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Music of the African Diaspora
The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop
Bud Powell was not only one of the greatest bebop pianists of all time, he stands as one of the twentieth century's most dynamic and fiercely adventurous musical minds. His expansive musicianship, riveting performances, and inventive compositions expanded the bebop idiom and pushed jazz musicians of all stripes to higher standards of performance. Yet Powell remains one of American music's most misunderstood figures, and the story of his exceptional talent is often overshadowed by his history of alcohol abuse, mental instability, and brutalization at the hands of white authorities. In this first extended study of the social significance of Powell's place in the American musical landscape, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. shows how the pianist expanded his own artistic horizons and moved his chosen idiom into new realms. Illuminating and multi-layered, The Amazing Bud Powell centralizes Powell's contributions as it details the collision of two vibrant political the discourses of art and the practice of blackness.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.
4 books8 followersGuthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. A widely published writer, he is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (University of California Press, 2003). It was named outstanding book of the year by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. He also has recently completed In Walked Bud: Earl “Bud” Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge, which is forthcoming from the University of California Press. His next book, Who Hears Here?: Essays on Black Music History and Society, a mid-career collection of his essays is also forthcoming. He was recipient of the Lowens Award from the Society for American Music for best article on an American music topic in 2001.
Ramsey received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Michigan and taught at Tufts University before joining the U-Penn faculty in 1998. He was a Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College, a DuBois Institute Fellow at Harvard University, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and Harvard University.
He is a pianist, composer and arranger for his Philadelphia-based band, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology. In 2007 the group released a CD titled Y the Q? and in 2012 he released The Colored Waiting Room. The sextet produces original music in a sound blending jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, neo-soul, and classical.
Among his recent work is “Someone Is Listening,” a commission (written with Barack Obama’s inaugural poet, Dr. Elizabeth Alexander) commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. He co-curated the 2010 exhibition Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institute. Ramsey was also creative consultant and librettist for Ramsey Lewis’ A Proclamation of Hope: A Symphonic Poem, which premiered in 2009. His three-movement suite for voice and jazz ensemble, Art Songs in the Kingdom of Culture, premiered in February 2012 was written in tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois. Other work includes, essays in the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Catalogue, the New Grove Dictionary of American Music, EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art, CNN.com, and several short films related to the Colored Waiting Room project. Ramsey is the founder and editor of the popular blog, Musiqology.com, which is read around the world and boasts more than 65,000 views.
Ramsey received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Michigan and taught at Tufts University before joining the U-Penn faculty in 1998. He was a Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College, a DuBois Institute Fellow at Harvard University, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and Harvard University.
He is a pianist, composer and arranger for his Philadelphia-based band, Dr. Guy’s MusiQology. In 2007 the group released a CD titled Y the Q? and in 2012 he released The Colored Waiting Room. The sextet produces original music in a sound blending jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, neo-soul, and classical.
Among his recent work is “Someone Is Listening,” a commission (written with Barack Obama’s inaugural poet, Dr. Elizabeth Alexander) commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. He co-curated the 2010 exhibition Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institute. Ramsey was also creative consultant and librettist for Ramsey Lewis’ A Proclamation of Hope: A Symphonic Poem, which premiered in 2009. His three-movement suite for voice and jazz ensemble, Art Songs in the Kingdom of Culture, premiered in February 2012 was written in tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois. Other work includes, essays in the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Catalogue, the New Grove Dictionary of American Music, EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art, CNN.com, and several short films related to the Colored Waiting Room project. Ramsey is the founder and editor of the popular blog, Musiqology.com, which is read around the world and boasts more than 65,000 views.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 1, 2014
Earl "Bud" Powell (1924-1966) was one of the pioneers of bebop, the modern jazz that originated in Harlem clubs such as Minton's Playhouse and Clark Monroe's Uptown House in the early 1940s, and became widely known and appreciated later in the decade when musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Powell performed at clubs on 52nd Street such as the Onyx, the Three Deuces and Kelly's Stables. Unlike many of his far more famous colleagues, Powell had a short and troubled career, which was checkered by mental illness and substance abuse that led to numerous prolonged stays in institutions, and physical illness that led to his premature death at the age of 41.
Powell was born in Harlem, and he learned how to play the piano from his father, a talented stride pianist, and a neighborhood classic piano teacher. He disappointed his father's and mentor's hopes by dropping out of high school and following the nascent bebop scene. His best friend was Elmo Hope, who would also become a noted but troubled jazz pianist, and he was tutored by Thelonious Monk. Monk was impressed by his protégé; he wrote songs with Powell in mind, as he was the only one who could play them, and he insisted that Powell be allowed to participate in the jam sessions at Minton's and other clubs. Thanks in part to his classical training and influence by Monk and others Powell developed into a brilliant pianist, who could play at blazing speed with either hand and follow the changes in the often difficult to grasp music written by Monk, Tadd Dameron and other notable bebop composers. After performing in small group settings throughout the mid 1940s Powell performed mainly in trios that he headed, both in the clubs and in the studios. His most notable performances are those on the Blue Note and Verve labels, particularly The Amazing Bud Powell, Volumes 1-5 and The Genius of Bud Powell, along with the famed 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall concert, which is arguably one of the finest live jazz performances of all time.
Powell's descent began after a fight with a customer in a club in Philadelphia in January 1945, when he was a member of Cootie Williams' orchestra. when he was repeatedly beaten in the head by several of the city's notoriously brutal cops. Upon his return to Harlem he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and later transferred to Pilgrim State Hospital, a psychiatric inpatient facility on Long Island, where he was spent 10 weeks before he was released into convalescent care. After his release he was increasingly erratic, undependable and often drunk, and his condition worsened over the years as he underwent electroconvulsive treatments and was placed on antipsychotic medications in subsequent hospitalizations in mental institutions. His playing also suffered, due to restrictions on his playing the piano when he was institutionalized along with his mental illness and the effect of the medications he took, although occasionally glimpses of his former brilliance shone brightly. He moved to Paris in 1959, where his health was compromised by tuberculosis, his frequent substance abuse and the effect of overdoses of an antipsychotic medication administered by his common law wife, which she gave him to keep him under her control. With the help of a friend he returned to the United States in 1964, in an effort to resurrect his career. However, he was only a shell of his former self and performed poorly on the stage, and he died two years later from the effects of tuberculosis, alcoholism and poor nutrition.
Guthrie Ramsey, Jr., a professor of music and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the technical contributions of Bud Powell and his contemporaries to jazz; the role of bebop as a form of modern art, one that derived directly from swing music but also was in opposition to it and captured the growing awareness of young African Americans during and after World War II; the masculine features of modern jazz and its artists, who often competed against their contemporaries in jam sessions, cutting sessions and during live performances, similar to gladiators in Roman arenas; and the role played by music critics in shaping the view of modern jazz as a valid art form, one worthy of analysis in universities and schools of music. At the same time, Ramsey provides a brief biography of Powell, using his own research and the sources of others, and in doing so he resurrects him from the relative obscurity that he has fallen into compared to Gillespie, Parker and Monk.
The Amazing Bud Powell is a valuable addition to jazz and African American history, one that is accessible to all readers, although it would be best appreciated by music students and academicians.
Powell was born in Harlem, and he learned how to play the piano from his father, a talented stride pianist, and a neighborhood classic piano teacher. He disappointed his father's and mentor's hopes by dropping out of high school and following the nascent bebop scene. His best friend was Elmo Hope, who would also become a noted but troubled jazz pianist, and he was tutored by Thelonious Monk. Monk was impressed by his protégé; he wrote songs with Powell in mind, as he was the only one who could play them, and he insisted that Powell be allowed to participate in the jam sessions at Minton's and other clubs. Thanks in part to his classical training and influence by Monk and others Powell developed into a brilliant pianist, who could play at blazing speed with either hand and follow the changes in the often difficult to grasp music written by Monk, Tadd Dameron and other notable bebop composers. After performing in small group settings throughout the mid 1940s Powell performed mainly in trios that he headed, both in the clubs and in the studios. His most notable performances are those on the Blue Note and Verve labels, particularly The Amazing Bud Powell, Volumes 1-5 and The Genius of Bud Powell, along with the famed 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall concert, which is arguably one of the finest live jazz performances of all time.
