Synopses & Reviews
Nat Hentoff may very well be the foremost jazz historian in the world because he was there to witness firsthand the musics evolution from big band and swing to fusion and bossa nova; and to dive into the souls of the men and women who created it from Ellington, Basie, Miles, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, among many others.
At the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene is an invaluable archive of not only the musical influence of Americas only indigenous music on the world, but its enormous impact as an engine for social change as well. It is a book that should be read by every young musician, music fan, and educator in America.”Quincy Jones
"The very best witnesses in the worlds of the law, aesthetic evaluation, social contexts of imposing significance, and artistic public performance are those who accurately understand what they have seen or what they are seeing. Nat Hentoff has been and continues to be a star witness in every one of those arenas. One of the greatest contributions of his jazz writing is that he has never felt the need to condescend to black people or to let the dictates of sociology diminish the universal significance of what they do when they do it well. Nat knows that so many jazz musicians have done what they do superbly, quite often expressing themselves beyond the narrows of color. As sensitive to the Americana of jazz as he is to its transcendent revelations about the sound of the human heart, Nat Hentoff is part of our American luck."Stanley Crouch
At the Jazz Band Ball is full of nuggets from Nat's rich lode of wit and wisdom, gleaned in a lifetime of fellowship with jazz and its makers.”Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University; author of Living With Jazz: A Reader
Review
“Hentoff comes off as the cool uncle who weaves fascinating stories about historical figures. . . . His life is jazz history.”
Review
“A celebration of the music and its practitioners and challenges those who would read jazz the last rights.”
Review
“Reading Hentoff, who personally befriended many of jazzs most legendary creators and has witnessed personally many of its landmark moments, is akin to listening to war stories from a still-sharp old uncle—except that Hentoffs stories are better.”
Review
“Much like the musicians he loves and admires and who have given him direction in his life, Nat Hentoff has his own voice. It is warmly personal, authoritative, sometimes curmudgeonly.”
Review
“Opening doors for listening to and reading about jazz, this book will inform and entertain readers ranging from those who create jazz to neophyte listeners.”
Review
“Hentoff is . . . an iconic jazz writer”
Synopsis
Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and fearless contrarianIm a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian pro-lifer”has lived through much of jazzs history and has known many of jazzs most important figures, often as friend and confidant. Hentoff has been a tireless advocate for the neglected parts of jazz history, including forgotten sidemen and -women. This volume includes his best recent workshort essays, long interviews, and personal recollections. From Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman and Quincy Jones, Hentoff brings the jazz greats to life and traces their art to gospel, blues, and many other forms of American music. At the Jazz Band Ball also includes Hentoffs keen, cosmopolitan observations on a wide range of issues. The book shows how jazz and education are a vital partnership, how free expression is the essence of liberty, and how social justice issues like health care and strong civil rights and liberties keep all the artsand all members of societystrong.
About the Author
Nat Hentoff is an internationally known jazz critic and the only critic ever designated a Jazz Master by the NEA. He is a regular columnist for Jazz.com and the Wall Street Journal, the United Media Newspaper Syndicate, and the Cato Institute, where he is a senior fellow. His many books include Jazz Country; Jazz Is; The Jazz Life; Boston Boy: Growing Up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions; Living the Bill of Rights; and the forthcoming Is This America?
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Lewis Porter
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One. What Am I Here For? The Rules of My Jazz Odyssey
1. Who Owns Jazz?
2. My Debt to Artie Shaw
3. The Family of Jazz
4. Beyond the Process
5. Playing Changes on Jazz Interviews
Part Two. In the Presence of Ellington
6. Inside the Ellington Band
7. Duke Ellingtons Posthumous Revenge
8. Essentially Duke (and Wynton)
9. Ellingtons Band Is Heavenly in These Live” Forties Recordings
Part Three. Jazz Credentials
10. Is Jazz Black Music?
11. No One Else Sounded Like Pee Wee” Russell
12. Just Call Him Thelonious
13. Remembering Dizzy
14. Oscar Peterson: A Jazz Behemoth” Moves On
15. A Great Night in Providence for Jazz and Snow
16. The Perfect Jazz Club
17. Anita ODay: The Life of a Music Legend
18. The Music of the 1930s Is Back in Full Swing
19. The Expansive Jazz Journey of Marian McPartland
20. Going Inside Jazz with Wynton
Part Four. The Jazz Life On and Off the Road
21. Memories Are Made of This: A Conversation with Clark Terry
22. Man, Im So Lucky to Be a Jazz Musician: Phil Woods
23. Conventional Unwisdom about Jazz
Part Five. Who Is a Jazz Singer?
24. Are Krall and Monheit Jazz Singers?
25. Billie Holiday, Live: A Biography in Music
26. This Daughter of Jazz Is One Cool Cat
27. The Springtime of Frank Sinatra
28. Sinatra Sings in Vegas, and You Are There
29. Shes on the Road to Renown
30. Bing and Guests Swing on the Air
Part Six. The Life Force of the Music
31. The Joyous Power of Black Gospel Music
32. The Healing Power of Jazz
33. Old Country Jewish Blues and Ornette Coleman
34. The Jewish Soul of Willie The Lion” Smith
Part Seven. Finding the First Amendment Groove
35. Satchmos Rap Sheet
36. The Constitution of a Jazzman
37. How Jazz Helped Hasten the Civil Rights Movement
38. The Congressman from the Land of Jazz
39. Jazz Musicians in the Public Square
40. Quincy JonesPast, Present and Future
Part Eight. Roots
41. King Oliver in the Groove(s)
42. Giants at Play
43. Barrelhouse Chuck Goering Keeps the Blues Alive
44. Jazzs History Is Living in Queens . . .
45. Uncovering Jazz Trails
46. Expanding the Map
Part Nine. The Survivors
47. The Thoreau of Jazz
48. A Living Memory of Dr. Art
49. Barren Days
50. Keeping Jazzand Its MusiciansAlive
51. In New Orleans, the Saints Are Marching In Again
52. The Beating Heart of Jazz
Part Ten. The Regenerators
53. Bridging Generations
54. The Rebirth of the Hot Jazz Violin
55. The Newest Jazz Generation
56. Born in Israel
57. Theo Croker Arrives
58. The Ladies Who Swung the Band
59. Nineteen-Year-Old Saxophonist Verifies Future of Jazz
Part Eleven. The Master Teachers
60. A Complete Jazzman
61. The Lifetime Teacher: Jon Faddis
62. A House of Swingfor All Ages
63. Inside the Jazz Experience: Ron Carter
64. These Little Kids Think Coltrane Is Cool
Epilogue: My Life Lessons from the Jazz Souls on Fire”
Credits
Index