Synopses & Reviews
Poet Philip Larkin's reputation as a writer on jazz has so far hinged almost exclusively on All What Jazz, which collects the 126 record-review columns he wrote for the Daily Telegraph from 1961 to 1971. However, he wrote frequently and elsewhere on jazz-for the Observer, Guardian, New Statesman and such journals as American Scholar. In bringing all these pieces together, Larkin's Jazz is not only a valuable addition to Larkin scholarship but an illuminating corrective to all those who regard him as a jazz reactionary. Larkin once wrote that "a critic is only as good as his ear;" Larkin's Jazz offers decisive evidence of just how durable and penetrating his judgments have proven to be.
Synopsis
Poet Philip Larkin's reputation as a writer on jazz has so far hinged almost exclusively on All What Jazz, which collects the 126 record-review columns he wrote for the Daily Telegraph from 1961 to 1971. However, he wrote frequently and elsewhere on jazz-for the Observer, Guardian, New Statesman and such journals as American Scholar. In bringing all these pieces together, Larkin's Jazz is not only a valuable addition to Larkin scholarship but an illuminating corrective to all those who regard him as a jazz reactionary. Larkin once wrote that "a critic is only as good as his ear;" Larkin's Jazz offers decisive evidence of just how durable and penetrating his judgments have proven to be.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
Table of Contents
ContentsForeword by Alan PlaterIntroductionPrelude Larkin Talks on Jazz (1962)Part One Reviews in Newspapers and Periodicals1. The Mighty Mezz 2. The New Bohemia 3. Jazz 4. Harsh and BitterSweet 5. Bad Bold Beauty 6. Such Sweet Thunder 7. Mouldie Figges 8. Blues from the Brickyards9. Jazz in Society10. Music of the Negro 11. A Racial Art 12. A Real Musicianer 13. TheCritic as Hipster14. With Not-So-Silent Friends 15. Lives of the Poets 16. Bunk's Boy17. The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band 18. Should Jazz Be anArt? 19. Jazz and the White Americans 20. On The Wing21. Timbres Varied 22. Testifyin' to the Blues Tradition 23. Lovely Gigs24. Didn't They Ramble25. Very Good Friend 26. Soul Food 27. Gulliver's Travails 28.Disagreeable to Unbearable29. Jazzmen 30. The New Yorker Beat 31. Byways of the Blues 32.Unacknowledged Legislators33. Music to Stand Up To 34. Jazz-Man's Sound and Fury 35. Satchmo Still36. In Benny Goodman's Golden Days 37. Negroes of Europe 38. Bessie &Billie 39. Birdlife 40. Calling the Tune41. That Nice Boy 42. Getting the Gigs 43. A Jazzman's Frenzied Fragments44. Top Band Talk45. Crows and Daws 46. Wandering Minstrels 47. Pleasing the People 48.Home CookingPart One: Notes and CommentaryPart Two A Miscellany of Essays, Book Reports and Letters49. Essay for Weekend Telegraph 50. Report on A Guide to the Literature ofJazz51. Letter Concerning A Guide to the Literature of Jazz 52. Report on TheJazz Tradition53. Review of Your Jazz Collection 54. Letter to Terry Henebery 55.Report on Black Beauty, White Heat56. Essay on Duke Ellington, Makers of Modern CulturePart Two: Notes and CommentaryPart Three Daily Telegraph Records of the Year 1961-7057. 1961 58. 1962 59. 1963 60. 1964 61. 1965 62. 1966 63. 196764. 1968 65. 1969 66. 197067. Postscript: Larkin's First Essay on Jazz (1940)Appendix I Books Reviewed and CitedAppendix II Glossary of Jazz Artists Cited