The Knowledge: Jazz

by John Fordham

Knowledge Jazz

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2015

About the author

John Fordham is a British jazz critic and writer. For the illustrator see John Fordham (with two space characters) between first and last name.

Reviews

[John Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best knowledge imparted here is a start to research further into the history of jazz. The book does not go into great detail about any performer nor style but gives the names and eras that you can look further into. It also has a recommended playlist for many significant artists at the back of the book.

My only real negative is that some of the text is on grey pages and quite hard to read.

I recommend this as a starting point for those interested in jazz.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting view on someone who has begun to educate them in jazz, whilst educating the reader as well. The main thing I found this book useful for was playlists - look through all the tracks and pick out some you like, that way you can educate yourself via playlists opposed to just reading more (though reading more doesn't hurt - it is actually quite interesting) I am looking forward to reading more on the genre after picking up this book, which clarified a lot of things for me and also got me really excited about music again, which is definitely a symptom of a good book - when everything it says gets you thinking; gets you to make that connection between thinking and learning to creating and actually doing something with the content you have accessed, gained and accomplished. Not a bad read for something I actually picked up by accident - looking forward to being equally fascinated by the other random topics the rest of this series will hopefully have to offer.