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The History of Jazz
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 great musicians.
Now, in The History of Jazz , Ted Gioia tells the story of this music as it has never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved.
Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history--Jelly Roll Morton ("the world's greatest hot tune writer"), Louis Armstrong (whose O-keh recordings of the mid-1920s still stand as the most significant body of work that jazz has produced), Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker's surgical precision of attack, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the Knitting Factory. Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. Gioia also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made.
And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born. He shows for instance how the development of technology helped promote the growth of jazz--how ragtime blossomed hand-in-hand with the spread of parlor and player pianos, and how jazz rode the growing popularity of the record industry in the 1920s. We also discover how bebop grew out of the racial unrest of the 1940s and '50s, when black players, no longer content with being "entertainers," wanted to be recognized as practitioners of a serious musical form.
Jazz is a chameleon art, delighting us with the ease and rapidity with which it changes colors. Now, in Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz , we have at last a book that captures all these colors on one glorious palate. Knowledgeable, vibrant, and comprehensive, it is among the small group of books that can truly be called
classics of jazz literature.
Now, in The History of Jazz , Ted Gioia tells the story of this music as it has never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved.
Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history--Jelly Roll Morton ("the world's greatest hot tune writer"), Louis Armstrong (whose O-keh recordings of the mid-1920s still stand as the most significant body of work that jazz has produced), Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker's surgical precision of attack, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the Knitting Factory. Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. Gioia also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made.
And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born. He shows for instance how the development of technology helped promote the growth of jazz--how ragtime blossomed hand-in-hand with the spread of parlor and player pianos, and how jazz rode the growing popularity of the record industry in the 1920s. We also discover how bebop grew out of the racial unrest of the 1940s and '50s, when black players, no longer content with being "entertainers," wanted to be recognized as practitioners of a serious musical form.
Jazz is a chameleon art, delighting us with the ease and rapidity with which it changes colors. Now, in Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz , we have at last a book that captures all these colors on one glorious palate. Knowledgeable, vibrant, and comprehensive, it is among the small group of books that can truly be called
classics of jazz literature.
471 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1997
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22449 people want to read
About the author
Ted Gioia
21 books262 followersTed Gioia (1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 231 reviews
January 21, 2013
A very good read if you've listened to jazz, like it, and already have a bit of background knowledge. If this is going to be your introduction to jazz, then perhaps this isn't the place to start, as there's a fair bit of name dropping and music notation/theory that can be intimidating.
It's well written and a joy to read; it balances biography, a little music theory/jargon, social history, etc. I found it really absorbing. However, I also listened to music most of the way through in order to give the text a bit more color. I now have a much better grasp of the nuances of different jazz idioms, and, of course, I know A LOT more about the history of jazz.
Critics writing about jazz write in a similar style of a wine connoisseur. I don't have any background in music theory, so I read a bit faster over those entries. Luckily, Gioia limits his use of jazz vernacular and it's easy to take it all in, so don't be put off by that. You'll get used to it over time.
My only complaint is that text is printed in the top and bottom margins, making it irritating to read through the first 100 pages or so until you get used to such small margins. On a positive note, the paper was nice crispy to handle and 388 pages is actually way more since they stuffed the margins. The extra resources in the back bring the page count of to 445ish.
The Notes and Recommended Listening are a good place to start as far as what to tackle next. If you don't care to read all the way through, the Index is quite extensive, so you can pick and choose.
Over all, an excellent resource you can refer to now and again if you have more than a passing interest in jazz.
It's well written and a joy to read; it balances biography, a little music theory/jargon, social history, etc. I found it really absorbing. However, I also listened to music most of the way through in order to give the text a bit more color. I now have a much better grasp of the nuances of different jazz idioms, and, of course, I know A LOT more about the history of jazz.
Critics writing about jazz write in a similar style of a wine connoisseur. I don't have any background in music theory, so I read a bit faster over those entries. Luckily, Gioia limits his use of jazz vernacular and it's easy to take it all in, so don't be put off by that. You'll get used to it over time.
My only complaint is that text is printed in the top and bottom margins, making it irritating to read through the first 100 pages or so until you get used to such small margins. On a positive note, the paper was nice crispy to handle and 388 pages is actually way more since they stuffed the margins. The extra resources in the back bring the page count of to 445ish.
The Notes and Recommended Listening are a good place to start as far as what to tackle next. If you don't care to read all the way through, the Index is quite extensive, so you can pick and choose.
Over all, an excellent resource you can refer to now and again if you have more than a passing interest in jazz.
March 16, 2023
I’m (FINALLY) finished with this.
In brief The History Of Jazz (HOJ) is great.
I loved it and I can’t recommend it enough.
⚠️WARNING = LONG (POTENTIALLY POINTLESS) GENX WHITE MALE TALKING ABOUT PUNK ROCK IN THE 80’s PERSONAL TANGENT = WARNING ⚠️
It’s (admittedly) completely lame (and Gen-X AF) of me to begin a review of a book about the history of jazz by talking about (a) myself, and (b) mostly white rock music, but (c) consider yourself warned, and (d) here goes.
I saw Black Flag in Detroit in 1983 when I was 15. The whole experience was transformative. It was terrifying, and amazing. Illegal venue. Dangerous crowd. No security. Exactly what I wanted in life. I was hooked. And from that point in, the hardcore (HC) punk music scene became an identity and a way of life for me (at least for a little while).
Music was a kind of catchall cultural signifier back then. Much more so (I think) than it is now. The music you listened to and admitted to like, was the equivalent of todays social media - dating app profile page. For those of you born after 1975. Mainstream culture was VERY homogenous back then.
After a (very) brief moment of 1960’s black is beautiful flower power, and 1970’s gay’s OK disco. Mainstream music (and culture) was hitting a low bottom. It felt absolutely irrelevant, commercial, denatured and completely out of touch.
Ronald Regan was like a proto DJT. It seemed like we were all going to die in a nuclear slag pool. AIDS was erupting. The depressed industrial/manufacturing economy (particularly in the mid west) made it seem like the future was a total crap shoot, with dice loaded for snake eyes. Theocratic conservatism and unfettered capitalism were galvanized in a ferocious backlash against the socialist, feminist BIPOC and LGBTQ uprisings of the 1960-70’s.
Music (like social media today) was a highly politicized cultural battleground. The punk scene (at the time) was very politically progressive and very inclusive. It was the place where queer kids, runaways, dropouts, drug addicts, and college track smart (nerd) kids all found and supported each other. The HC scene was like the island of broken toys, where all the misfit, neglected and abused kids met and became a lord of the flies style family of choice and necessity.
