Which jazz book are you reading right now?

[BillF]

Bought a used copy 7 years ago and, yes, interestingly different. 👍

[EKE BBB]

[sidewinder]

11 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Started reading this recent chance purchase now:

"Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This" by Val Wilmer.

Very interesting and fascinating, and exploring the jazz scene of that period (and its place in society) from a somewhat different angle.

There is an exhibition of her photos taking place in a North London gallery this month. I am in London one day next week and tempted to check it out, if I have enough time.

[mjazzg]

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/nov/21/fela-kuti-bb-king-jimi-hendrix-miles-davis-val-wilmer-mi6

[gmonahan]

On 5/18/2023 at 3:34 PM, gmonahan said:

Still occasionally reading in this fun book. Recently, I read the passage where someone asked Zoot Sims what it was like performing with Benny Goodman in the much maligned tour of Russia. Answer: "Every gig with Benny is like playing in Russia."  Ouch!

[Gheorghe]

Valerie Vilmer´s Jazz People.

 

Great book, the best interview with Thelonious Monk I ever read. He is really he himself. Don´t worry, or better said in his own words or music "Worry Later". 

Great interviews. Only the one with Jaws is too much about booking, nothing about his music....

[BillF]

On 11/22/2023 at 11:02 AM, EKE BBB said:

👍

[hopkins]

Am reading John S. Wilson's "The Collector's Jazz - Modern" and am finding it very enjoyable. He pulls no punches with musicians he does not appreciate (at the time -  it was written in 1958), but have discovered some nice albums through his comments about those he does appreciate.

Edited December 19, 2023 by hopkins

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I was given this book to read many years ago and I've only just gotten around to reading it.

 

[sidewinder]

16 minutes ago, bresna said:

I was given this book to read many years ago and I've only just gotten around to reading it.

 

Strangely enough, I bought a copy many years ago and also have yet to get round to reading it !

[HutchFan]

20 minutes ago, bresna said:

I was given this book to read many years ago and I've only just gotten around to reading it.

 

Balliett's such a talented author that I always enjoy his writing -- even when I disagree with his musical point of view.  He sometimes says downright silly things, like calling Max Roach's drumming "ugly."  But I suppose you've got to take the bad with the good and the good with the bad.  And the good definitely outweighs the bad, IMO.

My 2 cents.

 

[T.D.]

21 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Balliett's such a talented author that I always enjoy his writing -- even when I disagree with his musical point of view.  He sometimes says downright silly things, like calling Max Roach's drumming "ugly."  But I suppose you've got to take the bad with the good and the good with the bad.  And the good definitely outweighs the bad, IMO.

My 2 cents.

 

I read that long ago. Balliett's a very good writer (for instance, I recall an excellent passage about Mingus), but I didn't agree with some of his opinions. I found his extreme dislike of hard bop kind of amusing...in that vein I also recall a brief rant about JR Montrose's ugly playing. No longer own the book, donated it to a library as part of downsizing.

[hopkins]

I enjoy his portraits. They are all in the New Yorker's online Archive.

 

[gmonahan]

Two chapters into this new one. I'm liking it so far. She's done some good work on Ella's early years.

 

[T.D.]

The hardcover from JIB. But there's now a paperback available from Amazon and presumably elsewhere.

[Lazaro Vega]

On 12/19/2023 at 4:43 PM, gmonahan said:

Two chapters into this new one. I'm liking it so far. She's done some good work on Ella's early years.

 

I read the Chick Webb bio this summer, "Rhythm Man," that did a great job on her early career, too.

[Gheorghe]

On 11/22/2023 at 12:02 PM, EKE BBB said:

I just started it a few days ago. Got it from my wife. Right now I´m at the point where Sonny first had heard Hawk´s "Body and Soul" and his idols where Louis Jordan and then Hawk. 

[EKE BBB]

On 12/25/2023 at 10:10 AM, Gheorghe said:

I just started it a few days ago. Got it from my wife. Right now I´m at the point where Sonny first had heard Hawk´s "Body and Soul" and his idols where Louis Jordan and then Hawk. 

Currently delving into the East Broadway loft days chapter (1966).

[Gheorghe]

37 minutes ago, EKE BBB said:

Currently delving into the East Broadway loft days chapter (1966).

So you are more into it. I´m just where they talk about the Charlie Parker Influence, I think soon there will be Sonny´s first recording. 

About the mid 60´s period I don´t know almost nothing, somehow I have much of Sonny with Don Cherry, that step to avantgarde, and then is a big hole and then the 70´s where I saw him live and bought many of them Milestone records. 

[Gheorghe]

On 12/28/2023 at 8:40 AM, EKE BBB said:

Currently delving into the East Broadway loft days chapter (1966).

Right now I start the chapter about his time in Chicago from 54´to 55´. A period that I didn´t know about. 

It´s great to read some inside info about his recording sessions with Miles, with Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet from the early fifties. But I had not known that his drug addiction was so severe, what I read seems even worse than what I had read about Bird. Terrible. 
But not my really interest. I enjoyed the musical part of the story and am lookin´ foward to read about his further 50´s albums, those like "Collossus" and the BN period......
Some of my older friends back then had the "Way Out West" but somehow that hadn´t touched me really.......

[BeBop]

Total Jazz by Blutch

[gmonahan]

I've had this one sitting on my shelf longer than I've had shelves, and I know I've read "in" it, maybe through it, though if so, longer ago than I can remember, so I've decided to read it through...again?! I find myself wishing I had the original 1955 edition with the discography that they decided to omit from the later editions. It would presumably have been mostly 78s.

 

 

 

[sgcim]

I'm just about finished "Unfinished Business"- The Life and Times of Danny Gatton". by Ralph Heibutzki.

Up until now, I had thought Gatton was a great Rockabilly/Country/Blues player, but his real love was jazz, and he'd play these crazy solos that would mix all four of the styles of playing in one solo. He started off playing jazz archtop guitars, but then he saw Roy Buchanan play at some club in DC, and he let it be known that he was a better player than RB, so Roy got on the mic and said "I understand we've got a guy named Danny Gatton in the audience tonight who claims to be a better guitar player than me, so why don't you come up and show everybody how great you are- onstage".

So Roy threw his Fender Telecaster at Danny, and Danny brought down the house with his playing. DG had never played a Telecaster before, but bought one after seeing Buchanan and started playing with the bridge pickup instead of the mellow neck pickup.He started playing his own version of Roy Buchanan's style, but got tired of that after a few years, and started a group with the great pedal steel guitar player, Buddy Emmons, and put out an album called "Redneck Jazz".

Another interesting jazz player in the group was a pianist who was DG's strongest influence, Dick Heintze, who later played with Roy Buchanan, but developed MS and died at the age of 42. Gatton mainly played in the Maryland/DC area, and didn't like to tour, and was known as the World's Greatest Unknown Guitar Player. He committed suicide at the age of 49,

 

[ghost of miles]

[EKE BBB]

Revisiting