Outcats: Jazz Composers, Instrumentalists, and Singers

by Francis Davis

Book Overview

With his essays on jazz for a variety of publications, including The Atlantic, 7 Days, and The Village Voice, Francis Davis has established himself as a major voice in jazz criticism. In the Moment, his first collection, published in 1986, won praise from both the jazz and general press. down beat called it "a collection as useful to future generations for how it captures this moment in musical evolution as for how it alters our vision now." The New...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019507470X
• ISBN13: 9780195074703
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great essays on the fundamentals of jazz

Regardless of your familiarity with jazz history, its people or its forms, this collection of essays is great for the fan or the first time listener interested in learning more. Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, and Lester Young get scholarly appreciations, but so do Sun Ra, Henry Threadgill, Steve Lacy, and -- really showing the author's capacity for inclusiveness -- Bobby Darin, which isn't as farfetched as it seems. Essays are grouped into composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists, with a fourth section devoted to historical essays, encouraging the interested reader to explore more of a particular style. Davis assumes the reader will know a little about jazz, but his enthusiasm for his subject matter makes this book lively reading about America's most original musical form.