The Jazz Life

by Nat Hentoff

The last few years have witnessed an enormous resurgence in the popularity of jazz, after some lean times in the sixties when many potential jazz fans turned to rock. Now the pendulum is on the backswing, and vintage and modern jazz as well as "jazz rock" are attracting huge new audiences. One factor involved in the comeback of jazz among blacks and whites alike is the rise of black consciousness, with its search for roots in the American experience. Nat Hentoff's The Jazz Life explores the social, economic, and psychological elements that make up the context of modern jazz. Among the jazz greats whose lives and work are discussed are Count Basie, Charles Mingus, John Lewis, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Ornette Coleman. Written with intelligence, passion, and wit, this jazz classic is of immense importance to anyone wanting a better understanding of the jazz—or indeed our American life.

Genres: Music, Jazz, Nonfiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff was a historian, novelist, music critic, and syndicated columnist. As a civil libertarian and free-speech activist, he has been described by the Cato Institute—where he has been a senior fellow since 2009—as "one of the foremost authorities on the First Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker for over 25 years, and was formerly a columnist for The Village Voice for over 50 years, in addition to Legal Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Progressive, among others. Since 2014, he has been a regular contributor to the conservative Christian website WorldNetDaily, often in collaboration with his son Nick Hentoff.

Hentoff was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in education in 1972. The American Bar Association bestowed the Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice, and five years later his undergraduate alma mater, Northeastern University, awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law degree. While working at the Village Voice in 1995, the National Press Foundation granted him the W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award. He was a 1999 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, "for his passionate columns championing free expression and individual rights," which was won by Maureen Dowd. In 2004 he became the first non-musician to be named an NEA Jazz Master by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.

Hentoff lectured at many colleges, universities, law schools, elementary, middle and high schools, and has taught courses in journalism and the U.S. Constitution at Princeton University and New York University. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) and is on the steering committee of the Reporters' Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

Reviews

[Matt Micucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nat Hentoff defines himself many times in The Jazz Life as a "non-musician jazz critic," neither to forgive his lack of technical insight not as a way of establishing his reputation as a leading voice in this sector. Nevertheless, this book serves as a testament to how such criticism, in jazz and otherwise, can be insightful and interesting. Bonus point to the fact that this book back written in the 60s/70s and refers to certain elements of the titular jazz life from the viewpoint of the era. In retrospect, it's interesting to truly get a grasp of what, for instance, Ornette Coleman did with his controversial music to the New York jazz world. "The Jazz Life," occasionally feels like a loose collection of writings (whether it was meant to be written and compiled in that way, I do not know...) but its theme of defining its titular concept ties it all together quite well.

[Giovanni García-Fenech · Rating 4 out of 5]

While inevitably much of this book is dated--it was written in 1961, as jazz was reaching a crest--that's also one of its strengths. Hentoff's account of the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival riots is fresh and indignant; his peek at recording dates by Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis (for Sketches of Spain!) are fascinating; and though his profiles of Mingus and Davis don't reveal any surprises, the ones for Count Basie, John Lewis, and Ornette Coleman are engrossing. It's too bad that the prediction he made in the new introduction from the '70s that rock n' roll fans would turn to jazz in disillusionment never came to happen.

[Graeme Sacks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look into the lives of jazz musicians in the early 1960s. Highlights include a description of a Miles Davis recording session for the album Kind of Blue and the differing opinions of musicians on the young Ornette Coleman

[Brice Fuqua · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at jazz in the early 1960s by one of the great jazz critics. Rather dated.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nat Hentoff's The Jazz Life explores the social, economic, and psychological elements that make up the context of modern jazz. Among the jazz greats whose lives and work are discussed are Count Basie, Charles Mingus, John Lewis, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Ornette Coleman. Written with intelligence, passion, and wit, this jazz classic is of immense importance to anyone wanting a better understanding of the jazz—or indeed our American life.