I say I don’t like the genre called jazz….and yet,…..and still…..
These sorts of statements are fatal as of course I have jazz music in my collection (mainly Jan Garbarek) and there are pieces of music which are definitely jazz embracing which I adore (Rhapsody In Blue), not to mention singers and musicians who bring their jazz roots into other areas (Ella Fitzgerald, Wynton Marsalis) and demonstrate – as jazz aficionados delight in reminding me – their extreme musicality and sophistication. AND I have been known to go to jazz concerts!
So it would be true, in my case, to say that I could appreciate a helpful and kindly guide to identify what it is that I do like in jazz music, and open this out for me, offering other little staging posts along the way, and possibly introducing me to unexplored new directions, highways and byways.
Now I do believe John Fordham may be that helpful and kindly guide. Fordham writes beautifully, and is erudite, engaging and clear about his passion for Jazz. Currently jazz critic for The Guardian, he rather got me in the introduction, explaining his own early revelation of being grabbed by jazz…
I can hear a surging rhythm, powered by the hiss of a drumbeat flickering on a cymbal and the heartbeat of a deep and steady bassline, that made me want to dance for the first time in my life. I can hear a trumpet being played as if it were a seductively cajoling tone. I can hear a piano played with a strange, jarring clang, as if the notes of the chords are being clashed too close together. And I hear the entwining melodies of several musicians merging into one voice, even though there are ragged edges to the music that suggest they just thought it up as they went along. I think I fell in love with jazz because it sounded just like life, as it’s lived and improvised from moment to moment: imperfect declarations of wonderment or love, fevers of anguish or anger, cool confidence in a sauntering walk, despondency in the purple tones of a slow blues
Okay, okay, I have rolled over and surrendered – it’s as if Fordham has opened a door.Especially when he reminds me that what I often DON’T like in some of the `live jazz’ concerts I’ve been to – the improvisation (it often seems, to my untutored ear to be indulgent and meandering) exists within the genre which always spoke to me, from childhood – classical music. Those consummate musical geniuses, Bach and Mozart, to name but two, were not only improvisers themselves – but left space for live musicians, playing their works, to `deviate’ and introduce their own cadenzas! So, perhaps, when I say `I don’t like jazz and the boring improvisations, I should really say that the particular musician, on a particular night, isn’t really saying anything which connects to my ears, heart, mind and guts.
Yet here I am, now listening to Sidney Bechet, riffing away and improvising over a New Orleans jazz version of Summertime. And, hey I have suddenly discovered that I seem to like New Orleans jazz and am delighted by Bechet. And how did I get to Bechet…….why Fordham reminded me how that cool, spacious and Garbarek melancholy Norwegian sax (it’s the sax, the gorgeous, dirty, blue, longing filled sax) takes American free-form jazz and links it with his own traditions. Or, to quote Louis Armstrong ‘Jazz is what you are’ And Garbarek was inspired by Coltrane, so another journey beckons. (Bechet, as I discovered, was also a master of the clarinet)
Fordham’s slim, jammed full of goodies book is excellently structured. He gives the reader a breathlessly fast whistle stop jazz history tour, from origins to now, and then backtracks by breaking down each genre/movement in jazz, introducing us chronologically to the visionary innovators. He looks ahead to jazz’s future journey, provides a glossary to those confusing terms, and even a listening guide, which thanks to YouTube, streaming and all means that it gets possible, in the comfort of home to dip and pick and shimmy and mix hearing a track here and a track there – hence the Bechet.
This is a brilliant book!
I do have one serious (makes frowning face) criticism of this book, but it can’t prevent recommendation. Some daftie (all style over content) has decided it would be no doubt a cool and groovy idea to have a few pages which are coloured pale grey, rather than white…and to text them with white, rather than black, type. I almost flung the book, hard across the room. The only way to render this readable was to raise the book to eyelevel and hold it horizontal to my eyeline rather than the normal vertical reading of a text. Klutz! Idiot! Did they think this was `jazzy?!!. (Curiously this is LESS problematic on Kindle’s ‘Look Inside’ version. Occasional typos also litter the text – Jan Gararabek at one point! Fortunately there are not TOO many of those wretched white on pale grey pages, but each is an aberration to the idea that form and function should together be a thing of beauty.
‘The Knowledge’ is a series of slim, short books on various topics written by specific experts in their fields, eg ‘Red Wine’ I would like to offer myself as an author of a forthcoming book which they could publish, called, simply, The Knowledge: Liqueur Filled Dark Chocolates. I do hope the commissioning editor of the series is reading this, so that we can discuss how much and precisely which chocolates I am going to suggest they send me for my research………….
I received this for review from Amazon Vine, UK. Any chocolates consumed in the writing of this review were my own
The Knowledge: Jazz Amazon UK
The Knowledge: Jazz Amazon USA
MarinaSofia said:
This sounds like a great book. I do actually love jazz, but get to listen far too seldom to it nowadays as my family doesn’t like it (and I don’t like having music in the background when I’m working). I may have to get it in a last-ditch attempt to educate my kids about jazz…
Lady Fancifull said:
That is the same as me MarinaSofia -not liking background music whilst working – I like to actively and attentively listen. I made an exception for the Bechet whilst writing my review!
MarinaSofia said:
And I would most certainly appreciate a book about liqueur-filled dark chocolates…
Lady Fancifull said:
All I need is the commissioning editor and those crucial truck load of free samples
kaggsysbookishramblings said:
Love the sound of this! I like a *lot* of jazz, but I am picky – Paul Desmond is an al time favourite, as is Chet Baker. I’ll look out for this!
Lady Fancifull said:
And I will investigate the names you mentioned!
FictionFan said:
Great review, and like you I like certain ‘jazzy’ bits and bobs rather than the ‘genre’. And youtube is just wonderful for all kinds of musical exploration, isn’t it? In fact, I probably listen to more music on it now than on CD or MP3. Courtesy also of Viney gadgets that amongst them allow me to bluetooth to my proper speakers…
Lady Fancifull said:
Now bluetooth is a place I haven’t advanced to (well, not outside a dental visit!) I keep looking at the various bluetoothy offers but have not so far indulged. I guess I need to think about taking a plunge, it would be good not to have things coming through the poor PC speakers.
I do still rather prefer CD to MP3 download, purely because of the compression which loses something. Not to mention sleevenotes
FictionFan said:
Yes, I miss sleevenotes and don’t understand why they don’t give them with MP3s on a little PDF file or something. But my little bluetooth receiver thingy is undoubtedly one of the best things I ever got from Vine – if you ever get offered one, grab with both hands and don’t let go!
Lady Fancifull said:
I should go and have a look at your review and see how you can do a bluetooth education to one who hasn’t a clue what bluetooth is, other than some kind of wireless thing which isn’t wifi
Susan P said:
The churches I was raised in considered jazz to be a threat to the youth. I was much older when I realized the possibilities of jazz, and now I enjoy Listening to it. Not all of the time. But when it suits my mood, so to speak,
elmediat said:
Informative post. Excellent choices in music to illustrate & communicate key ideas.
Lady Fancifull said:
Thank you
underrunner said:
I do enjoy quite a variety of music in the Jazz genre and I’m absolutely captured by some of it. I wouldn’t have thought about reading about jazz, but I’m quite enticed by the book and your review. I’d thought this was definitely a book to buy as book and not as Kindle, but I’m sure I’ll share your frustration with white on grey 😦
Great musical interludes you provided too. My very first capture by jazz was when my flatmate played Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain album (yes, it was vinyl in my youth) and I listened with wonder to all the colour in the music. After that it was discovering his Kind of Blue and Porgy and Bess albums. Summertime has remained a favourite; I once listened to a music radio programme which, for a whole hour, just played versions of Summertime, but I think this is the first time I’ve heard Sydney Bechet play it: wonderful! It’s a long time since I’ve listened to Jan Garbarek; thanks for the reminder to revisit. And thanks for the pleasure I’m sure I’ll have when I read Fordham’s book. I think I’ll save it for the summer holidays.
Lady Fancifull said:
And I’m so delighted that you, and other commenters, have shared favourite jazz pieces – you are contributing to my education and I’m now going to search for Miles Davis and Sketches of Spain! I’ve also been rooting through my CD and MP3 collection and have unearthed some jazz and jazz/world music – late last night I was listening to oud maestro Anouar Brahem who recorded an album at one point with Garbarek, as he has done quite a lot of cross-over classical/world work. The album I have of Brahem is The Astounding Eyes of Rita, not the one with Garbarek
underrunner said:
Davis’ Kind of Blue is the album of his that has stayed with me most over the years. There is a ‘quiet blue’ about it that has always stayed fresh for me.
Lady Fancifull said:
‘quiet blue’ are two words which separately and even more in combination, have an instant appeal. I shall investigate, thank you again.
Jilanne Hoffmann said:
First day back, and you entice me with yet another winner! Must go back into hiding….
Lady Fancifull said:
Ah! Here you are. I was beginning to worry about your vanishing, as I commented in a post on FictionFan’s blog (you were being mentioned) – and here you serendipitously are. I hope you have had a good break. I was imagining you stalking cougars and black bears with a long lens camera, and hoping you hadn’t been wrastled to the ground by the bear, stung by the bees from the nest as you attempted to climb the tree to escape from said bear-hug, little realising it was the honey loving bears local supermarket and he had come by to get a honey fix, or that you were cougar lunch.
I don’t believe the gone into hiding – admit it, its the horror of the return from holiday and the mountain of post, washing and the like which awaits
Jilanne Hoffmann said:
You are spot on. Little did I know, I had reached the very center of Whole Foods Market in my quest for peanut butter and honey. As for the other: “the horror…the horror…”
Victoria Addis said:
This sounds like a really interesting book, and an interesting series. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to Jazz, but there is nothing like a good introductory book to fire up a curiosity for new things.
p.s. wishing you many more chocolate fuelled reviews!
Lady Fancifull said:
Thanks Victoria!