Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music

For almost half a century, Amiri Baraka has ranked among the most important commentators on African American music and culture. In this brilliant assemblage of his writings on music, the first such collection in nearly twenty years, Baraka blends autobiography, history, musical analysis, and political commentary to recall the sounds, people, times, and places he's encountered. As in his earlier classics, Blues People and Black Music, Baraka offers essays on the famous--Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane--and on those whose names are known mainly by jazz aficionados--Alan Shorter, Jon Jang, and Malachi Thompson. Baraka's literary style, with its deep roots in poetry, makes palpable his love and respect for his jazz musician friends. His energy and enthusiasm show us again how much Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and the others he lovingly considers mattered. He brings home to us how music itself matters, and how musicians carry and extend that knowledge from generation to generation, providing us, their listeners, with a sense of meaning and belonging.

"As a commentator on American music, and African American music in particular, Baraka occupies a unique niche. His intelligence, critical sense, passion, strong political stances, involvement with musicians and in the musical world, as well as in his community, give his work a quality unlike any other. As a reviewer and as someone inside the movement, he writes powerfully about music as few others can or do."--Steven L. Isoardi, author of Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles

"Every jazz musician who has endured beyond changing fashions and warring cultures has had a signature sound. Amiri Baraka--from the very beginning of his challenging, fiery presence on the jazz scene--has brought probing light, between his off-putting thunderclaps, on what is indeed America's classical music. I sometimes disagree insistently with Amiri, and it's mutual; but when he gets past his parochial pyrotechnics, as in choruses in this book, he brings you into the life force of this music."--Nat Hentoff, author of The Jazz Life

Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) is a writer and critic, the poet laureate of New Jersey, and Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York, Stony Brook. His many books include Blues People, Black Music, and The Music.

Introduction

Part One: Essays

1. Griot/Djali: Poetry, Music, History, Message

2. Miles Later

3. The "Blues Aesthetic" and the "Black Aesthetic": Aesthetics as the Continuing Political History of a Culture

4. Blues People: Looking Both Ways

5. Rhythm

6. The American Popular Song: "The Great American Song Book"

7. Blues Line

8. Cosby and the Music

9. Nina Returns

10. Jazz Criticism and Its Effect on the Music

11. Not "the Boss": Bruce Springsteen

12. Wynton Marsalis: Black Codes (from the Underground)

13. "The International Business of Jazz" and the Need for the Cooperative and Collective Self-Development of an International People's Culture

14. Newark's' "Coast" and the Hidden Legacy of Urban Culture

15. Black Music as a Force for Social Change

16. What You Mean, DuWop?

17. Classical American Music

18. Singers and the Music (A Theater Piece)

19. Newark's Influence on American Music

20. Black Music in Newark: A Proposal

21. Bopera Theory

22. "Jazz and the White Critic": Thirty Years Later

23. Random Notes on the Last Decade

Part Two: Great Musicians

24. Panthalassa: Miles Davis

25. When Miles Split!

26. David Murray, Ming's Samba

27. David Murray, Fo Deuk Revue

28. David Murray, Addenda to a Concert

29. On Reissuing Trane

30. John Coltrane: Why His Legacy Continues

31. Some Memories of Alan Shorter: Interview with Wayne Shorter

32. High Art: Art Tatum

33. Max Roach at the Iridium

34. Paris Max

35. The Great Max Roach

36. Billie Holiday

37. The High Priest of Be Bop

38. Eric Dolphy: A Note

39. Jackie Mc

40. It Ain't about You

41. You Ever Hear Albert Ayler?

42. Albert's Will

43. Sassy Was Definitely Not the Avon Lady

44. Fred

45. Fred Hopkins's Memorial

46. Duke Ellington: The Music's "Great Spirit"

47. Duke Was a Very Great Pianist!

48. Blind Tom: The Continuity of Americana

49. Don Pullen Leaves Us

50. Black History Month Rediscovers "the Music" in New York City

51. Black History Month Rediscovers "the Music," Part 2: The Charles Tolliver Big Band at the Jazz Standard

52. Wonderful Stevie

53. Abbey Lincoln

54. Four Tough Good-byes: Jackie McLean, John Hicks, Hilton Ruiz, Halim Suliman

Part Three: Notes, Reviews, and Observations

55. Impulse Sampler, Act on Impulse

56. Ralph Peterson

57. Andrew Cyrille, Good to Go

58. Odean Pope Saxophone Choir, Epitome

59. Ravi Coltrane, Moving Pictures

60. Donal Fox and David Murray, Ugly Beauty

61. Tyrone Jefferson, Connections

62. James Moody

63. Barry Harris: In the Tradition

64. Pharoah Sanders, Shukuru

65. Don Pullen-George Adams Quartet, Breakthrough

66. Von and Chico Freeman, Freeman and Freeman

67. Alan Shorter, Orgasm

68. The Work Man: Reggie Workman

69. Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory

70. Jimmy Scott, But Beautiful

71. Malachi Thompson, Talking Horns

72. The Nexus Orchestra, Seize the Time

73. Three Fresh Ticklers

74. Rodney Kendrick, Last Chance for Common Sense

75. Jazz Times Review, Multiple Artists

76. More Young Bloods to the Rescue!

77. Vijay Iyer, Memorophilia

78. TriFactor, If You Believe

79. Live Lessons

80. New York Art Quintet

81. Peter Brötzmann, Nipples, and Joe McPhee, Nation Time

82. Jon Jang and David Murray, River of Life

83. Trio Three, Encounter

84. Jackie Mc--Coming and Going