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Jazz Writings: Essays and Reviews, 1940-1984
Philip Larkin (1922-85) was not only one of the foremost English poets of the twentieth century, but also a notable novelist and a distinguished writer on jazz. He was jazz critic for The Daily Telegraph between 1961 and 1971. Jazz Writings brings together Larkin's reviews, articles and essays written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman, and numerous other publications.
215 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2004
45 people want to read
About the author
Philip Larkin
141 books696 followersPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. He spent his working life as a university librarian and was offered the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman, but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. He first came to prominence with the release of his third collection The Less Deceived in 1955. The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows followed in 1964 and 1974. In 2003 Larkin was chosen as "the nation's best-loved poet" in a survey by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest post-war writer.
Larkin was born in city of Coventry, England, the only son and younger child of Sydney Larkin (1884–1948), city treasurer of Coventry, who came from Lichfield, and his wife, Eva Emily Day (1886–1977), of Epping. From 1930 to 1940 he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and in October 1940, in the midst of the Second World War, went up to St John's College, Oxford, to read English language and literature. Having been rejected for military service because of his poor eyesight, Larkin was able, unlike many of his contemporaries, to follow the traditional full-length degree course, taking a first-class degree in 1943. Whilst at Oxford he met Kingsley Amis, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. Shortly after graduating he was appointed municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946, he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester and in 1955 sub-librarian at Queen's University, Belfast. In March 1955, Larkin was appointed librarian at The University of Hull, a position he retained until his death.
Larkin was born in city of Coventry, England, the only son and younger child of Sydney Larkin (1884–1948), city treasurer of Coventry, who came from Lichfield, and his wife, Eva Emily Day (1886–1977), of Epping. From 1930 to 1940 he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and in October 1940, in the midst of the Second World War, went up to St John's College, Oxford, to read English language and literature. Having been rejected for military service because of his poor eyesight, Larkin was able, unlike many of his contemporaries, to follow the traditional full-length degree course, taking a first-class degree in 1943. Whilst at Oxford he met Kingsley Amis, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. Shortly after graduating he was appointed municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946, he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester and in 1955 sub-librarian at Queen's University, Belfast. In March 1955, Larkin was appointed librarian at The University of Hull, a position he retained until his death.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 27, 2014
Larkin - Jazz Writings
"The only thing you can polish is a surface." This sentence jumped out, a profound thought for reflection. Sorry, l couldn't resist the pun. The line refers to a writer who is impressively flashy but doesn't say much. An example of Larkin's power with words. His thinking as a poet could condense a broader subject to fewer words.
As a music reviewer, or in this collection, a reviewer of books on jazz by other jazz review writers, I think Larkin might spoil it for reading other books on music for a while.
In the Forward, Alan Plater writes of Philip Larkin, "As a critic he was big enough to change his mind, but also smart enough to sniff the crap at a hundred paces, especially when it was on the page. He is deeply intolerant of flabby prose and socio/econo/historical babble masquerading as thought."
Also an insightful Introduction by Richard Palmer and John White, which covers a range of areas, including Larkin's vast knowledge of jazz, and Larkin considering his own ability as a critic of other writers.
Most of Larkin's reviews are brief, they were written for newspapers or magazines. Most I found interesting. Here's a typical example of Larkin's writing.
No.10: Music of the Negro
"One cannot consider jazz without being astonished at the speed with which it has gained ascendancy over popular musical taste in societies and cultures very different from that which produced it. Indeed, there is a curious logic in the world's enthusiastic response to the music of the Negro, as if in some gigantic Jungian case-history where salvation is shown to lie in whatever is most feared and despised. Why, when white folk-music is so patently defunct, should coloured folk-music prove so potent a substitute."
In No. 17: The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Larkin reviewing a book written by H. O. Brunn, Larkin writes that "Mr Brunn's thesis that the ODJB 'invented' jazz out of a kind of instrumental ragtime is put forward mainly by the staggering trick of completely omitting all reference to contemporary Negro New Orleans performers such as Bolden, Oliver, Bunk Johnson or Keppard. No reader of his book would suspect that the Negroes had anything to do with Jazz at all."
