Synopses & Reviews
'Already a jazz classic, Gary Giddins\'
Visions of Jazz: The First Century contains no less than 78 chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all major figures in jazz history.
From Louis Armstrong\'s renegade style trumpet playing to Frank Sinatra\'s intimate crooning, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes us with his unparalleled insight. In just a few lines, he captures the essence of Louis Armstrong, \"He could telegraph with a growl or a rolling of his eyes his independence, confidence, and security. As the embodiment of jazz, he made jazz the embodiment of the individual.\" Giddins maintains, contrary to the opinion of most jazz enthusiasts, that Armstrongs voice was as much an integral part of creating jazz singing as his trumpet was to creating jazz. Perhaps the most remarkable chapters in the book are those that do pay tribute to the great jazz singers. Billie Holiday profoundly impacted music history, and Giddins eloquently honors her \"gutted voice, drawled phrasing, and wayworn features.\" Many artists, such as Irving Berlin and Rosemary Clooney, have been traditionally dismissed by fans and critics as merely popular derivatives of true jazz. Giddins finally opens the doors of jazz to include these musicians. In addition to this, he devotes an entire quarter of this volume to young, active jazz artists. No other book has so boldly expanded the horizon of jazz and its influences.
Visions of Jazz is an evocative journey through the first one hundred years of jazz that will captivate--and challenge--musicians, music critics, and music lovers.'
Review
"The publication of Visions of Jazz is a major event because Gary Giddins is our best jazz critic...[It] is the finest unconventional history of jazz ever written--a brilliant, indispensable book."--Alfred Appel, Jr., The New York Times
"One of our most skillful jazz critics offers a monumental work of ambition...[Giddins] brings an unerring critical intelligence to his analyses of the music and a formidable grasp of music theory and practice...This is an important book, one that any serious student of jazz will want to own."--Kirkus Reviews
"This gigantic book of 79 essays amounts, willy-nilly, to a grand, brilliant history of the most American of arts."--The New York Times Book Review, A Notable Book of 1998
"No American writer has ever written better about music, as richly demonstrated in Giddins' Visions of Jazz. This splendid critical history is classic Giddins: breathtaking in its scope, audacious in its erudition, and profoundly mindful of the connection between biography and art."-- Fortune
"Giddins' eclectic range and meticulous attention to detail are nothing less than astonishing. Visions of Jazz is a landmark destined to occupy a permanent niche on the shelf of essential jazz literature."--Grover Sales, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
Synopsis
Poised to become a classic of jazz literature, Visions of Jazz: The First Century offers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning, and from the swinging elegance of Duke Ellington to the pioneering experiments of Ornette Coleman, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Writing with the grace and wit that have endeared his prose to Village Voice readers for decades, Giddins also widens the scope of jazz to include such crucial American musicians as Irving Berlin, Rosemary Clooney, and Frank Sinatra, all primarily pop performers who are often dismissed by fans and critics as mere derivatives of the true jazz idiom. And he devotes an entire quarter of this landmark volume to young, still-active jazz artists, boldly expanding the horizons of jazz--and charting and exploring the music's influences as no other book has done.
Synopsis
Poised to become a classic of jazz literature, Visions of Jazz: The First Century offers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning, and from the
swinging elegance of Duke Ellington to the pioneering experiments of Ornette Coleman, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Writing with the grace and wit that have endeared his prose to Village Voice readers for decades, Giddins also widens the
scope of jazz to include such crucial American musicians as Irving Berlin, Rosemary Clooney, and Frank Sinatra, all primarily pop performers who are often dismissed by fans and critics as mere derivatives of the true jazz idiom. And he devotes an entire quarter of this landmark volume to young,
still-active jazz artists, boldly expanding the horizons of jazz--and charting and exploring the music's influences as no other book has done.
About the Author
Gary Giddins is the jazz critic for the
Village Voice. Two of his previous books,
Riding on a Blue Note and
Rhythm-a-ning, are available from Oxford.
Table of Contents
Part One: Precursors 1. Bert Williams/Al Jolson (Native Wits)
2. Hank Jones/Charlie Haden (Come Sunday)
3. Louis Armstrong/Mills Brothers (Signifying)
4. W.C. Handy (Birth of the Blues)
5. Irving Berlin (Ragging the Alley)
6. Spencer Williams (The Bard of Basin Street)
7. Ethel Waters (The Mother of Us All)
8. Bunk Johnson/George Lewis (Pithecanthropus Jazzman)
Part Two: A New Music
9. Jelly Roll Morton (Red Hot Dandy)
10. King Oliver (Working Man Blues)
11. Louis Armstrong (The Once and Future King)
12. Duke Ellington (Part 1: The Poker Game)
13. Coleman Hawkins (Patriarch)
14. Pee Wee Russell (Seer)
15. Chick Webb (King of the Savoy)
16. Fats Waller (Comedy Tonight)
Part Three: A Popular Music
17. Benny Goodman (The Mirror of Swing)
18. Jimmie Lunceford (For Listeners, Too)
19. Count Basie/Lester Young (Westward Ho! and Back)
20. Jimmy Rushing (Swinging the Blues)
21. Roy Eldridge (Jazz)
22. Ella Fitzgerald (Joy)
23. Artie Shaw (Cinderella's Last Stand)
24. Budd Johnson (Chameleon)
25. Bobby Hackett (Muzak Man)
26. Frank SInatra (The Ultimate in Theater)
Part Four: A Modern Music
27. Duke Ellington (Part 2: The Enlightenment)
28. Billy Strayhorn (Passion FLower)
29. Spike Jones (Chasin' the Birdaphone)
30. Charlie Parker (Flying Home)
31. Dizzy Gillespie (The Coup and After)
32. Sarah Vaughan (Divine)
33. Thelonious Monk (Rhythm-a-ning)
34. Bud Powell (Strictly Confidential)
35. Chico O'Farrill (North of the Border)
36. Stan Kenton (Big)
37. Dexter Gordon (Resurgence)
Part Five: A Mainstream Music
38. Miles Davis (Kinds of Blues)
39. Gerry Mulligan (Beyond Cool)
40. Art Blakey (Jazz Messenger)
41. Billie Holiday (Lady of Pain)
42. Modern Jazz Quartet (The First Forty Years)
43. Nat King Cole (The Comeback King)
44. Stan Getz (Seasons)
45. Sonny Rollins (The Muse is Heard)
46. Dinah Washington (The Queen)
47. Rahsaan Roland Kirk (One-Man Band)
Part Six: An Alternative Music
48. Art Tatum (Sui Generis)
49. Charles Mingus (Bigger Than Death)
50. Cecil Taylor (Outer Curve)
51. Ornette Coleman (This is Our Music)
52. John Coltrane (Metamorphosis)
53. Duke Ellington (Part 3: At then Pulpit)
54. Muhal Richard Abrams (Meet This Composer)
55. Roscoe Mitchell/Marty Ehrlich (The Audience)
56. Henry Threadgill (The Big Top)
57. Charles Gayle/David S. Ware/Matthew Shipp (Sweet Agony)
Part Seven:A Struggling Music
58. Hannibal Peterson (Out of Africa)
59. Jimmy Rowles (The Late Hurrah)
60. John Carter (American Echoes)
61. Dee Dee Bridgewater (Back Home Again)
62. Julius Hemphill (Gotham's Minstrel)
63. Don Pullen (Last Connections)
64. Gary Bartz (The Middle Passage)
65. David Murray (Profuse)
66. Dave Burrell (Brotherly Love)
67. Abbey Lincoln (Strong Wind Blowing)
Part Eight: A Traditional Music
68. Randy Weston (Afrobeats)
69. Rosemary Clooney (Going Her Way)
70. Joe Henderson (Tributes)
71. Tommy Flanagan (Standards and Practices)
72. Joe Lovano (The Long Apprenticeship)
73. Geri Allen/Jacky Terrasson (The Parameters of Hip)
74. Joshua Redman (Tenor of the Times)
75. Stephen Scott (Taking Time)
76. James Carter (All of the Above)
77. Louis Armstrong/Nicholas Payton (Interpreted)
78. Cassandra Wilson (A Different Songbook)
79. Don Byron (Musically Correct)
Acknowledgments
Index of Names
Index of Songs and Selected Albums