Synopses & Reviews
Imagine a completely different version of one of jazz’s most revered compositions sitting on a shelf in a Los Angeles office building for three decades without anyone knowing it...
With an ear for the overlooked, Aaron Gilbreath chronicles the forgotten corners of the mid-century jazz scene. Shadowing the greats, from Sonny Clark to John Coltrane, Gilbreath traces the tragedy of saxophonist Hank Mobley, unearths the story of lost pianist Jutta Hipp, and pauses on the meaning of heroin for trumpeter Lee Morgan. He also revisits a few standards, like The Connection, an influential film with its own take on drugs and sobriety; the ten-year evolution of Miles Davis' "So What"; and the impact of record labels' vault archives. This Is: Essays on Jazz celebrates the joy, genius and struggle of jazz, in essays both intimate and deeply researched.
Review
"Aaron Gilbreath is an outstanding jazz writer, with a deep appreciation for the music's tradition and an engaging prose style." Ted Gioia, author of The History of Jazz and Delta Blues
Review
"Aaron Gilbreath writes about Jutta Hipp and Miles Davis and Lee Morgan and Jackie McLean and others long gone with curiosity: he lines up the questionable historical record with what's knowable and provable, and finds out where the lessons are." New York Times jazz and pop critic Ben Ratliff, author of Coltrane: The Story of a Sound and The Jazz Ear: Conversations over Music
Review
"Aaron Gilbreath's writing about jazz is as friendly and welcoming as any you'll find." Luc Sante, author of Low Life and Kill All Your Darlings
Review
"The richness of the essays in Aaron Gilbreath's This Is is a fitting tribute to the richness of jazz itself. Gilbreath weaves unique insight with a profound understanding of the history of jazz. His crisp prose and diverse range make you want to turn the page and run to the record store in equal measure." Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
About the Author
Aaron Gilbreath is an essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, Paris Review, Vice, The Morning News, Saveur, Tin House, The Believer, Oxford American, Kenyon Review, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, and Brick. He is also the author of the essay collection Everything We Don’t Know (Curbside Splendor, 2016), which earned him inclusion on the 35 Over 35 list.