There is a theme reoccurring throughout Jazz Writings, Larkin reemphasis's the incredible influence that Negro music had on America and Europe.
Again he says in No. 19: reviewing a book by Neil Leonard, Jazz and the White Americans: The Acceptance of a New Art Form, Larkin writes "It is ironical that the first American music to catch world attention should have originated among the nation's most despised section - the Negroes, who well within living memory had been regarded as a species of farm animal. It must have been galling for Europe-orientated concert-goers of Boston and Philadelphia when Dvorak proclaimed that 'in the Negro melodies of America I discovered all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.' "
This article goes on to expand on this subject. A very interesting review.
Larkin had a preference for early jazz but warmed to modern jazz in later years, writing some good articles on Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Parker, Charles Mingus and more. There's an excellent one on the important influence Louis Armstrong had on the later generation.
A great article called Gulliver's Travails covering the book by Ralph Ellison, 'Shadow and Act', a collection of essays, interviews, and reviews. Ellison being born in Oklahoma, Larkin writes "where by his own account there was no tradition of slavery and the relations between the races were more fluid and human than in the old slave states . . . he is not really interested in his Negro characteristics, compared with his heritage as a man and an artist. Ellison was 'freed' not by the Negro Freedom Movement but by Marx, Freud, T. S. Eliot, Pound, Gertrude Stein and Hemingway: Ellison said 'It requires real poverty of the imagination to think that this can come to a Negro 'only' through the example of 'other' Negroes.' "
Another of the more interesting topics Larkin highlights is from a book by Paul Oliver, The Story of the Blues, where Oliver writes about the fact the Blues doesn't mention controversial social issues, like desegregation, or civil rights and in the review on Screening the Blues by Paul Oliver, Larkin expands on Oliver's point that the Blues never covers controversial topics - Civil Rights, lynchings, segregation.
Larkin, writing in 1969, opens the article with "It is an irony almost too enormous to be noticed that the thorough penetration of Anglo-Saxon civilization by Afro- American culture by means of popular music is a direct, though long-term, result of the abominable slave trade."
And again, Larkin opens another review reaffirming the point or the influence of Negro music. "This book sets out to explain the most important cultural phenomenon since modernism: the take-over of world pop music by the American Negro."
Further on in the book in the review on two books about Dizzy Gillespie and expatriate jazz musicians. "What the American Negro liked about France was the absence of racial discrimination: what France liked about jazz is less clear."
Towards the end of the book in an essay written for Weekend Telegraph, Requiem for Jazz, Larkin writes "How can one account for it, the universality of jazz? What did it hold that conquered pretty well every capital city in the world? Something to do with the hybrid nature of the music, no doubt, the union of Europe and Africa, the waltzes and hymns. There was excitement in it, and release, and a wish to start dancing. But above all there was happiness: people listening to jazz were on good terms with themselves."
A good note to end on.
"The only thing you can polish is a surface." This sentence jumped out, a profound thought for reflection. Sorry, l couldn't resist the pun. The line refers to a writer who is impressively flashy but doesn't say much. An example of Larkin's power with words. His thinking as a poet could condense a broader subject to fewer words.
As a music reviewer, or in this collection, a reviewer of books on jazz by other jazz review writers, I think Larkin might spoil it for reading other books on music for a while.
In the Forward, Alan Plater writes of Philip Larkin, "As a critic he was big enough to change his mind, but also smart enough to sniff the crap at a hundred paces, especially when it was on the page. He is deeply intolerant of flabby prose and socio/econo/historical babble masquerading as thought."
Also an insightful Introduction by Richard Palmer and John White, which covers a range of areas, including Larkin's vast knowledge of jazz, and Larkin considering his own ability as a critic of other writers.
Most of Larkin's reviews are brief, they were written for newspapers or magazines. Most I found interesting. Here's a typical example of Larkin's writing.
No.10: Music of the Negro
"One cannot consider jazz without being astonished at the speed with which it has gained ascendancy over popular musical taste in societies and cultures very different from that which produced it. Indeed, there is a curious logic in the world's enthusiastic response to the music of the Negro, as if in some gigantic Jungian case-history where salvation is shown to lie in whatever is most feared and despised. Why, when white folk-music is so patently defunct, should coloured folk-music prove so potent a substitute."
In No. 17: The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Larkin reviewing a book written by H. O. Brunn, Larkin writes that "Mr Brunn's thesis that the ODJB 'invented' jazz out of a kind of instrumental ragtime is put forward mainly by the staggering trick of completely omitting all reference to contemporary Negro New Orleans performers such as Bolden, Oliver, Bunk Johnson or Keppard. No reader of his book would suspect that the Negroes had anything to do with Jazz at all."
There is a theme reoccurring throughout Jazz Writings, Larkin reemphasis's the incredible influence that Negro music had on America and Europe.
Again he says in No. 19: reviewing a book by Neil Leonard, Jazz and the White Americans: The Acceptance of a New Art Form, Larkin writes "It is ironical that the first American music to catch world attention should have originated among the nation's most despised section - the Negroes, who well within living memory had been regarded as a species of farm animal. It must have been galling for Europe-orientated concert-goers of Boston and Philadelphia when Dvorak proclaimed that 'in the Negro melodies of America I discovered all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.' "
This article goes on to expand on this subject. A very interesting review.
Larkin had a preference for early jazz but warmed to modern jazz in later years, writing some good articles on Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Parker, Charles Mingus and more. There's an excellent one on the important influence Louis Armstrong had on the later generation.
A great article called Gulliver's Travails covering the book by Ralph Ellison, 'Shadow and Act', a collection of essays, interviews, and reviews. Ellison being born in Oklahoma, Larkin writes "where by his own account there was no tradition of slavery and the relations between the races were more fluid and human than in the old slave states . . . he is not really interested in his Negro characteristics, compared with his heritage as a man and an artist. Ellison was 'freed' not by the Negro Freedom Movement but by Marx, Freud, T. S. Eliot, Pound, Gertrude Stein and Hemingway: Ellison said 'It requires real poverty of the imagination to think that this can come to a Negro 'only' through the example of 'other' Negroes.' "
Another of the more interesting topics Larkin highlights is from a book by Paul Oliver, The Story of the Blues, where Oliver writes about the fact the Blues doesn't mention controversial social issues, like desegregation, or civil rights and in the review on Screening the Blues by Paul Oliver, Larkin expands on Oliver's point that the Blues never covers controversial topics - Civil Rights, lynchings, segregation.
Larkin, writing in 1969, opens the article with "It is an irony almost too enormous to be noticed that the thorough penetration of Anglo-Saxon civilization by Afro- American culture by means of popular music is a direct, though long-term, result of the abominable slave trade."
And again, Larkin opens another review reaffirming the point or the influence of Negro music. "This book sets out to explain the most important cultural phenomenon since modernism: the take-over of world pop music by the American Negro."
Further on in the book in the review on two books about Dizzy Gillespie and expatriate jazz musicians. "What the American Negro liked about France was the absence of racial discrimination: what France liked about jazz is less clear."
Towards the end of the book in an essay written for Weekend Telegraph, Requiem for Jazz, Larkin writes "How can one account for it, the universality of jazz? What did it hold that conquered pretty well every capital city in the world? Something to do with the hybrid nature of the music, no doubt, the union of Europe and Africa, the waltzes and hymns. There was excitement in it, and release, and a wish to start dancing. But above all there was happiness: people listening to jazz were on good terms with themselves."
A good note to end on.
Read
March 26, 2020It's a long series of reviews of books on jazz, 4 short essays and a few desperately short record of the year contributions. Some brilliance every now and then (even if the salivating praise of the intro already tells us all the best ones) but also the constant disapproval for jazz after Charlie Parker and the constant nitpicking of the book reviews sour my enjoyment.
February 21, 2025
While I mostly disagree with Larkin I really appreciate his highly opinionated reviews. I especially like when he criticizes authors writing styles. Even though this is mostly a collection of book reviews the way they are written is beautiful. He doesn’t really care for free jazz or my favourite ‘electric bass’, this really makes you take a step back aand listen to jazz and blues a different way.
I’d suggest using two bookmarks because you have to jump back and forth to the notes a lot and they are worth reading g as well.
I’d suggest using two bookmarks because you have to jump back and forth to the notes a lot and they are worth reading g as well.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews