Favorite Jazz Writers

[Bill Barton]

I recently finished reading both Bebop and Nothingness and Like Young by Francis Davis, and was reminded of what a fine writer he is.

Which writers do you admire and appreciate?

I'd separate my list into categories:

1.) Writers who combine insights with elegant prose, creating reviews, essays and books that are works of art in and of themselves.

Whitney Baillett

Gary Giddins

Francis Davis

Paul Haines



2.) Writers who produce important scholarly works that combine exhaustive research and meticulous attention to detail.

Gunther Schuller

Michael Fitzgerald

Noal Cohen

John Litweiler

[Nate Dorward]

As the risk of obvious bias (they're two editors of mine) I'd name Dan Warburton & Stuart Broomer. (Though it works the other way round really: I got involved in their periodicals because I'd liked their writing.) It's a pity that Stuart's activities as an editor at Coda mean that he's now turning out only one-paragraph reviews: these are scrupulously & professionally done but really don't play to his strengths in the same way as the artist-career surveys & quirky themed essays he used to do.

David Rosenthal's Hard Bop & Scott De Veaux's The Birth of Bebop are particularly fine books. Lewis Porter's meticulous work also should be mentioned here: I found his book on Lester Young particularly useful.

[Bill Barton]

Originally posted by Nate Dorward
As the risk of obvious bias (they're two editors of mine) I'd name Dan Warburton & Stuart Broomer. (Though it works the other way round really: I got involved in their periodicals because I'd liked their writing.) It's a pity that Stuart's activities as an editor at Coda mean that he's now turning out only one-paragraph reviews: these are scrupulously & professionally done but really don't play to his strengths in the same way as the artist-career surveys & quirky themed essays he used to do.

David Rosenthal's Hard Bop & Scott De Veaux's The Birth of Bebop are particularly fine books. Lewis Porter's meticulous work also should be mentioned here: I found his book on Lester Young particularly useful.

Hi Nate:

I definitely agree with you concerning Dan and Stuart. Which publication does Dan Warburton edit? I'm familiar with his writing from Signal to Noise.

Haven't had a chance to check out the three books you mentioned. Thanks for the tip. They're now on the "must read" list.

Another writer I enjoy immensely - something of a dark horse candidate to be sure - is Hayden Carruth. He is better known as a poet and editor of poetry, but Sitting In contains some of the most thought provoking and wildly opinionated writing about jazz I've ever read.

Musicians - past and present - who are also fine writers: Paul Desmond, Mel Martin, Jessica Williams, Wally Shoup...

And for those who thrive on controversy, here are a few writers I can't stand:

Stanley Crouch. He actually can be quite perceptive when he writes about Duke Ellington, but pretty much everything else I've read of his makes me cringe.

John McDonough. The primary reason I gave up on Down Beat years ago. A pompous hack.

Leslie Gourse. Madame Jazz was an important book until something better came along, but this kind of cut-and-paste journalism, often derided by Chris A. on this and other boards, reeks of opportunism.

Kenny Mathieson. Cookin' is by far one of worst books about jazz I've ever read. Another case of cut-and-paste. The music (hard bop and soul jazz) deserves better treatment.

Best Recent Novel About Jazz:

Out of Nowhere by Marcus M. Cornelius. The musical life of Warne Marsh in novel form, brilliantly written: a tour-de-force.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Bill Barton
Which publication does Dan Warburton edit?

Paris Transatlantic magazine

[Bill Barton]

Thanks for the link, Vince.

[Nate Dorward]

Yes Gourse is an appalling hack--I have her Monk biography. It reminds me actually of why I stopped supporting a notable local bookstore (Writers & Co) which specialized in literature & in writing on jazz. I asked the owner, Winston, if the Monk book was worthwhile & he said yes, so I got it, & it turned out to be a wreck. I think I only ever bought one more book from them; some years later Jane & I were driving by & noticed that Winston was locking up, with signs out front proclaiming a closing-down sale. The shop--easily the best literary bookshop in Toronto--had been getting squeezed for years by the Amazon/Indigo/Chapters juggernaut, & so I feel bad they're gone, but I can exactly pinpoint my loss of interest in patronizing the store when Winston gave me that deceptive answer (& thinking back on it it was clear that it was consciously deceptive: he probably could have used the sale).

I hadn't known Jessica Williams wrote on jazz; I just wish I liked her music more!

Speaking of novels, anyone read Nate Mackey's novels on jazz, or whatshisname's The Bear? I haven't tackled them myself.

[Nate Dorward]

PS: Incidentally one person who should write more is Steve Beresford. Anyone who's read his liner notes or articles will know what I mean--& he's a great guy to talk to too.

As for "poet's responses" to jazz--well I tend to be cautious, there's a lot of really tedious writing in this vein. But check out Clark Coolidge (himself a jazz drummer too): "Listener's Reach", a compilation of extracts from letters to David Meltzer, is brilliant (it's in the selection of his prose on jazz & Kerouac from a few years back: Now It's Jazz I think was the title?). Letters from Clark are brilliant works of old-fashioned typewriter action-painting on the page, & his apercus & casual observations are always worth eliciting.

To the hall of infamy let me add Philip Larkin's All What Jazz. Actually, some of the writing there is fine (I actually like Larkin in many ways, despite his being a bete noire of just about every UK poet I know of a certain generation): but the introduction to the book is flatly racist--it is a polemic against modern jazz which states bluntly that jazz ceased to be any good when uppity negroes stopped trying to please white folks--& Larkin's hostile obit for John Coltrane is quite something (the newspaper that commissioned it refused to print it).

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by Nate Dorward
Speaking of novels, anyone read [...] whatshisname's The Bear?

Rafi Zabor's The Bear Comes Home. I really liked the jazz stuff, found the life-meditation-and-toil parts eventually overbearing (oops, no pun intended, but heck, it's good anyway, I'll leave it...). Overall I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to jazz fans.

[Muthaship]

KENNY MATHIESON is indeed the most resolutely dull and uninspiring jazz hack of our times.

SCOTT DE VEAUX and LEWIS PORTER show how it ought to be done.

MEZZ MEZZROW (ghosted or not) laid the original trey on me.

[walto]

I like Steve Lake's liner notes. I also concur with the mentions of Warburton and Balliett.

[mike z]

The lamest jazz hack I have read in quite a while is the Britisher Alyn Shipton.

And the best, John Fordham.

[Joe Milazzo]

Max Harrison
Check out the breadth and depth of his interests as documented in A JAZZ RETROSPECT.

As far as "jazz novels" go, though it is flawed, I still have great admiration for Clellon Holmes' THE HORN. The Zabor, I have to say, just did not work for me.

Agreed with Nate on Coolidge's NOW IT'S JAZZ. His discussion of Dave Brubeck -- and original (?) Brubeck drummer Joe Dodge -- is very memorable. Unless you are a huge Joe Morello fan, that is... I also happen to like THE ROVA IMPROVISATIONS. FWIW.

Originally posted by mike z
The lamest jazz hack I have read in quite a while is the Britisher Alyn Shipton.

And the best, John Fordham.

Are you saying that Fordham is the best hack?

I have not read anything substantial by Shipton, but I find it hard to believe that anyone has outdone Leslie Gourse when it comes to jazz hackery--well, Jameses Dickerson and Haskins come mighty close. However, no hack spews them out like Gourse.

That these people get published is a great mystery to me.

[graypencil]

Well, for starters:

Gary Giddins

Gene Lees ( his book "Meet me at Jim and Andys" is a classic for many of us who hung out there in the old days ..and hus book on Arrangers was first class )

Harvey Siders ..former Downbeat editor and columnist for Jazz Times ..writes with a wry wit that I really like ( and who I've manged to coerce into doing the liner notes for my new Big Band Album ..plug plug )

and finally , Butch Nordahl ..a marvelous jazz pianist and composer/arranger who's just replaced Paul De Barros as jazz columnist for the Seattle Times ..and a very wiity writer as well..( what a novel concept! an actual MUSICIAN reviewing jazz acts !! )

[Joe Milazzo]

Lawrence / Larry Kart

I'm not sure how actively he writes anymore, but I've always found his pieces to be substantial. For example, his fine annotations for the COMPLETE TRISATANO / KONITZ / MARSH ATLANTIC RECORDINGS box set.

I sued to pay attention to John Corbett when I read DB, but, since its been so long since I even looked at one... he has his moments, though.

[Derek Taylor]

I like John Corbett a lot too, but he’s slipped a little the last few years (understandable given the haberdashery worth of hats he wears these days). His talent for linking seemingly disparate ideas through tangential references rivals that of comic Dennis Miller before the latter sold out to Monday Night Football & political pedagoguery. Corbett’s liners to Guillermo Gregorio’s BACKGROUND MUSIC are some of the most creative & insightful I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

[Nate Dorward]

Well, I'm not sure The ROVA Improvisations are among Clark's best work; I think I made my way through about half the book, with diminishing returns. Probably his best poems on jazz are the long, discursive piece in Solution Passage called "Of What the Music to Me", & the brief "The Great"--awful title, but it contains four lines which are among his best comments on music: "And I hear / what's missing there / music is core of the missing / the code of fly time". There's also an amusing if indulgently long fantasy on West Coast jazz cowritten with Larry Fagin called The Atmosphere of the Other Guy, & countless passages elsewhere, like a poem on the Mulligan/Baker quartet in Odes of Roba.

I'm also rather fond of an uncollected Peter Riley poem of the 1970s with the arresting title "Did the CIA Kill Albert Ayler?" (the body of the poem not being what you'd expect from the title).

[Bill Barton]

Recent trips to some of the local used book stores unearthed some gems, and reminded me of another favorite "genre".

On the old board I got flamed for picking Music Is My Mistress as one of the best biographies/autobiographies. The reason I chose it, and still consider it an interesting book, is the collection of anecdotes and stories.

Anecdotal collections that I've recently read (or re-read upon finding copies for my own library) include:

Born Under the Sign of Jazz by Randi Hultin. The stories about Bud Powell and a young Keith Jarrett are particularly fascinating.

Hear Me Talkin' to Ya by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff. It had been years since I'd read this one. A marvelous book!

Jazz Anecdotes by Bill Crow. Some hilarious stories and one-liners here.

Also, I found a copy of Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe. It's a Dell paperback with 35-cents listed as the price and the headline "TRUE...SHOCKING" above the title on the cover. Priceless. The opening paragraph ranks as one of the best ever: "Music school? Are you kidding? I learned to play the sax in Pontiac Reformatory."

Another autobigraphy full of hilarious vignettes is Don Asher's Notes from a Battered Grand. I've never heard his piano playing, but if he plays as well as he writes I'd certainly like to. Does anyone know if he's still actively playing? Perhaps someone in California could fill us in...

[gonzo]

bill milkowski.
i rather enjoyed zabor's the bear.
tom woodard

[Lawrence Kart]

Thanks, Joe. I haven’t written as much in recent years as I did when I wrote regularly on jazz for the Chicago Tribune (1977-88), but I have kept my hand in with some liner notes – e.g. The Mosaic Tristano-Konitz-Marsh set, the recent reissue of "Filles De Kilimanjaro" -- I still listen a lot and try to think about what I’m hearing. BTW, Yale University Press will be publishing a book of all my stuff that seems worth preserving, titled "Jazz In Search of Itself," in fall 2004.

[Bill Barton]

Lawrence:

I'll be looking forward to that collection!



After finally having time to sift through the Paris Transatlantic archives, Dan Warburton is moving up, way up, on my all-time favorites list. Thanks, Nate, for letting me know about this resource.



Does anyone here have opinions about Andre Hodeir? Where do you place him in the history of jazz criticism and commentary? The Worlds of Jazz remains one of the books that continues to fascinate - and usually mystify - me. The Quiz chapter is hilarious: an enigma wrapped in a paradox painted by a Surrealist with perfect technique. Is this what we should all be shooting for? Or not. At this point in time, my vote is nay.

[Lawrence Kart]

Bill: I wrote a long and fairly negative review of "The Worlds of Jazz" for Jazz and Blues Monthly back in the mid-'70s, when it came out. As I recall, my main gripe, aside from the arch, heavy-handedness of Hodeir's literary game-playing (although maybe that stuff came off better in French) was that he clearly despised the jazz avant-garde, from say "Chasin' the Trane" on up, but then he proceeded as though the case against were proven and all right-thinking people agreed with him on this. I don't, but given all of Hodeir's formidable analytic powers, I thought that we and the music ought to have the benefit of a detailed direct assault from him rather than the book's smug sniping from the rafters. Also, even if he were right about the avant-garde, I thought he owed us an explanation of how this, by Hodeir's lights, totally misguided music came to be and why it had captured the attention of so many. Finally, I couldn't help but think of his own rather diddly and precious music. Was he telling me that this is the sort of stuff I ought to be caring about instead of, say, Ornette's "Beauty Is a Rare Thing" or Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound"?

[Bill Barton]

Yes, diddly diddly is how this book still strikes me. Or maybe, as our now-banished from JC instigator DEEP would have said, DUH!!!!!

[GA Russell]

I got my first subscription to Downbeat when I was a senior in high school. Almost everything was over my head, but I enjoyed learning.

The columnist who seemed to make the most sense to me was Martin Williams. I have since learned that he was dismissive of Coltrane, and (I gather) was a traditionalist.

I wonder what I would think of his work today. Can anyone recommend a collection of his writings?

[Gary Sisco]

Right now the best jazz writers are Greg Osby, DD Jackson, and Ellery Eskelin. IMHO.

[Lawrence Kart]

Martin was dismissive of Coltrane by and large, but he also was among the earliest advocates of Ornette and wrote about his music as knowledgably as anyone then or since. In later years (say, '70s till his death in the mid-'80s) he became much enamored of the jazz repertory approach to things -- in part because he thought that was what the music needed, in part because I don't think he found much new stuff that was to his taste. (I recall a late piece that extolled the World Saxophone Quartet but without much conviction -- it had a "best of bad lot" flavor to it, and of course the WSQ had repertory inclinations at times.) Don't recall Martin having much to say about Wynton, but I like to think that he would have spotted the hollowness of stuff like "Blood on the Fields" if he'd still been around to hear it. The first Williams book to look for is "The Jazz Tradition," which was conceived as a book. There are (or were) other collections of his pieces -- all are interesting, though the same pieces crop up in more than one book, as I recall.

[Dick Trickle]

I have to say most books on jazz bore me (with the exception of Beneath the Underdog). I would much rather just enjoy music than read about how to enjoy it from someone elses understanding.

With that said, I would have to take my hat of to Carl Woideck, who's book on Charlie Parker is one of the best reads for a musician interested in the development of Parker's style. It is an exciting, no bs examination from his earliest known recordings to his later work... it's the kind of book that can give you a new perspective on Parkers music from the process of discovering the melodic and harmonic devices that were developed, and not developed during this artists career.

If anyone is interested in taking a nice guided tour through the theorized practice habbits of a master, then Carl is your man. Every time I wanted to read about Parker, it was about his personal problems and not an in depth look at the music. This is exactly the opposite of those books. So much attention is on exactly what I listen to Parker for, his melodic development and ability to build phrases breaching form and creating his own sound.

Highly recomend. Rex