old masters, among them also Milt Hinton. I think I don´t have many recordings where he is on bass....

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I think I don´t have many recordings where he is on bass....

Which only goes to show that on average the recording dates in your collection are too "recent" or too "far out". 😉
In the (roughly) 1954-1970 era it was pretty hard to "avoid" Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson in the N.Y. studio line-ups unless it was working bands that were recorded or unless you were a diehard "wailjazz" 😉 or avantgarde listener.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[hopkins]

I just received "Jazz from the Beginning" - by Garvin Bushell as told to Mark Tucker. Have started reading a few chapters - he's not too kind with some of his fellow musicians! 

On Miles Davis: "To be perfectly truthful about it, Miles never impressed me as a trumpet player. He missed more notes than anybody I'd ever seen. Dizzy was head and shoulders above him; when Dizzy put down his fingers, the right notes came out. Miles could never compete with guys like Clifford Brown or Fats Navarro. He did have good ideas, I'd never question that. What I'd question is his ability to execute those ideas."

He is full of praise for Eric Dolphy.

It certainly is an interesting read, lots of fun and interesting anecdotes, and astute comments. Am looking forward to reading the first chapters on his life in the 20s..

The book can also be read online here: https://archive.org/details/jazzfrombeginnin00garv

Edited February 10, 2023 by hopkins

[Big Beat Steve]

20 hours ago, hopkins said:

On Miles Davis: "To be perfectly truthful about it, Miles never impressed me as a trumpet player. He missed more notes than anybody I'd ever seen. Dizzy was head and shoulders above him; when Dizzy put down his fingers, the right notes came out. Miles could never compete with guys like Clifford Brown or Fats Navarro. He did have good ideas, I'd never question that. What I'd question is his ability to execute those ideas."

He is full of praise for Eric Dolphy.

Interesting ... Pity the link is access-restricted. It sounds like a rewarding read.

Contrasting these two views (and in the light of his latter-day recording activities) I guess it would be difficult to accuse him summarily of being a "moldy fig". So could it be that criticisms of his assessments - that invariably exist - risk sounding like "No, I don't want my hero to be pushed into the "emperor's clothes" corner" ?

(P.S. I like the "classic" Miles Davis Quintet a lot ... and still ... )

Edited February 11, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[hopkins]

5 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Interesting ... Pity the link is access-restricted. It sounds like a rewarding read.

Contrasting these two views (and in the light of his latter-day recording activities) I guess it would be difficult to accuse him summarily of being a "moldy fig". So could it be that criticisms of his assessments - that invariably exist - risk sounding like "No, I don't want my hero to be pushed into the "emperor's clothes" corner" ?

(P.S. I like the "classic" Miles Davis Quintet a lot ... and still ... )

Registration on the Internet Archive is free. You can then simply "check out" (borrow) the book for 1 hour, which is renewable.

[Justin V]

My aunt gave my daughter a Barnes and Noble gift card for her birthday.  In addition to the books about dinosaurs, ponies and unicorns, we also bought this.  My daughter told me she wanted to read just this one after lunch. 

[sidewinder]

Just picked up a copy of the Jack Bruce biography ‘Composing Himself’ for £1!  Wading in..

Edited February 11, 2023 by sidewinder

[felser]

20 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Just picked up a copy of the Jack Bruce biography ‘Composing Himself’ for £1!  Wading in..

Let us know how it is.  He's an interesting subject, at least up through the mid-70's.

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, felser said:

Let us know how it is.  He's an interesting subject, at least up through the mid-70's.

Had a skim through it and there is good coverage of his jazz involvement. There’s mention of the Mike Taylor Trio, ‘Escalator over the Hill’, Tony Williams Lifetime, Kip Hanrahan and Graham Bond Organisation. There’s even mention of his friendship with Don Pullen. Bruce provided much input to the book - looks a good one. I think I’ll also pick up Harry Shapiro’s earlier book on Graham Bond too, if I can find it.

The book on Bruce takes the story up to about 2010, when he was still alive. So good that his later years were, by the sound of it, happy ones.

Theres a good story in there of Bruce and Larry Young seeing a UFO on the way to a Manchester gig by Lifetime in 1970 and being blown away by it. That was a bumper UFO period over here !

Edited February 11, 2023 by sidewinder

[Gheorghe]

On 2/10/2023 at 5:12 PM, hopkins said:

I just received "Jazz from the Beginning" - by Garvin Bushell as told to Mark Tucker. Have started reading a few chapters - he's not too kind with some of his fellow musicians! 

On Miles Davis: "To be perfectly truthful about it, Miles never impressed me as a trumpet player. He missed more notes than anybody I'd ever seen. Dizzy was head and shoulders above him; when Dizzy put down his fingers, the right notes came out. Miles could never compete with guys like Clifford Brown or Fats Navarro. He did have good ideas, I'd never question that. What I'd question is his ability to execute those ideas."

He is full of praise for Eric Dolphy.

It certainly is an interesting read, lots of fun and interesting anecdotes, and astute comments. Am looking forward to reading the first chapters on his life in the 20s..

The book can also be read online here: https://archive.org/details/jazzfrombeginnin00garv

I don´t know the book, but it sounds interesting though "from the Beginning" would scare me as I´m to young to got back that far ("Beginnings" as old time or "trad" jazz) , but interesting he judges Miles for his fingering. Even in his early days I heard Miles playing almost like Diz or Fats, as his "Paris 1949" or his Birdland 1951 live stuff prooves. 

But one interesting thing about Miles: Many scholars here play Monk tunes with the wrong chords, like "Well You Needn´t" with the wrong bridge like on "Steamin"" instead of the correct bridge. 
Same with "Round Midnight". I always take a sheet of the correct chords with me, so fellow musicians would not play them wrong chords from the Real Book. 

Well, Dolphy also impressed me from the first listening on the Mingus concert in Paris. 

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I don´t know the book, but it sounds interesting though "from the Beginning" would scare me as I´m toO young to go back that far ("Beginnings" as old time or "trad" jazz) , but interesting he judges Miles for his fingering. Even in his early days I heard Miles playing almost like Diz or Fats, as his "Paris 1949" or his Birdland 1951 live stuff prooves. 

 

Why? You're too young to have listened to Miles in his "Paris 1949" days or to Fats Navarro "live" either.

(So am I, but this has never prevented me from enjoying what I LIKE to hear, including 20s jazz to some extent).

Once you go beyond the consumption of purely "contemporary" music that's "hot" the moment you catch it live (and that you discard as soon as the next musical fad comes up), interest in musical styles that had their heyday at some time in the past is not linked to the age of the listener at all but strictly to musical tastes and preferences. Or why, for example, would chicks in their early to mid-20s have bought 78s of Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers at my fleamarket stall last summer?

And beyond personal tastes in music, "It's the history, dude!" 😉 Awareness of which cannot hurt.

BTW, the way I understood the quote from Bushell's book he did not so much judge Miles Davis for his fingering but rather for the fluffs that came out of his horn. To the best of my recollection, Bushell wasn't the only one there.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[sidewinder]

Miles was the expert at on-the-fly conversions of bum notes into pearls !

[Gheorghe]

I don´t exactly know what means "on the fly conversions" but if it means that an originally wrong hit note or chord can turn out to be something that sounds great is quite usual in jazz. 

And by the way, Miles was the first jazz I heard (it was that old LP "Steaming", and I didn´t hear no wrong notes. The stuff on that little album was the ground for what became my life in music. Same with the next Miles album I had, which was the "second quintet with Herbie and Tony Williams etc. ) . 
 

Yeah I heard a few fluffs on one early fifties studio thing I think it was on Blue Room from a quite strange record sessions then, but I never judged a musician for a fluff here or there. Like the last album of Bud "Return of Bud Powell". There is some little fluff on "I know that you know" but who cares ? 
It reminds me of those two ladies who took me to an opera and during intermission dissed the singers for not hittin´ a high note correctly, and my replic was that first of all I didn´t noticed it and if it happened, if they, them two ladies could sing it better". 
I don´t let such unimportant things disturb me. 

16 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Why? You're too young to have listened to Miles in his "Paris 1949" days or to Fats Navarro "live" either.

 

 

😉

 

Yes you got me on that. But I think during the times I grew up, Bird still was considered something like a myth, a guy who lived fast but laid the basics to what contemporanous players developed further. You hear Bird in Jackie McLean and in Jimmy Lyons and that´s what seemed to count. 
Bird records were hard to find but were exchanged among fans like treasures. And out of curiosity I bought that "Miles 1949 in Paris" since it seemed to be the same music like Charlie Parker to me. 
So sure I was "too young" to have been there when Bird lived, but among the musical mentors I had, and I had some of the greatest I could wish to have, Bird really was recommended to listen too and learn some of his stuff.

But about 20´s jazz, yeah of course: When I heard Jakie Byards stride solo on a Mingus LP it was the first time I heard that kind of music style and yeah it sounded good and years later it let me listen to some Art Tatum and Fats Waller.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

29 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Miles was the expert at on-the-fly conversions of bum notes into pearls !

Style-wise, he made a virtue of his limitations (or should I say "shortcomings"? ).

[John Tapscott]

[Gheorghe]

I wanted to read a bit more about Tadd Dameron´s most fruitful period, those 39 weeks at Royal Roost, but in the Paul Combs - book there is not much more than basic infos.

I was pleased much more by the book about Fats Navarro, where the recorded tracks (broadcasts) are very well described. 

[Gheorghe]

A very fine chronic about what happened on the NY scene from 1972 - 1975. 
Maybe that the author had a very strong affinity to swing and mainstream jazz, and less of the current directions, but there is a very very nice profile about Jimmy Rowles , some interesting reminiscences about the legendary hoover Baby Laurencek, the annual July festivals, Monk´s second to last appearance in public in 1975, same with Miles Davis before his 5-6 years hiatus from the scene, a moving Charlie Parker Memorial concert in 1974. Mingus´ Carnegie Hall concert "With Friends". 
It was the years when I was a teenager and dreaming of goin´ to NY to witness all those greats, Sonny Rollins..., which was impossible then....
 

[HutchFan]

I just ordered this book:

I bought the book after reading this article about it on Burning Ambulance.  Looking forward to learning more about artists like Masahiko Satoh, Masahiko Togashi, Yosuke Yamashita, Masabumi Kikuchi, and the rest.

EDIT:
A bit of pedantry: If you happen to look at the Burning Ambulance article, please note that the pianist pictured at the top/center of the page is not Masahiko Satoh, as stated in the text below the image.  It's Yosuke Yamashita. 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by HutchFan

[T.D.]

5 hours ago, HutchFan said:

I just ordered this book:

I bought the book after reading this article about it on Burning Ambulance.  Looking forward to learning more about artists like Masahiko Satoh, Masahiko Togashi, Yosuke Yamashita, Masabumi Kikuchi, and the rest.

EDIT:
A bit of pedantry: If you happen to look at the Burning Ambulance article, please note that the pianist pictured at the top/center of the page is not Masahiko Satoh, as stated in the text below the image.  It's Yosuke Yamashita. 

 

From whom did you order? I searched a bit but only found a single (NYC) source.

Looks very interesting, but despite owning a few CDs, I know so little about the subject that the narrative might not resonate.

Though I did notice the pianist in the photo is Yamashita. 🧐 

[Rabshakeh]

Just now, T.D. said:

From whom did you order? I searched a bit but only found a single (NYC) source.

Looks very interesting, but despite owning a few CDs, I know so little about the subject that the narrative might not resonate.

Though I did notice the pianist in the photo is Yamashita. 🧐 

It seems to be back in print again. Lots of copies available in London, having been difficult to find for a while.

[HutchFan]

37 minutes ago, T.D. said:

From whom did you order? I searched a bit but only found a single (NYC) source.

I ordered it from Mast Books in NYC.  It appears that I may have ordered their last copy, as it's no longer listed on their site.

 

39 minutes ago, T.D. said:

Looks very interesting, but despite owning a few CDs, I know so little about the subject that the narrative might not resonate.

I'm just BEGINNING to get my footing in Japanese jazz.  I'm a newbie too!  That's why I want the book.   

 

48 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

It seems to be back in print again. Lots of copies available in London, having been difficult to find for a while.

Have you read it, Rab?  If so, what did you think of it?