Overview

Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing their music in the context of the other musical cultures of the twentieth century and offering analyses of many great jazz recordings. Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz world. A classic study, it is both a splendid introduction for students and an insightful guide for scholars, musicians, and jazz aficionados.

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9780195000979

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Reviews

Here, at last, is the definitive work...written in the best intellectual tradition. It is clear, thorough, objective, sophisticated and original. A remarkable book by any standard, it is unparalleled in the literature of jazz. --Frank Conroy, The New York Times Book Review<br> A remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz. I emphasize musical because that's the element of jazz least often written about with this degree of skill and clarity. --Nat Hentoff<br> A superb job, in its thorough scholarship, its critical perception, and its love and respect for its subject. All future commentary on jazz--indeed on American music--should be indebted to Schuller's work. --Martin Williams<br> The best informed and most thorough work of jazz criticism thus far...It is just what we who began to love jazz thirty-five years ago wanted but could never find. --Hudson Review<br> Jazz...has inspired an enormous literature. The writer always mentioned first among buffs and scholars in Gunther Schuller; his Early Jazz...is a basic book. --Wilson Quarterly<br>

This is educated inquiry into the origins of jazz from its status as quasi folk music-more sociological manifestation than music to the potent individuality and influence we know today. The author concerns himself primarily with African influences from the tremendously complex contrapuntal and polyrhythmic musical development of that continent to the influence of European formality adapted into the Afro-American community. There is careful technical analysis of harmonies, rhythm, technique and Mr. Schuller applies the same intelligent observation to his studies of such innovators as Louis Armstrong, Jolly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Bix Beiderbecke, James P. Johnson, Bessie Smith, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington. Too technical for the sideman, this will appeal to the informed buff and/or interested musicologist. 150 musical examples. (Kirkus Reviews)

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