Overview

Jazz Heritage brings together twenty years' of reviews, musicians' profiles, and critical essays by the renowned critic Martin Williams. This companion volume to the prize-winning The Jazz Tradition includes profiles of great performers at work in studios and clubs, ""liner notes"" for many classic recordings, and Williams's acclaimed critical essays on the artistry of Charlie Parker, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and others. Consistently eye-opening and original, these pieces are essential reading for jazz musicians, students, scholars, and fans.

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9780195050714

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Highly recommended...Williams can fully appreciate the greatness in artists of widely varied styles and eras....Written with much the same care, thoughtfulness and encyclopedic knowledge of jazz that marked The Jazz Tradition.""--Philadelphia Inquirer ""Raises jazz criticism to the status of literature....It is so fine, so impeccable, so stylish, it...elevates all our standards of what good music journalism should be.""--Jazziz ""Read anything of Williams you can lay your hands on....His knowledge of jazz is all but unmatched.""--Washington Review ""Enlightening and written in a fluid, almost conversatinal tone, [it] contains some of jazz's most incisive commentary.""--Philadelphia Tribune ""A fascinating education for the jazz fan about the legacy and recordings of early jazz giants like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Charlie Parker....A rich pastiche that will delight jazz fans.""--Kirkus Reviews ""A revised and improved edition....Behind the scenes ith some of the greats in jazz, it's a glimpse of a world shrouded by myth, Williams takes you behind the myth.""--Beat Scene ""The compiler and annotator of the superb Smithsonian collections of classic jazz and big band jazz offers a companion to The Jazz Tradition....Indispensable in any collection of books on jazz.""--Booklist

In this companion volume to The Jazz Tradition, Williams collects a variety of his critical pieces, including short reviews and essays (some updated) on various jazz greats, ringside portraits of recording and rehearsal sessions and album-liner note annotations. The pieces vary in length, approach and technicality, but the end result is a fascinating education for the jazz fan about the legacy and recordings of early jazz giants like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Charlie Parker, as well as the contributions of more contemporary greats like Basic, Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Williams offers a knowledgeably critical but unjaundiced view in his attempt to reach certain truths about this genuinely American musical idiom: that he (and many colleagues) regard Ellington as America's greatest composer; that the assimilation of others' work and honest dedication to a personal vision creates the great jazz artist; that the phonograph as messenger and the influence of Afro-American heritage have both had an incalculable effect on the genre; that great discipline is essential to the art of improvisation. He covers a grab bag of interesting nuances, and a great range of artists who collaborate, admire and emulate as they stretch the boundaries of their art. He traces the origin of boogie-woogie, explores the problems of third streamers who attempt to mix jazz and classics, and even suggests that Mick Jagger's emulation of Southern black sound reflects a new generation of symbolic blackface. We are even treated to the legendary pianist Bill Evans' view on the art of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis on Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Role on himself. A rich pastiche that will delight jazz fans. (Kirkus Reviews)

Highly recommended...Williams can fully appreciate the greatness in artists of widely varied styles and eras....Written with much the same care, thoughtfulness and encyclopedic knowledge of jazz that marked The Jazz Tradition. --Philadelphia Inquirer Raises jazz criticism to the status of literature....It is so fine, so impeccable, so stylish, it...elevates all our standards of what good music journalism should be. --Jazziz Read anything of Williams you can lay your hands on....His knowledge of jazz is all but unmatched. --Washington Review Enlightening and written in a fluid, almost conversatinal tone, [it] contains some of jazz's most incisive commentary. --Philadelphia Tribune A fascinating education for the jazz fan about the legacy and recordings of early jazz giants like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Charlie Parker....A rich pastiche that will delight jazz fans. --Kirkus Reviews A revised and improved edition....Behind the scenes ith some of the greats in jazz, it's a glimpse of a world shrouded by myth, Williams takes you behind the myth. --Beat Scene The compiler and annotator of the superb Smithsonian collections of classic jazz and big band jazz offers a companion to The Jazz Tradition....Indispensable in any collection of books on jazz. --Booklist

Author Information

About the Author: Martin Williams is the author of TV: The Casual Art and Where's the Melody? His articles have appeared in such publications as The Village Voice, Saturday Review, and The New York Times.

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