The History of Jazz

by Ted Gioia

Book Overview

Jazz is the most colorful and varied art form in the world and it was born in one of the most colorful and varied cities, New Orleans. From the seed first planted by slave dances held in Congo Square and nurtured by early ensembles led by Buddy Belden and Joe "King" Oliver, jazz began its long winding odyssey across America and around the world, giving flower to a thousand different forms--swing, bebop, cool jazz, jazz-rock fusion--and a thousand...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019512653X
• ISBN13: 9780195126532
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 471 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 9.1" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

A History for the intermediate listener.

The back cover of this Oxford paperback claims that the book is suitable as an introduction to jazz or as an authoritative reference. I must admit that I am neither a jazz officianado nor a complete novice to the world of swing, bebop and fusion, making me incapable of confirming the cover's claims. However, for me, this book filled in the gaps quite nicely. Most of my knowledge of jazz has come from the radio. The big names keep popping up but lesser known lights get little air time and I am at the whim of the dj's tastes. "The History of Jazz" covers them all, starting at the very beginning - drum circle dances in pre-abolition New Orleans. It then discusses the roots of early dixie land jazz (ragtime, Joplin, and the blues) and then describes the movement of jazz from New Orleans to Chicago and New York. It intersperses lively anecdotes about the fathers of jazz -Jelly Roll Morton was a procurer (pimp?) early on- with music theory and analysis. Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong and Morton all have a section devoted to them. A chapter on the jazz age pays special attention to Armstrong's Hot Five and subsequent career. Bix Beiderbecke's biography is given in detail along with notes on many other famous players of his day. A chapter is devoted to Harlem, stride piano, Waller, Ellington and the advent of the big bands, ending with a description of society and music at the Cotton Club. The Swing era gets a chapter to itself with even more in-depth treatment of big bands and those who led them (Goodman, the Dorsey's etc.). Kansas City style jazz, and european jazz traditions (Django Reinhardt) are also covered. The details of Billie Holiday's life, although well known, make for a sad story. The second half of the book, which covers modern jazz, the fragmentation of jazz styles and recent jazz developments, is much less coherent than the first. The section on bebop with its lengthy discussion of the life and influence of Bird and Gillespie continues to be readable and thorough. However, as the author approaches the present day, the writing, like the jazz, seems to fragment. This is not to say that it isn't enjoyable reading, just that the sheer number of names and styles begins to pull the book in too many directions. California jazz, trad jazz, cool jazz, hard bop, post-bop and soul, free jazz, post-modern jazz and the various fusion forms leave the reader gasping for air. It seems clear to me that I will need to go out and listen to a lot of things to round out my education. Fortunately the book is well supplied with notes, further readings and, best of all a recommended listening list. While I might not have understood everything the author had to say about the subtleties of the music, this book has made me a much keener fan of jazz. It has created in me the desire to seek out new and different forms of the music and to listen more carefully to the old stuff. For this, I gladly give it five stars.

Well-judged, elegantly written, first-rate history of jazz

This is a first-rate history. Gioia writes with authority, but never distances the reader. Like an Ellingtonian suite, he structures the history of jazz in discernible movements and counter-movements that each evolve organically from their predecessors, while avoiding a mere chronology. Gioia gracefully executes the narrative in a tone that never exaggerates unnecessarily, and always judiciously considers and evaluates the place of each figure, style, instrument, movement, band, label and of course, important recordings and their influence. Gioia inevitably has his preferences, but he is far from prejudiced. This makes him a valuable commentator that should please fans and artists alike. Gioia's book is a major work which will become a standard account of the history of jazz and should be on everybody's reading list.

Burns Delivers the Pictures, but Giola Gives You the Text

Anyone purportedly writing a "History of Jazz" faces a daunting task: A complex history of interwoven musical strands, the linkages and evolutions (sometimes skipping a generation), the geographic spread to Europe and elsewhere, the eventual fragmentation of jazz into diverse sounds and approaches, and the opinions of knowledgeable, rabid fans.Ted Giola succeeds magnificently: This is the best single-volume history of jazz I've seen. While not without some minor flaws (see below), this is a comprehensive, generally very well written, and intriguing story of the genesis and development of jazz. It is a compelling story, and Giola writes without mythologizing jazz, or constantly needing to remind us that this is, indeed, art. The giants of jazz-- Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Holiday, etc. are critiqued rather than lionized.Giola proceeds through the now familiar African, American, African-American, and European roots of jazz that emanated first from New Orleans. He traces its developmental routes through Chicago and New York, the Armstrong solo evolution, and the diverse "territory bands" such as those of Bennie Moten and Count Basie.Fortunately, Giola does not limit himself to a strictly chronological narrative. He interrupts the timeline with revealing excursions into topics such as the development of instrumental styles (e.g., piano, trumpet), and jumps ahead to show the impact of early influences on later styles (e.g., Lester Young and bebop). He also pays attention to cultural, technological, and economic context, without letting these subtexts blare over the music. Giola knows music from the "inside" as well as the outside, and his discussions of jazz technique and harmonic and rhythmic innovations are detailed and precise. His deconstruction of various solos and styles is illuminating: Charlie Parker's "Indiana" is a version "where almost every bar features one or more altered tones-an augmented fifth, a major seventh played against a minor chord, a flatted ninth leading to a sharpened ninth...a textbook example of how bop harmonic thinking revolutionized the flow of the melodic line in jazz." Yet Giola is also astute in directing our attention to the "core of simplicity" ...the "monophonic melody statements" in bop. Giola's critiques of various musicians are generally fair and accurate, and he discusses the famous as well as the overlooked. Every jazz fan, however, will probably find some favorite musician given insufficient coverage, or will disagree with a Giola critique. There's no mention of Carmen McCrae, about half a page on Sarah Vaughan, very little mention of European jazz, not much discussion of Miles Davis' or Basie's later work ("The Atomic Mr. Basie," for example). For my tastes, there is not enough on Mingus' sidemen (other than Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and he describes the Mingus Town Hall Concert as a fiasco. (Organizationally it was a disaster, but musically it succeeded.) Giola's statement that "

Among my top five of Jazz Books

I have a reasonable library of jazz books (including The Horn by JC Holmes, American Musicians by Whitney Balliett, Reading Jazz by Gottlieb, etc, etc) but my top five are HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA by Hentoff and Shapiro; FOUR LIVES IN THE BEBOP BUSINESS by A.B. Spellman; STRAIGHT LIFE by Art and Laurie Pepper; THE STORY OF JAZZ by Marshall Stearns; and AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE by Val Wilmer. What do I want in a jazz book? I want information, authenticity, entertainment; and decent writing. Now I have to move Mr Stearns over to make way for Mr Gioia and his HISTORY OF JAZZ for I believe it deserves to be in that exalted company.

Fantastic Survey of Jazz

Is there any other book that is as true as this book, when recalling the intricate history of jazz? If there is, it has escaped my eyes and i invite the opurtunity to read it. Ted Gioia is not only articulate in his representation of jazz history, but his facts are documented well above reproach. He even includes a suggested listening section at the back of the book. Incredible book! I am using it as an aid in teaching my highschool class the history of jazz. This book is a necessary investment for any jazz afficianado.