Product Description

This work brings to life the story of the quintessential American music - jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every colour, the book celebrates the effect the music had on America as a whole.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236794 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
First off, let's get the kudos down: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns deserve far more than simple gratitude for bringing jazz to the limelight with this lavishly illustrated volume. The book features among its 500-plus pictures many of the previously unseen shots of musicians and venues glimpsed in Burns's BBC documentary. Jazz: An Illustrated History follows the film episode by episode, and it's filled with rich historical detail in the early chapters. Like the series, however, the book trails off from chronicling jazz's history after a certain point. It gives background aplenty on early New Orleans music, the migration of jazz up the Mississippi to major urban centres and the developments of swing and bebop. After bebop, the history gets a bit perfunctory. Dozens of major figures get mere sidebar coverage. Little is said of substance on Latin or Brazilian jazz, European contributions to the music, fusion, or umpteen smaller deviations from the mainstream. There are wonderful essays that highlight elements of jazz culture, particularly Gerald Early's consideration of race and white musicians in jazz and Gary Giddins's five-page essay on avant jazz. And there are fine sidebars as well. But developments during and after the 1960s are dealt with primarily in impressionistic guest essays rather than detail-oriented historical narrative. It is, of course, difficult to capture all jazz history in any single volume. So perhaps this ought to have been called "Jazz: A Historical Appreciation", since the hundreds of images certainly create an intense sense of the music's milieu. --Andrew Bartlett

About the Author
Geoffrey C. Ward, a historian and screenwriter, it the co-author of 'The Civil War' and 'Baseball' and author of 'The West'. Ken Burns was the director, producer and co-writer of the TV series 'The Civil War' and 'Baseball'.

Excerpted from Jazz: a History of America's Music by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
JAZZ
An Illustrated History of America’s Music

Born in the bustling streets, smoky honky tonks and jumping dance halls of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, jazz is America’s indigenous musical form. Evolving from the polyphony of ragtime and the soulfulness of blues, it is a music born out of a million American negotiations: between having and not having; between happy and sad, country and city; between black and white and men and women; between the Old Africa and the Old Europe – which could only have happened in an entirely New World.

The history of jazz is inextricably bound up with the story of race in America. A curious and unusually objective witness to the twentieth century, jazz tells the story of race and race relations and prejudice, minstrelsy and John Crow, lynchings and civil rights. And embodied in the music, in its riveting personalities and soaring artistic achievement, is a message of hope and transcendence – and, above all, the American promise of freedom.

But jazz is much more. It is the story of two world wars and a devastating depression, the soundtrack that helped America through the worst of times. Jazz is about sex, the way men and women talk to each other and conduct the complicated rituals of courtship. It is about drugs and the terrible cost of addiction and the high price of creativity. It is about the growth and explosion of radio and the soul of great American cities – New Orleans, where the music was born, and Chicago, Kansas City and New York, where it grew up. It is about immigration and assimilation and feeling dispossessed – and the music that came to the rescue. It is about movement and dance, entertainment and the sacred communion between artist and audience. It is about solitude and loneliness, suffering and celebration – and tapping your feet.

Above all, jazz is the story of dozens of extraordinary musicians. In this powerful narrative, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns bring to life the remarkable men and women whose legacies have left a lasting imprint on our culture. In words and photographs – some never before published – we meet Jelly Roll Morton, Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, and many more. Essays by Wynton Marsalis, Dan Morgenstern, Gerald Early, Stanley Crouch and Gary Giddins put the evolution of jazz in its cultural context.

Magnificently illustrated and marvellously readable, Jazz, like the music itself, is a stunning exploration and celebration of the American experience. There simply is no other book on jazz like it.

Customer Reviews

The book clarifies and adds to the current BBC 2 TV programe
Having found the twelve part TV series on BBC 2 I found this book greatly enhances the information gained from the TV. The opening Chapters have fantastic pictures which greatly enhance the written words. Of course it only briefly discusses the various lives of the characters applicable to the beginnings of this music, but to the 'new' person wanting to learn more about the material and people who made the sounds of the last century, I would recommend that this book WILL aid such hunger for knowledge. It is written in an easy style and enables the reader to absorb the contents along with the pictures plentifully placed around the text. It contains anecdotes about the personnel it discusses as well as the history of the social and geographical times. A must for anyone who wishes to ease themselves into the history and times of American jazz music. Be warned that it does not discuss other Countries input to this music - it is "all American", but never the less a major input to the history of the times and music.

Hugely enjoyable if flawed social history of jazz
This is the book of Ken Burn's controversial television series. Although assisted by Wynton Marsalis, Burn's lack of knowledge on the music is a severe handicap and rather abruptly deals with the developments in jazz post-1950 as this seems little to interest him. Reading this book, you will find practically nothing about jazz after 1970, although some of the photographs of today's musicians may lead you to believe otherwise. These flaws have been well documented in the jazz press. This problem should not discourage the jazz fan as this beautifully illustrated book.
However, what was ignored was that this is really a social history of jazz and as the music became more esoteric (and more sophisticated) after the innovations of Charlie Parker, it lost it's status as popular music. This explains the goldmine of information about jazz up until the Swing Era and the interviews with the dancers who would cram into the Savoy Ballroom to hear the great bands of the likes of Chick Webb, etc. As great as the work of Bird, Trane, Monk or Mingus was, it cannot be argued that they had the social impact as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman or Duke Ellington whatever the respective merits. Indeed, the only time the more modern players are featured as part of the civil rights movement. (Surely enough for atleast one whole chapter alone.)The presence of Louis Armstrong dominates this book - not a problem for me as I love the man's music.
What I like best about this book are the excellent photographs and this is worth the addition of a fourth star for me. Most of these photographs are new to me. They illustrate many long forgotten bands as well as historically important outfits such as James Europes' Clef Club Orchestra of 1911 with it's masses ranks of mandolins, guitars and banjoes. There also pictures of amateurs groups and famous musicians in line-ups before they had made a name for themselves.
All in all, this is a good introduction to the early days of jazz but a waste of time for the modernist. Those wanting a better understanding of the musical theory of jazz would do searching for Gunther Schuller's accounts of "Early Jazz" and "The Swing Era" , if they are still in print. For a more professional overview, Alyn Shipton's more scholarly account, "A new history of jazz", is a better read and gives equal credance to traditionalist, modernist and the contemporary fan. Whilst Burn's tends to trot out some of the old cliches, Shipton's research has now cast serious doubt over much "accepted fact." For these reasons, Shipton is more of an enthralling read and more representative of the music as a whole. Dyed in the wool jazz fans will want both books though !!

Superb
If you watched the documentary series on the BBC you will already be aware of the ground this book covers - it's a brilliant introduction to american jazz music and places the music and its main protaganists in the context of American history. It's lavishly illustrated and covers the history of jazz from its roots to be-bop and beyond. Highly recommended as an introduction to the music and as a social history of 20th century america