Overview

Taking up where Early Jazz (OPB, #6.95) leaves off, this second volume of Gunther Schuller's history of jazz considers the swing era - the age of dance bands and radio shows. Tracing the origins of swing and its effects on American musical and social life, he assesses the distinctive sounds of great bandleaders like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Woody Herman, instrumentalists such as Art Tatum, Cab Calloway, and Pee Wee Russell, and such vocalists as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Peggy Lee.

Full Product Details

9780195071405

Table of Contents

Reviews

An excellent study. A great help for my teaching . . . --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performsm writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work....As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious....Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Post Book World An excellent study. A great help for my teaching. --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performs, writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work.... As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious.... Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Post Book World A book of undeniable importance. No true student of the arts born of American civilization will be able to avoid opening [it] and seeking out the riches it has made available. --The New York Times Book Review Unparalleled.... One of the most far-reaching musical studies of jazz; his astute criticism deepens our understanding not only of the period but of jazz itself. --Library Journal A touchstone of jazz literature.... The most thorough and authoritative study ever undertaken of the period. --The Philadelphia Inquirer Hardly anyone else can write on jazz with this authority. The Swing Era is indispensable to serious jazz lovers. If any are in doubt about this, Schuller's twenty pages on Billie Holiday, a model of what first-rate jazz criticism should be, will decide the matter.... A labor of learning, of critical discernment and respect, of profound knowledge of how jazz and jazz musicians work.... A monumental contribution to jazz literature. --New York Review of Books A walk down memory lane with an extraordinary guide, who traces the influences that shaped the playing of everone he mentions, often with musical notations transcribed from the records to illustrate his points. It's a scholarly work, but Schuller, a composer and conductor when he's not writing books, has filled it with fascinating details that will keep the jazz lover turning pages from beginning to end. --Sunday Chicago Tribune The hardback was a bargain at $30.00; at $15.95 the paperback is a bigger one. Schuller isn't infallible, but this is unquestionably an essential item on any jazz bookshelf--along with Early Jazz. --JazzTimes The Swing Era is an excellent examination of a rich period in America's musical history. --Journal of the West The biggest single book on jazz yet written.... All lovers of jazz should be grateful to [Schuller] for devoting so much of a very busy life to this formidable task. --Jazztimes The most precise and insightful book on the subject. --Prof. Weldonhill, Virginia Union Univ.

Vol. II of Schuller's in-depth history of jazz (after Early Jazz, 1968). Early Jazz cut off at 1933, and covered an era that Schuller characterized as an age of restless curiosity in music. The volume at hand takes jazz up to the end of WW II, a period that saw the establishment in jazz of a system of order, a sense of unity . . .resting on the foundations laid in the late 1920's. Thus, while the swing era is often viewed as standing alone as a particular expression of American culture - via the music of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, etc., all chronicled here - Schuller resists the temptation to isolate that era from both its antecedents and its heirs. An underlying theme here is the extent to which swing contained the germ of its own demise. While, as Schuller writes, the greatness of jazz lies in the fact that it never ceases to develop and change, too many proponents of swing (represented by the average dance band of the period) concerned themselves with their own self-perpetuation: It became in far too many instances a static music that never looked outside or beyond itself. Anxious only to hold onto its own order and stability, it was bound to petrify. Bursting with detail, but preachy and opinionated. For the flavor of jazz, best to turn to the literate writings of Gene Lees (Singers and the Song, 1987). Schuller, incidentally, promises a third volume, covering post-WW II modern jazz. (Kirkus Reviews)

An excellent study. A great help for my teaching . . . --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University<br> Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performsm writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University<br> Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work....As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music<br> The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic<br> A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious....Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Post Book World<br>

<br> An excellent study. A great help for my teaching . . . --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University<p><br> Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performsm writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University<p><br> Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work....As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music<p><br> The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic<p><br> A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious....Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Pos

<br> An excellent study. A great help for my teaching . . . --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University<p><br> Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performsm writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University<p><br> Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work....As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music<p><br> The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic<p><br> A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious....Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Post Book World<p><br>

<br> An excellent study. A great help for my teaching . . . --Reinhold Brinkmann, Harvard University<br> Excellent text! The depth and scope warrants an entire course of study on this era alone. It is a valuable tool for any jazz musician who performsm writes, or studies this style. --Stephen T. Goforth, Oklahoma City University<br> Schuller has the mind of a persistent and thorough scholar, and of a most careful and exacting musical analyst; of the most sensitive and responsive listener, and of the most musically knowledgeable and careful of critics....a monumental piece of work....As I say, this is a monumental achievement; it should be a basic text for anyone seriously interested in American music. --Martin Williams, merican Music<br> The ultimate jazz history. --The New Republic<br> A magisterial achievement, equally engrossing for musicologists, enthusiasts or the just plain curious....Schuller has given us a masterpiece and source of pure delight. --The Washington Post Book World

Author Information

Prominent American composer, horn-player, and writer on music.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available