Setting the tempo : fifty years of great jazz liner notes / edited and with an introduction by Tom Piazza.
| Other author | Piazza, Tom, 1955- editor, writer of introduction. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First Anchor Books Trade paperback edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : Anchor Books, 1996. |
| Description | xiv, 369 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | Fifty years of great jazz liner notes |
| Portion of title | 50 years of great jazz liner notes |
| Contents | The early years -- Chicago Jazz (Decca) / George Avakian -- New Orleans Jazz (Decca) / Charles Edward Smith -- Frank Teschemacher/Chicago Style Clarinetist (Brunswick) / George Frazier -- A moment's notice -- Bunk Johnson/Bunk Johnson and His Superior Jazz Band (Good Time Jazz) / David Stuart -- Buster Smith/The Legendary Buster Smith (Atlantic) / Gunther Schuller -- Duke Ellington/Ellington at Newport (Columbia) / George Avakian -- Booker Ervin/Setting the Pace (Prestige) / David Himmelstein -- Barry Harris/Barry Harris Plays Barry Harris (Xanadu) / Tom Piazza -- Straight Ahead -- Dan Morgenstern -- Pee Wee Russell/Memorial Album (Prestige) -- Coleman Hawkins/The Hawk Flies (Milestone) -- Al Cohn and Zoot Sims/Body and Soul (Muse) / Ira Gitler -- Nat Hentoff -- Charles Mingus/The Clown (Atlantic) -- Milt Jackson/Plenty, Plenty Soul (Atlantic) -- Warne Marsh/Warne Marsh (Atlantic) -- David Himmelstein -- Jaki Byard/Out Front (Prestige) -- Lucky Thompson/Lucky Strikes (Prestige) -- Martin Williams -- Count Basie/Count Basie in Kansas City (RCA Victor) -- Ornette Coleman/The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic) -- Harlan Leonard/Harlan Leonard and His Rockets (RCA Victor) / Leonard Feather -- Whitney Balliett -- Joe Turner/Boss of the Blues (Atlantic) -- Gerry Mulligan Quartet/Gerry Mulligan Quartet (Pacific Jazz) -- Jess Stacy/Tribute to Benny Goodman (Atlantic) / George Frazier -- Coleman Hawkins/Sirius (Pablo) / Benny Green -- Arnett Cobb/The Wild Man from Texas (Classic Jazz) / Stanley Dance -- Orrin Keepnews. |
| Abstract | Since the introduction of the long-playing record, some of the best writing about jazz has appeared on the backs of record covers. Over the years, jazz writers and prominent jazz musicians have annotated record albums with background on the musicians and the recordings, historical context and musical analysis. These annotations, or "liner notes, " provide a window on the recording process, as well as intimate anecdotes and personal views of the musicians that have an immediacy and warmth rarely found elsewhere--setting the tempo, in a sense, for the listener's appreciation of the music. Jazz liner notes, both for new releases and classic material, comprise a rich and vibrant genre of jazz writing that has never been collected--until now. This book presents fifty of the finest and most distinctive notes from the beginning of the genre, in the 1940s, through the present. Among them are Duke Ellington's moving reminiscences of stride piano master James P. Johnson, brilliant impressions of John Coltrane by poet Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka); bass virtuoso and composer Charles Mingus's harrangue against his critics, composer Gunther Schuller's extrordinary story of locating Charlie Parker's alto saxophone teacher, and meditations on different meanings of freeedom in jazz by pianist Bill Evans and alto innovator Ornette Coleman. Stanley Crouch, Dan Morgenstern, Ira Gitler, and Ralph J. Gleason and other critics are also represented by some of their strongest work. |
| LCCN | 96015569 |
| ISBN | 0385480008 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML3506 .S39 1996 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |