An extensive, upbeat compilation of Wisconsin's jazz musicians Although New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are often considered the epicenters of American jazz, this extensive, upbeat ...compilation of jazz musician biographies details Wisconsin's rich association the genre since its the inception of the genre in the early 1900s. Iconic musicians Bunny Berigan, Woody Herman, Les Paul, and Al Jarreau all hailed from Wisconsin, as have many other influential players, composers, and teachers. Wisconsin Riffs features these musicians side-by-side-from the world-renowned to obscure regional artists-to portray a comprehensive history of jazz in Wisconsin. Through meticulous research and more than a hundred interviews, author Kurt Dietrich has assembled a group of musicians who represent a wide range of backgrounds, ages, stylistic schools, and experiences-from leaders of swing-era big bands to legendary Wisconsin Conservatory instructors to today's up-and-coming practitioners of contemporary jazz and jazz rock. For aspiring musicians, jazz enthusiasts, and fans of Wisconsin culture alike, Wisconsin Riffs presents a compelling, complex, and multi-layered concoction-just like jazz itself.
In this classic work of American music writing, renowned critic Albert Murray argues beautifully and authoritatively that "the blues as such are synonymous with low spirits. Not only is its express ...purpose to make people feel good, which is to say in high spirits, but in the process of doing so it is actually expected to generate a disposition that is both elegantly playful and heroic in its nonchalance."
InStomping the BluesMurray explores its history, influences, development, and meaning as only he can. More than two hundred vintage photographs capture the ambiance Murray evokes in lyrical prose. Only the sounds are missing from this lyrical, sensual tribute to the blues.
Murray Talks Music Murray, Albert; Devlin, Paul; Giddins, Gary ...
05/2016
eBook
The year 2016 will mark the centennial of the birth of Albert Murray (1916-2013), who in thirteen books was by turns a lyrical novelist, a keen and iconoclastic social critic, and a formidable ...interpreter of jazz and blues. Not only did his prizewinning studyStomping the Blues(1976) influence musicians far and wide, it was also a foundational text for Jazz at Lincoln Center, which he cofounded with Wynton Marsalis and others in 1987.Murray Talks Musicbrings together, for the first time, many of Murray's finest interviews and essays on music-most never before published-as well as rare liner notes and prefaces.
For those new to Murray, this book will be a perfect introduction, and those familiar with his work-even scholars-will be surprised, dazzled, and delighted. Highlights include Dizzy Gillespie's richly substantive 1985 conversation; an in-depth 1994 dialogue on jazz and culture between Murray and Wynton Marsalis; and a long 1989 discussion on Duke Ellington between Murray, Stanley Crouch, and Loren Schoenberg. Also interviewed by Murray are producer and impresario John Hammond and singer and bandleader Billy Eckstine. All of thse conversations were previously lost to history. A celebrated educator and raconteur, Murray engages with a variety of scholars and journalists while making insightful connections among music, literature, and other art forms-all with ample humor and from unforeseen angles.
Leading Murray scholar Paul Devlin contextualizes the essays and interviews in an extensive introduction, which doubles as a major commentary on Murray's life and work. The volume also presents sixteen never-before-seen photographs of jazz greats taken by Murray.
No jazz collection will be complete withoutMurray Talks Music, which includes a foreword by Gary Giddins and an afterword by Greg Thomas.
John Arthur "Jaki" Byard Brown, Scott E.
Journal of jazz studies,
11/2022, Letnik:
13, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
2022 marks the centennial of the birth of pianist/composer John Arthur “Jaki” Byard. Byard is highly regarded among his many musician students and serious students of jazz history, but his place in ...the historical narrative of twentieth century jazz, and the nature of his music, have challenged conventional approaches to assessing them. Attributes are assigned to his playing and methodology that convey a simplistic interpretation of a complex man who expressed a profound and individual notion of the cultural, social, and political nature of his music and jazz. Well known for a comprehensive grasp of jazz history and a virtuosic ability to articulate it musically, his intentions are diluted and obfuscated by misinterpretation of the way he applies humor, eclecticism, and historical reference. This paper will examine Byard’s background as the source of his expansive view, his natural talents as humorist and educator, and how these elements led him to adopt the classical definition of eclecticism to craft a unique voice that was both inclusive and specific.
Through their own words, Vacher tells their story in Los Angeles, offering along the way a close look at the role the black musicians union played in their lives while also taking on jazz ...historiography's comparative neglect of these West Coast players.
This indispensable book brings us face to face with some of the most memorable figures in jazz history as it chronicles the transition from the big band era to the "bop" period of modern jazz in the ...late 1930s and '40s. Ira Gitler interviewed more than 50 leading jazz musicians who tell in their own words how "bop" music emerged and how it influenced their lives and work. Placing jazz in historical context, Gitler demonstrates how the mood of the nation in its post-Depression years, racial attitudes of the times, and World War II shaped the jazz of today.
Eurojazzland Cerchiari, Luca; Cugny, Laurent; Kerschbaumer, Franz
2012
eBook
It is often said that jazz is America’s great gift to the world, but while true, this belies the surprising, often crucial role that Europe has played in the development and popularity of jazz ...throughout the world. Based on a series of symposia attracting leading scholars, critics, and musicians from throughout Europe and the United States, Eurojazzland first addresses the impact of European musical traditions and instruments on the formation and development of American jazz. Part two details the vital experiences of American musicians on European soil, from black minstrels to such jazz greats as Benny Carter and Duke Ellington, and deals with European jazzmen and their developments of American jazz styles. The final part chronicles the importance of European critics and musicologists in jazz criticism and offers essays on European contributions to jazz musicianship and production.
Eurojazzland proves that jazz is simply too rich and varied for one country to claim, define, or contain. This groundbreaking collection will appeal to jazz aficionados, scholars, musicologists, and musicians.
"In the context of a shifting domestic and international status quo that was evolving in the decades following World War II, French audiences used jazz as a means of negotiating a wide range of ...issues that were pressing to them and to their fellow citizens. Despite the fact that jazz was fundamentally linked to the multicultural through its origins in the hands of African-American musicians, happenings within the French jazz public reflected much about France's postwar society. In the minds of many, jazz was connected to youth culture, but instead of challenging traditional gender expectations, the music tended to reinforce long-held stereotypes. French critics, musicians, and fans contended with the reality of American superpower strength and often strove to elevate their own country's stature in relation to the United States by finding fault with American consumer society and foreign policy aims. Jazz audiences used this music to condemn American racism and to support the American civil rights movement, expressing strong reservations about the American way of life. French musicians lobbied to create professional opportunities for themselves, and some went so far as to create a union that endorsed preferential treatment for French nationals. As France became more ethnically and religiously diverse due immigration from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, French jazz critics and fans noted the insidious appearance of racism in their own country and had to contend with how their own citizens would address the changing demographics of the nation, even if they continued to insist that racism was more prevalent in the United States. As independence movements brought an end to the French empire, jazz enthusiasts from both former colonies and France had to reenvision their relationship to jazz and to the music's international audiences. In these postwar decades, the French were working to preserve a distinct national identity in the face of weakened global authority, most forcefully represented by decolonization and American hegemony. Through this originally African American music, French listeners, commentators, and musicians participated in a process that both challenged and reinforced ideas about their own culture and nation"--Back cover.
Emanuel Uggé (1900–1970) ranked among the most influential Czech writers on jazz in the first half of the 20th century. This study charts his impact on the reception of jazz in the Czech context, and ...draws parallels with Western exponents of purist approaches to jazz, including the likes of Hugues Panassié, Rudi Blesh or Charles Edward Smith. The text also challenges the oversimplifying narrative about the strictly repressive character of the communist regime’s attitude towards jazz: himself a diehard Marxist, Uggé loved jazz and publicly defended it not just in the 1930s, but as a member of the Czechoslovak Communist party still after the communist coup of 1948. He was convinced that the new order, and the country’s nationalized recording industry, would finally make possible the definitive triumph over “commercial concoctions”, and “pure jazz” would emerge as an authentically revolutionary force in the service of the proletariat. Uggé’s influence on subsequent generations of jazz writers was essential, and his arguments continued to serve for a long time as a theoretical basis in dealing with music production organizers and censors.
The influence of Miles Davis's “second great quintet, ” consisting of Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams continues to resonate. Jazz musicians, historians, and ...critics have celebrated the group for its improvisational communication, openness, and its transitional status between hard bop and the emerging free jazz of the 1960s, creating a synthesis described by one quintet member as “controlled freedom.” The book provides a critical analytical study of the Davis quintet studio recordings released between 1965 and 1968, including E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro. In contrast to the quintet's live recordings, which included performances of older jazz standards, the studio recordings offered an astonishing breadth of original compositions. Many of these compositions have since become jazz standards, and all of them played a central role in the development of contemporary jazz composition. Using transcription and analysis, the author illuminates the compositional, improvisational, and collective achievements of the group. With additional sourcesthe book shows how the group in the studio shaped and altered features of the compositions. Despite the earlier hard bop orientation of the players, the Davis quintet compositions offered different responses to questions of form, melody, and harmonic structure, and they often invited other improvisational paths, ones that relied on an uncanny degree of collective rapport. And given the spontaneity of the recorded performances—often undertaken with a minimum of rehearsal—the players responded with any number of techniques to address formal, harmonic, or metrical discrepancies that arose while the tape was rolling.
