by Ekkehard Jost
|
As Serious As Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz (Five Star) by Valerie Wilmer |
Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper |
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis |
by Phil Freeman
|
Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Author Jenkins is editor of the Web site All About Jazz and an active author of jazz-album liner notes, musician obituaries, and jazz-related Web logs. This encyclopedia attempts to cover the relevant history and seminal artists. In his introduction, Jenkins describes the beginnings of free jazz in the late 1950s as "an exploration of all the sounds that could be drawn out of instruments" with "an emphasis on group improvisation that offered a fresh, spontaneous flow of ideas." Two subsequent chapters help set the context for the rest of the encyclopedia. "Controlled Chaos: The Nature of Free Music" attempts to define jazz music and then distinguishes between free jazz and free improvisation. Jenkins quotes guitarist Derek Bailey to explain the difference: "'free jazz is a form of music, while free improvisation is an approach to making music.'" Next, "The Path to Freedom" provides a complete narrative history of these musical forms and details the social and musical milieu out of which they grew. A "Chronology of Events" listing landmark recordings, concerts, label beginnings, and deaths of prominent performers further enhances the encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia entries are alphabetical and range from a short paragraph to 15 pages. Most focus on individual musicians and groups, but record labels and performance venues are also covered A nice feature of many entries for both jazz fan and music librarian is the author's willingness to recommend particular recordings or releases as seminal or emblematic of an artist's oeuvre. Also included in the encyclopedia are a topical list of entries and a "Suggested Readings" section, which includes biographies, reference books, and periodical articles.
Overall, this is an informative and comprehensive reference work on a little-known jazz subgenre and is recommended for comprehensive jazz collections. Michael Tosko
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“The strength of this work is its immediacy and focus....Recommended. General and academic collections.”–Choice
“Starred Review As the first resource devoted to an enduring and influential American Musical form, this is highly recommended for all libraries.”–Library Journal
“[A] valuable addition to the pool of research tools. For the music researcher just beginning research of for those who need a quick overview of the genre, this is a most helpful resource. I found it to be very well organized, informative, and insightful. I can now listen to these artists with a more knowledgeable ear.”–Music Reference Services Quarterly
“[H]ighly recommended for specialty collections....[J]enkins' A-Z reference provides an encyclopedia of key figures, groups, and movements within the jazz world, charting a trend which began in the mid-1950s and ran parallel to America's civil rights movement. A specialty item highly recommended for in-depth college-level jazz holdings.”–MBR Internet Bookwatch
“[F]ree Jazz and Free Improvisation is not only seminal, but verges on completist. This is the only serious encyclopedic work on jazz and free improvisation to date in English, and perhaps in any language. Music libraries would be making a sad mistake to leave it un-ordered. It should be treated as a standard reference text for the genre. It provides the basic biographical information, historical contexts and chronology for curious listeners, music journalists and academics to understand a most profound artistic revolution.”–Jazz Notes
“This is the first English-language encyclopedia devoted to the topic....Recommended for music libraries and large research libraries.”–Reference & User Services Quarterly
“The main virtue of this encyclopedia is that it gathers nearly the entire free jazz family under one massive umbrella, and I know that I'll be consulting it on a regular basis. A strong effort and an invaluable resource.”–All About Jazz
“This groundbreaking guide to an often maligned and misunderstood musical movement is the work of freelance writer and jazz enthusiast, Todd S. Jenkins....The remarkable result is a tool for both research and listening pleasure. Jenkins firmly demonstrates the continuing influence of free jazz on contemporary music, and his guide is highly recommended for any collection supporting music research or jazz aficionados.”–Lawrence Looks at Books
“[A]n informative and comprehensive reference work on a little-known jazz subgenre and is recommended for comprehensive jazz collections.”–Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
“Starred Review As the first resource devoted to an enduring and influential American Musical form, this is highly recommended for all libraries.”–
“[A] valuable addition to the pool of research tools. For the music researcher just beginning research of for those who need a quick overview of the genre, this is a most helpful resource. I found it to be very well organized, informative, and insightful. I can now listen to these artists with a more knowledgeable ear.”–
“[H]ighly recommended for specialty collections....[J]enkins' A-Z reference provides an encyclopedia of key figures, groups, and movements within the jazz world, charting a trend which began in the mid-1950s and ran parallel to America's civil rights movement. A specialty item highly recommended for in-depth college-level jazz holdings.”–
“[F]ree Jazz and Free Improvisation is not only seminal, but verges on completist. This is the only serious encyclopedic work on jazz and free improvisation to date in English, and perhaps in any language. Music libraries would be making a sad mistake to leave it un-ordered. It should be treated as a standard reference text for the genre. It provides the basic biographical information, historical contexts and chronology for curious listeners, music journalists and academics to understand a most profound artistic revolution.”–
“This is the first English-language encyclopedia devoted to the topic....Recommended for music libraries and large research libraries.”–
“The main virtue of this encyclopedia is that it gathers nearly the entire free jazz family under one massive umbrella, and I know that I'll be consulting it on a regular basis. A strong effort and an invaluable resource.”–
“This groundbreaking guide to an often maligned and misunderstood musical movement is the work of freelance writer and jazz enthusiast, Todd S. Jenkins....The remarkable result is a tool for both research and listening pleasure. Jenkins firmly demonstrates the continuing influence of free jazz on contemporary music, and his guide is highly recommended for any collection supporting music research or jazz aficionados.”–
“[A]n informative and comprehensive reference work on a little-known jazz subgenre and is recommended for comprehensive jazz collections.”–
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
› Visit Amazon's Todd S. Jenkins Page
› Visit Amazon's Todd S. Jenkins Page
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
50% buy the item featured on this page: Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia$155.16 |
 |
24% buy Free Jazz (The Roots of Jazz) $14.85 |
 |
11% buy A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music $18.25 |
 |
3% buy This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture (The Arts and Intellectual Life in Modern America)$19.23 |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet.
|
|||
|
Video reviews
|
 |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians
- Books > Entertainment > Music
- Books > History > Americas > United States > 20th Century
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences
- Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Science
- Books > Reference > Encyclopedias > History
- Books > Reference > Encyclopedias > Music
Look for Similar Items by Subject
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. |