Before the internet, you had mixed tapes and fanzines, but most importantly you had friends, who had friends, who had friends. It was like an internet of people.
At that time, you could go to (just about) any town USA, and anyone with a skateboard and a funny haircut would probably become your friend, give you a place to stay, tell you where/how to score drugs, and share your taste in music, and (more so in college towns), politics, literature and art.
At some point (circa 1987) all of the (mostly - but not exclusively - white) hipster/leftist/art kids in that scene (myself included) discovered hip hop and avant-garde jazz.
Instinctively, I somehow understood that Miles and Coltrain were great. And the free jazz folks like Ornet Colman, Erick Dolphy, and Cecil Taylor were at the cutting edge.
But (for me anyway) a lot of bop, including Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk sounded (secretly) kind of old fashioned and boring (shhhh - don’t tell anyone). I love and appreciate all of their music now, but at the time I wasn’t able to fully feel their merits. Moreover, anything before 1945 (probably in reality more like 1960) was off the menu.
Especially New Orleans style, Dixieland jazz, which seemed hokey as fuck. And (double especially) big band ANYTHING, with the exception of Sun Ra and Mingus, was “the white mans jazz” and that was strictly VERBOTEN!!!!
In retrospect. I was giving the vast majority of the art form MASIVE short shrift, and as such, willfully ignoring (for no good reason) some amazing music in the process.
Onhundredpercently (a totally real word, look it up) to my own detriment. This is an unfortunate chronic condition endemic to art school, only later termed hipsteritis.
Many years later (circa 2018) I was listening to a podcast with Henry Rollins (the now extremely cringy AF, but also kind of impossible for me not to love) former singer of Balck Flag.
Among other things. Henry Rollins (HR) has reinvented himself as an autodidact musicologist. On this particular podcast, he was describing his personal ethos of disciplined, intentional physical training and music listening. HR reflected that he has a daily practice of effortful, and personally expansive “protein listening” whereby he intentionally listens to music that he knows is good, but is otherwise challenging for him, in that it is at the edge of his tastes and preferences, or somehow just beyond the limits of his attention span.
This reminded me of how I used to engage with art, literature and music when I was younger. I invested ENORMOUS energy into what HR was calling protein listening. And it payed ENORMOUS dividends in terms of personal growth and discovery. As well as opening my mind to vast other universes or art, thought, expression and being.
I realized that I had become complacent lately and as such, kind of bored with the music that I have been listening to.
So I picked up the protein listening practice.
And that lead me to this book.
NOTE: My intention for 2023 is to do a similar deep dive into the humanities of all sorts. Starting with the history of Jazz.
And going god only knows where from there.
👍 ALL CLEAR = END OF POTENTIALITY UNINTERESTING PERSONAL TANGENT = ALL CLEAR 👌
I read Ted Gioia’s other book - How To Listen To Jazz (HTLTJ) before this one. And I highly recommend doing the same.
Broadly speaking, HTLTJ is a primer on music appreciation and criticism. It touches on some pretty deep philosophical issues.
How (precisely) does one understand, appreciate and value music. Beyond that, how (precisely) can we differentiate between musical idioms. And what (exactly) makes jazz different than European classical music.
All of this may sound obvious. But when you actually give those issues their proper due. They are surprisingly interesting, useful and generative to ponder.
The MAIN (also seemingly obvious but actually quite deep) point of HTLTJ is: you have to listen to (a whole fucking lot of) jazz to understand and appreciate it. However obvious that sounds. And it does obviously does sound obvious. Listening (or re-listening) to the music is actually the most important part of reading these books.
Gratefully.
The author posted a (45 hour) playlist to accompany HTLTJ.
Which I dutifully listened to every last minute of.
And of which, I cannot honestly claim that I enjoyed every minute of, but can honestly claim the overall experience was FUCKING GREAT.
The (other) salient talking point of HTLTJ is that: unlike the European musical tradition, which (perhaps as a knock on feature of musical notation and orchestration) emphasizes precise execution and arrangement of standard notes. Wherein jazz emphasizes feel, swing, syncopation, polyrhythm, and modulation within the note e.g. bending, smearing, growling, whaling and whining a note, modal (as opposed to traditional scale based) compositions, and of course improvisation, including interacting with the audience.
This book - HOJ - goes WAY deeper into all that.
HOJ also emphasizes the important role that radio and recording technology, capitalism, racism, poverty, war, and other issues like addiction and mental health shaped jazz.
As with HTLTJ:
The author posted a (144 hour) HOJ playlist on Spotify, and (as previously mentioned) it is an ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL part of the overall value of this book. REPEAT. If you read this book. You DEFINITELY want to to listen to the playlist (in entirety if possible) so carve out a GOOD chunk of time.
For me.
Reading this book, and (sometimes kind of) forcing myself to listen to all that music, has been profoundly enriching, gratifying, challenging, entertaining, and interesting.
The HOJ is gorgeous, and also utterly tragic at times.
Full of pain, death, addiction and exploitation.
And FULL of life affirming, life giving beauty.
It’s an inner journey, and a cold drink of water.
It’s nothing short of an Odyssey.
Get it!
In brief The History Of Jazz (HOJ) is great.
I loved it and I can’t recommend it enough.
⚠️WARNING = LONG (POTENTIALLY POINTLESS) GENX WHITE MALE TALKING ABOUT PUNK ROCK IN THE 80’s PERSONAL TANGENT = WARNING ⚠️
It’s (admittedly) completely lame (and Gen-X AF) of me to begin a review of a book about the history of jazz by talking about (a) myself, and (b) mostly white rock music, but (c) consider yourself warned, and (d) here goes.
I saw Black Flag in Detroit in 1983 when I was 15. The whole experience was transformative. It was terrifying, and amazing. Illegal venue. Dangerous crowd. No security. Exactly what I wanted in life. I was hooked. And from that point in, the hardcore (HC) punk music scene became an identity and a way of life for me (at least for a little while).
Music was a kind of catchall cultural signifier back then. Much more so (I think) than it is now. The music you listened to and admitted to like, was the equivalent of todays social media - dating app profile page. For those of you born after 1975. Mainstream culture was VERY homogenous back then.
After a (very) brief moment of 1960’s black is beautiful flower power, and 1970’s gay’s OK disco. Mainstream music (and culture) was hitting a low bottom. It felt absolutely irrelevant, commercial, denatured and completely out of touch.
