The History of Jazz, Second Edition

After having purchased and read Gioia's superb book on blues, I naturally wanted to read up on jazz and its history, and this book for the most part is extremely passionate, accurate, and has made points I had thought of myself, such as the indelible influence on jazz from both the blues and especially ragtime, particularly the works of Scott Joplin. I am pleased to have discovered Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Trambauer and ordered an incredible CD featuring the legendary cornetist, saxophonist, and as a plus, some tunes with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang spicing up the tunes. Truly, Beiderbecke, and others of the Chicago early jazz scene lifted the Dixieland New Orleans style from its somewhat flamboyant styles and started the movement that would become swing in a few years. Plus, my admiration for Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Charlie Christian was verified by Gioia, certainly a far more educated person on jazz than most people ever will be. And this from a guy who also loves metal, blues, classic rock, the early rockers like the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, etc. The musician in me is attracted to so many styles it's ridiculous. We learn of the beginnings of Miles Davis' unbelievable early recordings, including the one album most consider maybe the greatest jazz album of all time, "Kind of Blue". Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, on through fusion and today's state of the genre are all well represented. However, I must take great exception with this book for a good reason in my opinion, and it cost Gioia a star: he seems nearly indifferent to some of the greatest players ever, mainly the guitarists. And the B-3 organ, especially discounting the great Jimmy Smith and his many many albums with greats like Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green among them. Gioia even goes so far as to consider this form of bebop and hard bop as hackneyed, if you can believe that. Only scant attention is paid to Montgomery, who was and remains the greatest jazz guitarist in history. Eddie Lang is mentioned, as is Django Reinhardt, but only Charlie Christian in the author's mind seems to merit more than just passing commentary. I find this one sided and unfair. Fact is, jazz guitar reaches more people, with titans like Burrell especially on his magnum opus "Midnight Blue" playing with an incredible combination of blues and hard bop style. No less guitar greats than Jimi Hendrix, who loved Burrell and Stevie Ray Vaughan sung his praises, with Vaughan performing a fine cover of "Chitlins Con Carne" Grant Green is receiving more attention now, ironically as he died from drug abuse in 1979. But his funky stylings are still popular, as are his brilliant earlier recordings with Sonny Clarke, Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey. Pat Metheny is mentioned, but consider this list of guitarists Gioia deigned to even acknowledge, preferring instead to obsess over horn players and pianists as if guitars were hardly worthy of his attention. At no point do we read about George Van Eps, Pat Martino, Jimmy Bruno, Danny Gatton's fine jazz output, Russell Malone, or the incredible Stanley Jordan. Nor do we get any mention of Mike Stern, and other well known players. This is not an oversight - it's a disrespectful and deliberate commentary on what Gioia clearly considers an instrument worthy of mention only in the most unavoidable instances. This is puzzling, as he clearly understands guitar music as evidenced by his book on the blues. But the history of the wonderful world of jazz music is still well worth the time to read. I will not disparage other instrumentalists endemic to the form, but I must confess as a guitar player, I am biased about the exclusion of its importance. Frankly to me, monosyllabic instruments that can only play one note at a time are severely limited in their scope and have to rely on other musicians for chord colorings, expressive solos, etc. I really have difficulty telling one saxophone player from another unless the style is unusually prominent. For example, Coleman Hawkins, one of the longest lived heroes of jazz has a more laid back approach than John Coltrane. Benny Goodman managed to forge a distinct style on the clarinet, and Miles Davis in his "cool" phase had a great tone. The less said about his material beginning with "Bitches Brew" the better in my view, as it remains to me a convoluted unfocused barrage of tones that are the aural equivalent of pretentious and frankly, worthless modern art. We are unlikely to see a more complex but readable history of the jazz world, however, and Gioia's research and knowledge are indeed encyclopedic. Just expect a LOT of coverage on saxophones.

I am certainly not a musician, and just a casual listener of jazz music. However, I found this book very interesting, informative and readable. I found it piqued my interest in learning more about the history of jazz, and some of its great performers and performances. Gioia does an excellent job - with minor exceptions - of interweaving three themes throughout the book. He sets the scene in American history - his historical accounts of 18th and 19th century New Orleans are particularly fascinating - in which the music existed. He does a great job of providing detailed accounts of the great jazz performers and their music. My personal view is that very little awareness of the artist or his / her most noted works is needed to appreciate and understand these descriptions. The third theme is the changes in the styles / trends / preferences of jazz music over the years. Certainly some understanding of music theory is helpful here, but not essential.I found the book highly readable, although it is a long read. The two minor quibbles I have about the book are the vocabulary, and the last chapter. The vocabulary is certainly at a fairly high level. I am certainly glad I had my dictionary app handy on multiple occasions. The vocabulary manifests itself in both musical jargon - which I presume is unavoidable - and in use of words such as interstices (on multiple occasions). The last chapter reflects the challenge of any historian - to try to identify trends and their future historical significance - that are contemporary to the writing of the book. As other reviewers have noted, Gioia resorts to listings of names of artists on multiple occasions that add little depth or value to the writing, or are of little help to the reader. However, in the same chapter, Gioia's comments about the impact of present day technology on the distribution of and access to jazz music are very insightful, as is his linkage of his comments on Joshua Redman to the rise of formal jazz musical education and instruction.Overall, as a casual listener of jazz music, I highly recommend this book. In fact, I have already purchased Gioia's latest work - The Jazz Standards - as a result of his deepening of my interest in this musical genre.

This should be more properly be entitled A History of Jazz rather than The History. All types of history of course consist of making selections of events and then presenting a narrative. Giola's book is no exception and anyone with a love of jazz will at various points feel that some artists are under-represented while others given surprising prominence. For novice readers looking for a quick over-view of jazz history and trends the book is probably over-long and detailed. Actually you'd do better with Gary Giddin's set of DVDs which have the virtue of taking you straight to what the music/artist sounds like - something you can't get from a book. But if you already have some familiarity there's much to enjoy. Giola is, like any historian and critic, entitled to his views and you'll find his descriptions of influences interesting - many leading musicians did not confine themselves simply to reacting to predecessor jazzers. Every so often you may be mildly irritated by Giola's showing off of his breadth of listening and reading and his assertions of how right and perceptive he is compared with other critics. But I guess that's how critics behave.

If only I had friends to talk about it to

Take your mind of the pains of life --listen to jazz in the back ground while listening to the audio Excelent

Given as a present ,and friend was delighted with the book.

Was a present for my son who has found the contents really interesting