Which jazz book are you reading right now?

[sidewinder]

Just ordered a copy of this one. By all accounts an outstanding biography of an elusive legend who disappeared in 2000 and remains to this day on the missing list with still no real leads.

I saw him, unexpectedly, in what must have been, based on the timings, a very late performance in his career (PJ Perry Quintet). Even by then a legendary figure, a bit of a buzz went round the house and I have to say, I was impressed. Remember the permanent cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

Edited October 18, 2020 by sidewinder

[BeBop]

"San Quentin Jazz Band" by Pierre Briançon.   I grew up looking at the place across the San Francisco Bay and realizing that several of the cats I was listening to were there or had been.

 

 

[Ken Dryden]

One of my best friends from Tulane spent 30 years at San Quentin, as a staff psychiatrist.  I don’t know if there was still a jazz band there during his tenure, which began around 1982-3. 

[porcy62]

On 12/10/2020 at 5:58 PM, Gheorghe said:

My father bought me this for Chrismas in 1978. This was my second jazz book after the Joachim Ernst Behrend book. I still like it very much. Arrigo Polillo really had a lot to say and he met many great musicians and had a lot of inside infos......

It was the Jazz Bible over here back then, the first Jazz Book I had, lost it somewhere in my many movings. There are other excellent books of an italian critic, and photographer, about the history of jazz, never translated ASIK, Gian Carlo Roncaglia.

Edited October 22, 2020 by porcy62

[HutchFan]

I just finished reading this for the second time:

 

I'm re-reading this one next:

[danasgoodstuff]

On 10/18/2020 at 0:41 AM, EKE BBB said:

Revisiting 

I've never seen this, how is it?

[Bluesnik]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:31 PM, porcy62 said:

lost it somewhere in my many movings.

That sounds too familiar. There are many things I couldn't locate right now.

[Dmitry]

I'm reading Amy-Joe Albany's Low Down: jazz, junk and other fairy tales from childhood . My first Kindle book. Just bought this gizmo. I like it, just discovering how my life will be altered around this Kindle. I now have no excuses to not read.

[jcam_44]

Just got William Parker’s Conversations. Very well put together and I’m enjoying it so far. Decided to start from the beginning instead of jumping to my favorite artists. 

[Gheorghe]

A very intersting book with studio stories that happend at the famous Bolleman Studio in Monster, Holland. About Freddie Hubbard, Mc Coy Tiner, Bobby Hutcherson, Mingus Dynasty, George Adams Don Pullen, Chet Baker, Pharoah Sanders, Eddie Harris, Woody Shaw and others....

[EKE BBB]

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[Peter Friedman]

Yesterday I finished "Fading To Blue" by Bill Moody. This is a mystery novel in the series featuring a fictional jazz piano player named Evan Horne.  I have read the entire series of (as I recall) 7 books. Moody died a year or so ago, so there will be no more Evan Horne books.

I enjoyed all the books in the series.

[BillF]

[sidewinder]

Just starting Barbara Thompson’s autobiography. Very nicely done, with lots of pics and memorabilia.

[Big Beat Steve]

Still perusing this one for the umpteenth time ... (alternating with smaller doses of listening to and reading Allen Lowe's "Turn Me Loose White Man") ...

... and still marveling at the photographs and the ad graphics but still a bit underwhelmed by some of the interviews ...

But today a parcel arrived with a bunch of secondhand jazz books bought (at prices too good to pass up) from duplicates sold off by a national jazz archive. So which one to choose next? 

So there will be new reading matter in case another longish lockdown should be looming. (The yellow abstract cover at the bottom left belongs to the German edition of Sidney Finkelstein's "Jazz - A People's Music")

 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Big Beat Steve

[BillF]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Still perusing this one for the umpteenth time ... (alternating with smaller doses of listening to and reading Allen Lowe's "Turn Me Loose White Man") ...

... and still marveling at the photographs and the ad graphics but still a bit underwhelmed by some of the interviews ...

But today a parcel arrived with a bunch of secondhand jazz books bought (at prices too good to pass up) from duplicates sold off by a national jazz archive. So which one to choose next? 

So there will be new reading matter in case another longish lockdown should be looming. (The yellow abstract cover at the bottom left belongs to the German edition of Sidney Finkelstein's "Jazz - A People's Music")

 

 

Finkelstein! Haven't heard of that one for decades! I read it when I was 18. Certainly a good corrective to the ultra-blinkered Rex Harris, Jazz, which I'd read the year before.

I seem to recall that I thought the Finkelstein was a Marxist interpretation of the music.

[Gheorghe]

Sittin in must be interesting. Maybe I´ll purchase it too.

[Big Beat Steve]

17 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

Sittin in must be interesting. Maybe I´ll purchase it too.

You may have seen that this book has already been discussed here:

That thread (particularly the final page of the thread) may also explain my above comments on the book to some extent.

 

[Gheorghe]

2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

You may have seen that this book has already been discussed here:

That thread (particularly the final page of the thread) may also explain my above comments on the book to some extent.

 

Yes, I have read that thread. I just thought about maybe some time I´ll buy that book, or put it on a wish list for some occasion.

[sidewinder]

Delighted to get hold of a copy of this one. Especially with a new Taylor release on the horizon.

Board member Clifford gets another honourable mention in the text.

Tadd Dameron bio also on order and arriving in a couple of days. Slowly working my way through the list of books I needed to get.  

Edited January 16, 2021 by sidewinder

[John Tapscott]

On 12/29/2020 at 11:00 AM, BillF said:

I read that one. Fascinating information about his earlier years and career. Not quite so good, I thought, about his full-time band leading career from 1966 onwards.  But overall a good read.  

 

Reading now:

 

Mark Miller is a fine writer. 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by John Tapscott

[sidewinder]

3 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

Reading now:

 

Mark Miller is a fine writer. 

 

I enjoyed his book about Claude Ranger and this Sonny Greenwich bio is definitely on my list.

[BillF]

2 hours ago, John Tapscott said:

I read that one. Fascinating information about his earlier years and career. Not quite so good, I thought, about his full-time band leading career from 1966 onwards.  But overall a good read.  

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, Buddy's later story became more a list of gigs, etc. (What, Ronnie's again!) I guess as with most people routine set in, leaving, sadly, the only drama his health crises. 

Interesting to read the author's take on stories I'd heard as word of mouth when they happened, e.g. Buddy's accelerating anger as they travelled further and further from London into the depths of the countryside to reach the Maltings gig. Also, his deathbed humour about being allergic to country music was good to hear again. 

All in all, what a f-----g character!

[HutchFan]

Today, I ordered Eric Nisenson's book, Open Sky: Sonny Rollins and His World Improvisation (Da Capo, 2000).  

Looking forward to reading it. 

Has anyone read it?  If so, I'd love to hear your impressions.

[Ken Dryden]

 I am currently reading this book, which follows his excellent biography (For Sue) of his mother and his own unusual life growing up with a single, unstable parent. This collection of interviews and remembrances is fairly freewheeling, where the interviews seem transcribed with little editing, though he does ask insightful questions that a non-musician might overlook. Part of the value of the book is that in addition to talking to many greats, sometimes in a brief recollection of a long ago conversation versus a recorded interview, Gordon also chats with a number of deserving artists who are under the radar.