Ronald Regan was like a proto DJT. It seemed like we were all going to die in a nuclear slag pool. AIDS was erupting. The depressed industrial/manufacturing economy (particularly in the mid west) made it seem like the future was a total crap shoot, with dice loaded for snake eyes. Theocratic conservatism and unfettered capitalism were galvanized in a ferocious backlash against the socialist, feminist BIPOC and LGBTQ uprisings of the 1960-70’s.
Music (like social media today) was a highly politicized cultural battleground. The punk scene (at the time) was very politically progressive and very inclusive. It was the place where queer kids, runaways, dropouts, drug addicts, and college track smart (nerd) kids all found and supported each other. The HC scene was like the island of broken toys, where all the misfit, neglected and abused kids met and became a lord of the flies style family of choice and necessity.
Before the internet, you had mixed tapes and fanzines, but most importantly you had friends, who had friends, who had friends. It was like an internet of people.
At that time, you could go to (just about) any town USA, and anyone with a skateboard and a funny haircut would probably become your friend, give you a place to stay, tell you where/how to score drugs, and share your taste in music, and (more so in college towns), politics, literature and art.
At some point (circa 1987) all of the (mostly - but not exclusively - white) hipster/leftist/art kids in that scene (myself included) discovered hip hop and avant-garde jazz.
Instinctively, I somehow understood that Miles and Coltrain were great. And the free jazz folks like Ornet Colman, Erick Dolphy, and Cecil Taylor were at the cutting edge.
But (for me anyway) a lot of bop, including Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk sounded (secretly) kind of old fashioned and boring (shhhh - don’t tell anyone). I love and appreciate all of their music now, but at the time I wasn’t able to fully feel their merits. Moreover, anything before 1945 (probably in reality more like 1960) was off the menu.
Especially New Orleans style, Dixieland jazz, which seemed hokey as fuck. And (double especially) big band ANYTHING, with the exception of Sun Ra and Mingus, was “the white mans jazz” and that was strictly VERBOTEN!!!!
In retrospect. I was giving the vast majority of the art form MASIVE short shrift, and as such, willfully ignoring (for no good reason) some amazing music in the process.
Onhundredpercently (a totally real word, look it up) to my own detriment. This is an unfortunate chronic condition endemic to art school, only later termed hipsteritis.
Many years later (circa 2018) I was listening to a podcast with Henry Rollins (the now extremely cringy AF, but also kind of impossible for me not to love) former singer of Balck Flag.
Among other things. Henry Rollins (HR) has reinvented himself as an autodidact musicologist. On this particular podcast, he was describing his personal ethos of disciplined, intentional physical training and music listening. HR reflected that he has a daily practice of effortful, and personally expansive “protein listening” whereby he intentionally listens to music that he knows is good, but is otherwise challenging for him, in that it is at the edge of his tastes and preferences, or somehow just beyond the limits of his attention span.
This reminded me of how I used to engage with art, literature and music when I was younger. I invested ENORMOUS energy into what HR was calling protein listening. And it payed ENORMOUS dividends in terms of personal growth and discovery. As well as opening my mind to vast other universes or art, thought, expression and being.
I realized that I had become complacent lately and as such, kind of bored with the music that I have been listening to.
So I picked up the protein listening practice.
And that lead me to this book.
NOTE: My intention for 2023 is to do a similar deep dive into the humanities of all sorts. Starting with the history of Jazz.
And going god only knows where from there.
👍 ALL CLEAR = END OF POTENTIALITY UNINTERESTING PERSONAL TANGENT = ALL CLEAR 👌
I read Ted Gioia’s other book - How To Listen To Jazz (HTLTJ) before this one. And I highly recommend doing the same.
Broadly speaking, HTLTJ is a primer on music appreciation and criticism. It touches on some pretty deep philosophical issues.
How (precisely) does one understand, appreciate and value music. Beyond that, how (precisely) can we differentiate between musical idioms. And what (exactly) makes jazz different than European classical music.
All of this may sound obvious. But when you actually give those issues their proper due. They are surprisingly interesting, useful and generative to ponder.
The MAIN (also seemingly obvious but actually quite deep) point of HTLTJ is: you have to listen to (a whole fucking lot of) jazz to understand and appreciate it. However obvious that sounds. And it does obviously does sound obvious. Listening (or re-listening) to the music is actually the most important part of reading these books.
Gratefully.
The author posted a (45 hour) playlist to accompany HTLTJ.
Which I dutifully listened to every last minute of.
And of which, I cannot honestly claim that I enjoyed every minute of, but can honestly claim the overall experience was FUCKING GREAT.
The (other) salient talking point of HTLTJ is that: unlike the European musical tradition, which (perhaps as a knock on feature of musical notation and orchestration) emphasizes precise execution and arrangement of standard notes. Wherein jazz emphasizes feel, swing, syncopation, polyrhythm, and modulation within the note e.g. bending, smearing, growling, whaling and whining a note, modal (as opposed to traditional scale based) compositions, and of course improvisation, including interacting with the audience.
This book - HOJ - goes WAY deeper into all that.
HOJ also emphasizes the important role that radio and recording technology, capitalism, racism, poverty, war, and other issues like addiction and mental health shaped jazz.
As with HTLTJ:
The author posted a (144 hour) HOJ playlist on Spotify, and (as previously mentioned) it is an ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL part of the overall value of this book. REPEAT. If you read this book. You DEFINITELY want to to listen to the playlist (in entirety if possible) so carve out a GOOD chunk of time.
For me.
Reading this book, and (sometimes kind of) forcing myself to listen to all that music, has been profoundly enriching, gratifying, challenging, entertaining, and interesting.
The HOJ is gorgeous, and also utterly tragic at times.
Full of pain, death, addiction and exploitation.
And FULL of life affirming, life giving beauty.
It’s an inner journey, and a cold drink of water.
It’s nothing short of an Odyssey.
Get it!
July 29, 2007
This book helped me consolidate my understanding of the development of jazz. The book strikes a good balance between breadth and depth. Keep your iPod handy while reading.
March 5, 2009
A nice overview of America's most important contribution to the arts. The book is a rather comprehensive survey, so few readers will love every period and movement covered. (I personally felt like the Swing Era would never end.) But it's always difficult, in any survey, to allocate attention in a way that will satisfy everyone. Gioia basically allocates time chronologically, getting to bop halfway through the book. I would have liked to spend more time on the latter half of the century myself, given that the styles proliferated so rapidly after bop, but it beats the Ken Burns approach.
The book is often marketed as a good introduction to jazz, but I can't recommend it for this purpose. The book necessarily rattles off the names of artists and recording dates so fast at times that someone unfamiliar with jazz wouldn't have much to hold on to. Gioia slows down and provides more detail for the most important transitional figures (Armstrong, Ellington, Parker/Gillespie, Davis/Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman), but the book covers far more than these pivotal figures. It's a convenient reference for the jazz aficionado, but probably not the place to start.
The book is often marketed as a good introduction to jazz, but I can't recommend it for this purpose. The book necessarily rattles off the names of artists and recording dates so fast at times that someone unfamiliar with jazz wouldn't have much to hold on to. Gioia slows down and provides more detail for the most important transitional figures (Armstrong, Ellington, Parker/Gillespie, Davis/Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman), but the book covers far more than these pivotal figures. It's a convenient reference for the jazz aficionado, but probably not the place to start.
August 18, 2021
Phew, what a read! This one is best digested slowly while listening along with the music the author talks about. In fact, it took me a few months of on-and-off reading to get through this, but – wow – has this been worth it.
Listening along with the music enhances the experience to an almost magical degree. (Spotify has a few user-made playlists with most of the tracks and albums from the book, in order of appearance.) Especially the early chapters about music from the early 20th century (with even a few tracks from the late 1800s sprinkled in), are mind-blowing. You lean back in your chair and listen to those scratchy records with really shoddy, monaural audio that somehow found their way onto your streaming service in 2021, and the book tells you about the songs' history and cultural relevance... It's hard to grasp the scope of the musical journey you are about to dive further into.
The author manages to tackle each major era, artistic movement or standout artist to exactly the right degree between detailed biographies and the broad picture of the art form. You don't have to know anything about music theory to enjoy this. While there are some sentences about scales and harmonies here and there, this is definitely for the culturally-interested reader, more than the musically interested one.
Listening along with the music enhances the experience to an almost magical degree. (Spotify has a few user-made playlists with most of the tracks and albums from the book, in order of appearance.) Especially the early chapters about music from the early 20th century (with even a few tracks from the late 1800s sprinkled in), are mind-blowing. You lean back in your chair and listen to those scratchy records with really shoddy, monaural audio that somehow found their way onto your streaming service in 2021, and the book tells you about the songs' history and cultural relevance... It's hard to grasp the scope of the musical journey you are about to dive further into.
The author manages to tackle each major era, artistic movement or standout artist to exactly the right degree between detailed biographies and the broad picture of the art form. You don't have to know anything about music theory to enjoy this. While there are some sentences about scales and harmonies here and there, this is definitely for the culturally-interested reader, more than the musically interested one.
August 27, 2017
I didn't get very far. He tried to approach the issue of race in jazz with sensitivity, but he lost me early when he used "African" and "primitive" as synonyms.
August 14, 2017
What I expected to learn: jazz's history and evolution over a 100-year period.
What I actually learned: exactly that, but more prominently, that being a jazz musician between 1920 and 1970 was perhaps the most dangerous occupation a person could hold. So many fabulous talents came to tragic ends during that period. Murder, drugs, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, and insanity were but a few of the maladies that claimed the lives and livelihoods of gifted musicians over the course of jazz's history. It's truly overwhelming.
The book was great, never boring, and provided truly in-depth insight to both the lives and the music behind America's treasured musical tradition. It could have been so much worse, but thank goodness, it wasn't.
What I actually learned: exactly that, but more prominently, that being a jazz musician between 1920 and 1970 was perhaps the most dangerous occupation a person could hold. So many fabulous talents came to tragic ends during that period. Murder, drugs, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, and insanity were but a few of the maladies that claimed the lives and livelihoods of gifted musicians over the course of jazz's history. It's truly overwhelming.
The book was great, never boring, and provided truly in-depth insight to both the lives and the music behind America's treasured musical tradition. It could have been so much worse, but thank goodness, it wasn't.
January 26, 2021
Many of his critical points are hard to follow for a musicological neophyte like myself, but I nonetheless found this to be an excellent entry point into the world of jazz. It does a good job blending historical storytelling, biographical color about the key figures, and extensive musical analysis. The primary focus is the music -- which is what I was looking for -- and it left me with a much better sense of the evolution of jazz music, and where my own tastes lie (at least for now). Most importantly, I exit the book excited to listen to reams of music I didn't previously have any understanding, or appreciation, of.
April 21, 2024
This extraordinary cultural overview may not be the ideal starting point for those taking their initial steps into the world of jazz. Gioia's aptly titled How To Listen To Jazz serves as a more suitable introduction (and comes highly recommended). However, for enthusiasts of the music or casual listeners prepared for a profound exploration of the genre, A History Of Jazz proves to be a true treasure trove.
A kind soul has curated a Spotify playlist comprising nearly all the songs mentioned in the book. The more I got into it, the more I found myself jumping from text to music and back again, making this one of the most enjoyable reading and listening experiences I've had in a long while.
A kind soul has curated a Spotify playlist comprising nearly all the songs mentioned in the book. The more I got into it, the more I found myself jumping from text to music and back again, making this one of the most enjoyable reading and listening experiences I've had in a long while.
August 21, 2024
I have been reading Gioia's substack for about a year, and picked up this book because I enjoy certain kinds of jazz and wanted the vocabulary to distinguish between different kinds of jazz. It took the summer to get through it, and was well worth it. I listened to a number of recommended performances along the way, which made the going slower but more fruitful.
It was difficult to push through in some places, but I would ascribe that in part to my lack of interest at various points. Overall, an informative and thorough introduction to jazz.
It was difficult to push through in some places, but I would ascribe that in part to my lack of interest at various points. Overall, an informative and thorough introduction to jazz.
March 21, 2022
Chronicling the history of jazz, Gioia's The History of Jazz tries to conquer a very daunting task, covering the plethora of stylistic developments of jazz in about 400 pages.
But the results is a very in depth look on jazz as a whole. It's almost encyclopedic in a way. We see the backgrounds of heavy hitters and their contribution to the genres, as well as other players that kind of fell through the cracks. We see genres pre-jazz with the blues, to swing and bebop, cool jazz, to the more avant-garde elements of free jazz and fusion. We even see some rock artists like Zappa and how jazz has influenced rock.
If I were to recommend one thing, it is that a background knowledge would be suitable, because Gioia tends to throw out a bunch of names without delving into them. However, this is one tiny nitpick as it is extremely hard to cover a hundred years worth of history into such a book. I had some experience with jazz, as well as playing it for around five years, so it was pretty neat going more in depth into artists that I liked, and appreciating them in a new light. I also enjoyed listening to artists I haven't heard of if it wasn't for this book.
A listening device is crucial for those who want to get the most out of this book. So if you've looked into jazz before and want to learn more, go read it.
But the results is a very in depth look on jazz as a whole. It's almost encyclopedic in a way. We see the backgrounds of heavy hitters and their contribution to the genres, as well as other players that kind of fell through the cracks. We see genres pre-jazz with the blues, to swing and bebop, cool jazz, to the more avant-garde elements of free jazz and fusion. We even see some rock artists like Zappa and how jazz has influenced rock.
If I were to recommend one thing, it is that a background knowledge would be suitable, because Gioia tends to throw out a bunch of names without delving into them. However, this is one tiny nitpick as it is extremely hard to cover a hundred years worth of history into such a book. I had some experience with jazz, as well as playing it for around five years, so it was pretty neat going more in depth into artists that I liked, and appreciating them in a new light. I also enjoyed listening to artists I haven't heard of if it wasn't for this book.
A listening device is crucial for those who want to get the most out of this book. So if you've looked into jazz before and want to learn more, go read it.
September 20, 2014
An Excellent & Well Researched Book!
January 19, 2021
Very fullfilling read!
December 22, 2021
Cik gan pilnīga var būt džeza vēstures grāmata, kurā ne ar pušplēstu vārdu nav pieminēta Nina Simone? Pārsteidzošā kārtā izrādās - visnotaļ pilnīga. Tomēr būtu interesanti uzzināt, kāpēc viņa nav pieminēta...
Džezs ir viena no retajām parādībām, par kuru man nav bijusi teorētiska interese. Vienmēr tikai un vienīgi praktiska - klausīties, klausīties, klausīties. Saprašana ir bijusi vienaldzīga. Atklāti sakot, tā būs arī turpmāk. Tomēr nevar noliegt, ka ceļojums džeza vēsturē bija bagātīgs un iedvesmojošs. Lielais ieguvums no grāmatas ir izveidotais bez 2 minūtēm 38 stundu garais ieteikto skaņdarbu saraksts.
Pilnīgā laimē krītu atpakaļ ne(ap)zinātības un baudas pēļos. Tā ir laime, ka pasaulē ir džezs.
Džezs ir viena no retajām parādībām, par kuru man nav bijusi teorētiska interese. Vienmēr tikai un vienīgi praktiska - klausīties, klausīties, klausīties. Saprašana ir bijusi vienaldzīga. Atklāti sakot, tā būs arī turpmāk. Tomēr nevar noliegt, ka ceļojums džeza vēsturē bija bagātīgs un iedvesmojošs. Lielais ieguvums no grāmatas ir izveidotais bez 2 minūtēm 38 stundu garais ieteikto skaņdarbu saraksts.
Pilnīgā laimē krītu atpakaļ ne(ap)zinātības un baudas pēļos. Tā ir laime, ka pasaulē ir džezs.
January 31, 2020
I decided to kick off the new year (and new decade, I guess!) by reading a new genre of music writing. I am a seasoned jazz listener, since I first started, freshman year of college, with Charlie Parker: it was something to write history papers to. Something I could "trust and ignore." I became a jazz DJ that year to avoid the overnight hours assigned to freshman and threw myself into the world of jazz. My interests since then have always been with Miles, Parker, Monk, and Mingus. I've recently branched out and always enjoyed swing, but Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz, Second Edition is a great place to start.
First of all this is a University Press book (Oxford s/o UPs!), so it is a dense read. It covers A LOT of ground. The first chapter is 'The Prehistory of Jazz' with a sub-header: The Africanization of American Music. So this book goes way back and starts from a literal beginning of, what I now believe to be, the first American genre. (Which could be tied for first with country music, after watching Ken Burns' Country Music series on PBS--great!!--which takes a lot of instrumentation and performance from jazz. But really, I think they birthed around the same-ish time.) The history itself of how music travels from one continent to another (the beginning is always Africa. 90% if not all music comes from Africa because of the slave trade) and how it changes between culture and language. With jazz, the beginning is the melting pot of New Orleans where Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, French, European, and African traditions found a home.
Each genre of jazz, which I was completely unaware of, has it's own chapter. The book is organized chronologically. I could've used more pictures, but here we are. I wanted to read for the music writing but not only did I chose a University Press book, which are historically more all-encompassing and academic, but a 'complete' history of... book, so it wasn't that kind of read. Translating how jazz sounds onto the page is complicated. Performing jazz is a complicated, technical skill. Writing about it mirrors just that: the descriptions are more about time, patterns, poly rhythms, and theory. There are a few lines about "buttery trombones" and "controlled violence" which I am literally here for, but the writing itself is complex. I did a lot of simultaneous listening and reading, just so I knew what I was trying to understand. I highly recommend this approach.
A lot of the information is presented with lists of personnel, who recorded what for which label, what live performance did what for the genre, and who was there. Lots of covers and tributes paid to artists and songs past (not unlike hip-hop and horror, jazz is a genre of art that ALWAYS pays tribute and homage to its beginnings) I did not recognize 95% of the artists mentioned (and made note of all of them, about halfway through the swing chapter. I started a playlist featuring every player mentioned. It's a work in progress. Copy-paste: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12x....) Jazz is very much about who's who, so a lot of the content can feel like an overwhelming encyclopedia. Sometimes it's best to breeze through if only to push on. There's A LOT of ground to cover.
Personally this was a reading feat. I had been admiring this book for a while, contemplating which book on jazz to begin with. It seemed like the best all around history, and if I'm going to go, I'll go big. I thought many times I would never get through it, but slow and steady wins. It took me a whole month, but was very satisfying to finish. If you are a beginner to jazz, it's a perfect book if you really want the whole meal.
Each chapter features many sections on the pioneer of their sound, covering a small biography of artists: Armstrong, Jelly Roll, Dizzy, Getz, Bechet, Ellington, Goodman, Parker, Coltrane, Evans, Miles, Monk, Marsalis, and on and on and on. Many of these men died tragically in freak accidents (a surprising amount!) (many, many, mostly men: nature of the beast) and many from drug and alcohol abuse. (The first female big band leader, born in China and raised in Japan, Toshiko Akiyoshi is a pure thrill to listen to. A true giant of the piano!) The nature of the genre's rise and challenges mirrors a lot with popular and rock music, where there's always a new generation sending a hero up the pop charts, so says Paul Simon. Jazz has just been around longer than rock and pop so it's lived the cycle many times over.
The last two chapters felt the easiest to read maybe because I had finally found a groove with the text but also because Gioia really starts to fly. There is so much information and the world jazz section is boiled down to just a few pages or so. (It deserves its own playlist.) I'm sure there are entire books on it out there, this was just a primer. The last big genre of jazz he sits with is postmodern. The bands I was first introduced to by way of college jazz radio circa 2006, Medeski Martin and Wood and The Bad Plus, are merely glossed over but I felt proud to recognize a couple names. Modern artists like Nels Cline get a basic shout out. He spends time with Nora Jones when discussing modern vocalists. I hadn't considered her since my sister's CD of Come Away With Me.
This book would also be easy to pick up and put down over a long period of time. But I am a reader who can only read one book at a time or I won't read any at all. I can't recommend it enough. It will sit with me for a long time and I look forward to exploring the genre further. Cheers, Ted!
First of all this is a University Press book (Oxford s/o UPs!), so it is a dense read. It covers A LOT of ground. The first chapter is 'The Prehistory of Jazz' with a sub-header: The Africanization of American Music. So this book goes way back and starts from a literal beginning of, what I now believe to be, the first American genre. (Which could be tied for first with country music, after watching Ken Burns' Country Music series on PBS--great!!--which takes a lot of instrumentation and performance from jazz. But really, I think they birthed around the same-ish time.) The history itself of how music travels from one continent to another (the beginning is always Africa. 90% if not all music comes from Africa because of the slave trade) and how it changes between culture and language. With jazz, the beginning is the melting pot of New Orleans where Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, French, European, and African traditions found a home.
Each genre of jazz, which I was completely unaware of, has it's own chapter. The book is organized chronologically. I could've used more pictures, but here we are. I wanted to read for the music writing but not only did I chose a University Press book, which are historically more all-encompassing and academic, but a 'complete' history of... book, so it wasn't that kind of read. Translating how jazz sounds onto the page is complicated. Performing jazz is a complicated, technical skill. Writing about it mirrors just that: the descriptions are more about time, patterns, poly rhythms, and theory. There are a few lines about "buttery trombones" and "controlled violence" which I am literally here for, but the writing itself is complex. I did a lot of simultaneous listening and reading, just so I knew what I was trying to understand. I highly recommend this approach.
A lot of the information is presented with lists of personnel, who recorded what for which label, what live performance did what for the genre, and who was there. Lots of covers and tributes paid to artists and songs past (not unlike hip-hop and horror, jazz is a genre of art that ALWAYS pays tribute and homage to its beginnings) I did not recognize 95% of the artists mentioned (and made note of all of them, about halfway through the swing chapter. I started a playlist featuring every player mentioned. It's a work in progress. Copy-paste: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12x....) Jazz is very much about who's who, so a lot of the content can feel like an overwhelming encyclopedia. Sometimes it's best to breeze through if only to push on. There's A LOT of ground to cover.
Personally this was a reading feat. I had been admiring this book for a while, contemplating which book on jazz to begin with. It seemed like the best all around history, and if I'm going to go, I'll go big. I thought many times I would never get through it, but slow and steady wins. It took me a whole month, but was very satisfying to finish. If you are a beginner to jazz, it's a perfect book if you really want the whole meal.
Each chapter features many sections on the pioneer of their sound, covering a small biography of artists: Armstrong, Jelly Roll, Dizzy, Getz, Bechet, Ellington, Goodman, Parker, Coltrane, Evans, Miles, Monk, Marsalis, and on and on and on. Many of these men died tragically in freak accidents (a surprising amount!) (many, many, mostly men: nature of the beast) and many from drug and alcohol abuse. (The first female big band leader, born in China and raised in Japan, Toshiko Akiyoshi is a pure thrill to listen to. A true giant of the piano!) The nature of the genre's rise and challenges mirrors a lot with popular and rock music, where there's always a new generation sending a hero up the pop charts, so says Paul Simon. Jazz has just been around longer than rock and pop so it's lived the cycle many times over.
The last two chapters felt the easiest to read maybe because I had finally found a groove with the text but also because Gioia really starts to fly. There is so much information and the world jazz section is boiled down to just a few pages or so. (It deserves its own playlist.) I'm sure there are entire books on it out there, this was just a primer. The last big genre of jazz he sits with is postmodern. The bands I was first introduced to by way of college jazz radio circa 2006, Medeski Martin and Wood and The Bad Plus, are merely glossed over but I felt proud to recognize a couple names. Modern artists like Nels Cline get a basic shout out. He spends time with Nora Jones when discussing modern vocalists. I hadn't considered her since my sister's CD of Come Away With Me.
This book would also be easy to pick up and put down over a long period of time. But I am a reader who can only read one book at a time or I won't read any at all. I can't recommend it enough. It will sit with me for a long time and I look forward to exploring the genre further. Cheers, Ted!
July 18, 2021
Ted Gioia es, sin temor a equivocarme uno de los más grandes conocedores del Jazz, sus obras hablan per se. En Historia del Jazz, el crítico de música y escritor estadounidense hace un recorrido intensivo por el mundo del Jazz partiendo desde sus orígenes, pasando por la amplia consolidación del género, trayendo a colación anécdotas jazzistas que son muy enriquecedoras.
La documentación a la hora de escribir este libro es increíblemente fascinante, Gioia recauda un sin fin de fechas, de documentos y de vivencias de los grandes exponentes del Jazz. El libro se secciona en capítulos muy bien estructurados donde se va contando muy amenamente la vida e historia de grandes jazzistas como Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, entre otros y esto hace de la lectura algo exquisito. Esta obra está orientada para las personas que se interesan por el género musical norteamericano y que de alguna manera manejen algún conocimiento sobre el tema, esto es necesario para la comprensión del libro.
Personalmente he disfrutado mucho de este libro, leer sobre un tema que te apasiona y te gusta mucho hace que el libro tome más fuerza sobre el lector y esto es precisamente lo que me ha sucedido con esta obra, el Jazz es algo que realmente me apasiona y conocer más de su historia aparte de ser enriquecedor se transforma en un disfrute total.
La documentación a la hora de escribir este libro es increíblemente fascinante, Gioia recauda un sin fin de fechas, de documentos y de vivencias de los grandes exponentes del Jazz. El libro se secciona en capítulos muy bien estructurados donde se va contando muy amenamente la vida e historia de grandes jazzistas como Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, entre otros y esto hace de la lectura algo exquisito. Esta obra está orientada para las personas que se interesan por el género musical norteamericano y que de alguna manera manejen algún conocimiento sobre el tema, esto es necesario para la comprensión del libro.
Personalmente he disfrutado mucho de este libro, leer sobre un tema que te apasiona y te gusta mucho hace que el libro tome más fuerza sobre el lector y esto es precisamente lo que me ha sucedido con esta obra, el Jazz es algo que realmente me apasiona y conocer más de su historia aparte de ser enriquecedor se transforma en un disfrute total.
March 5, 2021
The jazz spirit is one of constant evolution and progression and really many genres contain the same "spirit" if we're still drawing lines between different styles. The beauty of the jazz spirit is seen maybe most prominently in anything current. It's the spirit of evolution and mixing of styles that constantly creates and recreates the present. Music is also a snapshot of time - from the recording technology available, to arrangements, production style, societal context, the artist's progression, it's just one image. That's why its' impossible to re-create albums or periods or the magic of the perfect solo. It happened, it's done, it was beautiful, let's appreciate it but also look ahead. That's my perception of the jazz mentality or spirit by whatever name you use for it to resonate with you. It's a microcosm of reality - everything progresses, transcending yet including what came before. I've been listening to jazz casually for decades, but outside of a reasonable selection of major artists and albums I only dabbled. These past 6 months I've immersed myself into a serious study of so many of the artists I've overlooked and only had a surface understanding of previously. I could listen for the rest of my life to this one "genre" and only scratch the surface.
This book is incredibly valuable as a primer or foundation to understand the genre. The artists highlighted are essential and you'll have a good grasp of the genre if you study everyone mentioned here. Yet it was very academic (to me) so I knocked off a star. I appreciate writers who grasp the spiritual, emotional and non-tangible elements that make music what it is. He addresses this somewhat in prioritizing the emotion of performances, but there's not a lot of indication of a deep understanding of societal influences on the music. I didn't gain anything particularly new in that area and the inspirational processes in music making are what adds that authenticity that makes a recorded piece or style timeless.
This book is incredibly valuable as a primer or foundation to understand the genre. The artists highlighted are essential and you'll have a good grasp of the genre if you study everyone mentioned here. Yet it was very academic (to me) so I knocked off a star. I appreciate writers who grasp the spiritual, emotional and non-tangible elements that make music what it is. He addresses this somewhat in prioritizing the emotion of performances, but there's not a lot of indication of a deep understanding of societal influences on the music. I didn't gain anything particularly new in that area and the inspirational processes in music making are what adds that authenticity that makes a recorded piece or style timeless.
October 17, 2021
I read the new third edition.
Of course, it's a Herculean jazz to boil some 120 years of musical history (over 100 of it with recorded evidence) by thousands and thousand of players into a book of less than 600 pages. But Gioia does a pretty darned good job of hitting the high points. It's easier to focus on the first half of the story, as there was a constant influx of superhuman musicians who kept turning up to change the approach of the music almost singlehandedly.
Gioia is excellent at analyzing individual players and records - his insights into Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Woody Herman, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman, among many others, are particularly valuable, and sent me scurrying to hear records I hadn't encountered in ages. Eventually, though, the story gets so big, as jazz fractures into all sorts of splinter styles, and the individuals start to get lost, or at least not get nearly as much attention as they arguably deserve.
By the time he gets to the 80s, when I first started paying attention - I hadn't realized how closely I was aligned with postmodernism in jazz until I read this - and beyond, dozens of highly exciting musicians are covered with anywhere from one sentence to a paragraph. He is focusing on bigger pictures, emphasizing trends and movements, all of which are interesting. I'm constantly finding new jazz records by players I've never encountered, most of whom have been around for years - the music has never been healthier creatively, but so much of it is buried way underground these days. But Gioia has hope that there is an audience out there for new jazz, and his arguments make sense. A good book.
Of course, it's a Herculean jazz to boil some 120 years of musical history (over 100 of it with recorded evidence) by thousands and thousand of players into a book of less than 600 pages. But Gioia does a pretty darned good job of hitting the high points. It's easier to focus on the first half of the story, as there was a constant influx of superhuman musicians who kept turning up to change the approach of the music almost singlehandedly.
Gioia is excellent at analyzing individual players and records - his insights into Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Woody Herman, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman, among many others, are particularly valuable, and sent me scurrying to hear records I hadn't encountered in ages. Eventually, though, the story gets so big, as jazz fractures into all sorts of splinter styles, and the individuals start to get lost, or at least not get nearly as much attention as they arguably deserve.
By the time he gets to the 80s, when I first started paying attention - I hadn't realized how closely I was aligned with postmodernism in jazz until I read this - and beyond, dozens of highly exciting musicians are covered with anywhere from one sentence to a paragraph. He is focusing on bigger pictures, emphasizing trends and movements, all of which are interesting. I'm constantly finding new jazz records by players I've never encountered, most of whom have been around for years - the music has never been healthier creatively, but so much of it is buried way underground these days. But Gioia has hope that there is an audience out there for new jazz, and his arguments make sense. A good book.
June 23, 2022
The History of Jazz was quite a fascinating read. Let me get the negatives out of the way- for someone who's not very familiar with the technical side of music, a bunch of stuff written went over my head. There's a lot of information, rightfully so about a genre nearly a hundred years old, but dis did lead it to feel a little intimidating. I found myself enjoying it a lot more once I allowed myself to relax and not worry about fully retaining all the information. But I did very much enjoy reading dis. There was so much information and Ted Gioia does such a thorough job at dissecting such a fascinating genre of music. There were some insane stories and dis book definitely gave me a lot more jazz artists to check out. I have been a little overwhelmed with how to navigate the gigantic library that is jazz music, but dis book definitely has helped me figure a bit of that out. It was very interesting to read how the genre has shaped over the years, and to see the many similarities it shares with other genres of music such as rock and especially hip hop. I definitely need to re-read dis book and to also re read certain artists' sections when I listen to their music. Overall dis book helped me become much more acquainted with jazz and is one I would recommend to all music lovers out there.
March 10, 2022
The Final Paragraph
“This vitality and versatility testify not just to the resilience of the art form, but also to its emergence as a worldview that transcends notions of style or music genre. After more than a century of morphing and mixing, jazz is more defined today by its attitudes than specific musical ingredients. It isn’t built just on blues notes and syncopations, but erects its elaborate superstructures of sound on a different foundation—grounding them instead in a commitment to spontaneity, an openness to ongoing musical dialogue, a dedication to craft, a trust in the human element, a celebration of the creative process, and a confident willingness to probe the unknown. In our tech-driven future, these aspects of music can hardly become obsolete. In fact, they might be exactly what we need to grow and thrive.”
“This vitality and versatility testify not just to the resilience of the art form, but also to its emergence as a worldview that transcends notions of style or music genre. After more than a century of morphing and mixing, jazz is more defined today by its attitudes than specific musical ingredients. It isn’t built just on blues notes and syncopations, but erects its elaborate superstructures of sound on a different foundation—grounding them instead in a commitment to spontaneity, an openness to ongoing musical dialogue, a dedication to craft, a trust in the human element, a celebration of the creative process, and a confident willingness to probe the unknown. In our tech-driven future, these aspects of music can hardly become obsolete. In fact, they might be exactly what we need to grow and thrive.”
December 21, 2020
Absolutely spectacular. Rich, powerful, and thorough for anyone with knowledge of the genre, but it's accessible and welcoming for newbies. Gioia is a clear-headed writer who wants to share the joy of jazz with people. Like any good writer or communicator, he doesn't hide his own stylistic loyalties, but he also doesn't proclaim them from the rooftops. The words leap off the page with humor, pathos, and passion - especially when discussing the life and talents of the artists who died long before they should have. A stunning tour de force, each chapter could serve as the foundational text for an entire semester of a music history course.
November 22, 2023
The be all end all history for jazz musicians, listeners, and really anyone interested in the music. A masterpiece of breadth and depth, yet also somehow relatively concise for over a century's worth of information: ~800 "standard" pages with its large page, small text, small margins formatting taken into account.
My only criticisms. In its concision, it can veer a tiny bit dry and encyclopedic. And its two final chapters (of the 2011 2nd edition I read) feel looser/less conclusive than the others.
Recommended further reading for the jazz-curious: Miles: The Autobiography, and Beneath the Underdog.
My only criticisms. In its concision, it can veer a tiny bit dry and encyclopedic. And its two final chapters (of the 2011 2nd edition I read) feel looser/less conclusive than the others.
Recommended further reading for the jazz-curious: Miles: The Autobiography, and Beneath the Underdog.
Read
December 21, 2018I read like 4 chapters of this for class but it’s going towards my challenge idc
March 20, 2020
Read for school
June 7, 2025
This was def advanced as hell and I wish I grasped like 1,000 more technical terms and 50 more jazz artists. But the story is there and my god when Ted says “History of Jazz,” he delivers and leaves no artist behind. Jazz is what built America, what defines it, and what transcends it.
“[Jazz] is a chameleon art, delighting us with the ease with which it changes colors and the rapidity of its movements. Who can deny that jazz, along with the cinema, has been the most vibrant form of the modern era? From the backwaters of New Orleans, it first conquered America, becoming in the process nothing less than a musical melting pot, achieving a vision of merging cultures that fulfilled, if only at first on a symbolic level, the image that America had of its own social destiny. But the music of one people, then of a nation, is now a world phenomenon, and its history promises to become many histories, many sounds, and many tales yet to unfold.”
Still slept-on genre in today’s world in terms of impact, but I see it growing all the time, let’s goooo Ted. What an impossible yet awesome read 💪
“[Jazz] is a chameleon art, delighting us with the ease with which it changes colors and the rapidity of its movements. Who can deny that jazz, along with the cinema, has been the most vibrant form of the modern era? From the backwaters of New Orleans, it first conquered America, becoming in the process nothing less than a musical melting pot, achieving a vision of merging cultures that fulfilled, if only at first on a symbolic level, the image that America had of its own social destiny. But the music of one people, then of a nation, is now a world phenomenon, and its history promises to become many histories, many sounds, and many tales yet to unfold.”
Still slept-on genre in today’s world in terms of impact, but I see it growing all the time, let’s goooo Ted. What an impossible yet awesome read 💪
January 14, 2025
It’s taken me nearly 60 years of life to truly discover jazz. To begin to discover it, anyway. To listen critically, rather than as a backdrop to another endeavor. As is my habit, once I began to truly listen, I wanted to chart the full journey - to learn all I could about the artists, the movements, the culture, the history. Ted Gioia, the American critic and music historian, was the obvious choice as a mentor of sorts. This treatise provided my passage. I highly recommend it. Stop along the way to listen to some of the hundreds of musicians and songs he (re)acquaints you with. It will take some time but the payoff is worth it. For blues fans, I also recommend Gioia’s Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Cheers.
October 10, 2020
This is a BIG book that chronicles the history of Jazz, mostly in America. It's incredibly dense and - I would say - rather indigestible at times. I 'read' it (I dipped in and out) having watched the Ken Burns 12 parter of the same name, so it consolidated some of what I had already learned. It's incredibly comprehensive and lists all of the main jazz players and how their artistic careers criss-crossed. It's really a reference book, but a very definitive one. I learned a lot from reading it, which I guess is what I was hoping for.
January 15, 2023
I’ll start by saying that I enjoyed reading this book. Now: With only 400 pages and the vast array of jazz musicians over the last 100 years, even major figures only get a few paragraphs worth of mention. While I don’t have a deep understanding of jazz (most of what is covered here was also covered in Ken Burns’ “Jazz” documentary), I was troubled when I found an inexcusable error in what I DO know: Gioia says Blood, Sweat & Tears covered Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” on their debut album, when it was, in fact, on their second, eponymous album on which the song was covered. It makes me wonder what other glaring mistakes are included throughout the work.
Read
July 16, 2023A fairly dry but encyclopaedic look at a fascinating time in music. Utterly lacking in charm with woeful omissions of pioneering jazz musicians like Alice Coltrane & Dorothy Ashby. The Brazilian jazz movement gets ONE page yet Wynton Marsalis gets a bafflingly large chunk of the book. Sub theme:
Diana Karol gained success because she ‘married Elvia Costello’, Norah Jones’s millions of albums sold attributed to Ravi Shankar being her father 🤷🏼♀️
There has to be a better way to read about jazz.
Diana Karol gained success because she ‘married Elvia Costello’, Norah Jones’s millions of albums sold attributed to Ravi Shankar being her father 🤷🏼♀️
There has to be a better way to read about jazz.
April 22, 2022
Per uno che ama il genere e ha un minimo di conoscenza nell'ambito del jazz questo libro è La Bibbia!
Unica pecca, almeno dal mio punto di vista, non aver parlato delle varie leggende che circolano nel mondo jezzistico, in particolar modo di alcuni artisti, tipo Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, ed altri, che sono figure quasi mitologiche, oltre che grandi artisti.
Per il resto è un libro estremamente dettagliato, scritto con competenza e un amore che traspare in modo evidente per il Jazz e tutto ciò che è ad esso collegato.
Unica pecca, almeno dal mio punto di vista, non aver parlato delle varie leggende che circolano nel mondo jezzistico, in particolar modo di alcuni artisti, tipo Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, ed altri, che sono figure quasi mitologiche, oltre che grandi artisti.
Per il resto è un libro estremamente dettagliato, scritto con competenza e un amore che traspare in modo evidente per il Jazz e tutto ciò che è ad esso collegato.
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