Powell's descent began after a fight with a customer in a club in Philadelphia in January 1945, when he was a member of Cootie Williams' orchestra. when he was repeatedly beaten in the head by several of the city's notoriously brutal cops. Upon his return to Harlem he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and later transferred to Pilgrim State Hospital, a psychiatric inpatient facility on Long Island, where he was spent 10 weeks before he was released into convalescent care. After his release he was increasingly erratic, undependable and often drunk, and his condition worsened over the years as he underwent electroconvulsive treatments and was placed on antipsychotic medications in subsequent hospitalizations in mental institutions. His playing also suffered, due to restrictions on his playing the piano when he was institutionalized along with his mental illness and the effect of the medications he took, although occasionally glimpses of his former brilliance shone brightly. He moved to Paris in 1959, where his health was compromised by tuberculosis, his frequent substance abuse and the effect of overdoses of an antipsychotic medication administered by his common law wife, which she gave him to keep him under her control. With the help of a friend he returned to the United States in 1964, in an effort to resurrect his career. However, he was only a shell of his former self and performed poorly on the stage, and he died two years later from the effects of tuberculosis, alcoholism and poor nutrition.
Guthrie Ramsey, Jr., a professor of music and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the technical contributions of Bud Powell and his contemporaries to jazz; the role of bebop as a form of modern art, one that derived directly from swing music but also was in opposition to it and captured the growing awareness of young African Americans during and after World War II; the masculine features of modern jazz and its artists, who often competed against their contemporaries in jam sessions, cutting sessions and during live performances, similar to gladiators in Roman arenas; and the role played by music critics in shaping the view of modern jazz as a valid art form, one worthy of analysis in universities and schools of music. At the same time, Ramsey provides a brief biography of Powell, using his own research and the sources of others, and in doing so he resurrects him from the relative obscurity that he has fallen into compared to Gillespie, Parker and Monk.
The Amazing Bud Powell is a valuable addition to jazz and African American history, one that is accessible to all readers, although it would be best appreciated by music students and academicians.
July 4, 2022
I got this book from the library on a whim, hoping to learn more about Bud Powell and the bebop era of jazz. Unfortunately, after reading the introduction, I only got a chapter into the book before stopping. I'm sure there is a lot of good information here, but it read too much like a dissertation to me and I couldn't get into it.
December 10, 2013
A sociological/cultural/musicological etc highly scholarly study of the Bebop movement and its impact on and the effects of the african american diaspora in the guise of a study/biography of one of the great early pioneers of bebop Bud Powell.
I wish Mr. Ramsey had been more honest when titling this book. It is a very good thought provoking insightful study of how Bebop emerged wholesale from the earlier forms of Jazz and how bebop was more than just a sub-genre of jazz, but a social and cultural change of thinking and creation. What it is not (for at least 2/3rds of its brief length) is a book about Bud Powell.
Powell is barely mentioned in some chapters and only in a cursory manner at best, while chapters seque into beatiful learned discourses on the nature of genre, gender and genius in music and in the african american diaspora. The last chapter is a study of selected pieces of Powell's throughout his career and is a truly fascinating read. I wish more of this study had been directly about Powell and his struggles with mental illness and his horrible mistreatment by the white dominated mental health system in New York and how despite and/or because of this he was still able to create jazz masterpieces that have stood the test of time.
Perhaps if the book had been titled after one of Powell's songs rather than a famous album title which elicits expectations of Powell being front and center in the narrative and not an afterthought,a more effective title would be something like : Comin' Up : Jazz History, the challenge of Bebop seen through the life and work of Bud Powell. Then Powell would be placed in a more correct order of importance in the work.
I wish Mr. Ramsey had been more honest when titling this book. It is a very good thought provoking insightful study of how Bebop emerged wholesale from the earlier forms of Jazz and how bebop was more than just a sub-genre of jazz, but a social and cultural change of thinking and creation. What it is not (for at least 2/3rds of its brief length) is a book about Bud Powell.
Powell is barely mentioned in some chapters and only in a cursory manner at best, while chapters seque into beatiful learned discourses on the nature of genre, gender and genius in music and in the african american diaspora. The last chapter is a study of selected pieces of Powell's throughout his career and is a truly fascinating read. I wish more of this study had been directly about Powell and his struggles with mental illness and his horrible mistreatment by the white dominated mental health system in New York and how despite and/or because of this he was still able to create jazz masterpieces that have stood the test of time.
Perhaps if the book had been titled after one of Powell's songs rather than a famous album title which elicits expectations of Powell being front and center in the narrative and not an afterthought,a more effective title would be something like : Comin' Up : Jazz History, the challenge of Bebop seen through the life and work of Bud Powell. Then Powell would be placed in a more correct order of importance in the work.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews