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I'm trying to come up with jazz book "bricks" - lengthy tomes that you either quit 50 pages in or plow through and have a life-changing experience - for my bucket list. Please comment or add to my list:
1) Alyn Shipton - A New History of Jazz - Started on the 1000-page original edition from the library before realizing there's a 2007 edition that supposedly has 20% fewer pages and 20% more material. How'd they manage that, cut the type size by 40%?
2) Thinking in Jazz - Paul Berliner - 900 pages on how people become jazz musicians, definitely going on the list if only to understand where I failed.
3) Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original - Robin D. G. Kelley - I've read it, best jazz bio I've read by far, if a little light at "only" 600 pages or so.
4) Early Jazz and The Swing Era - Gunther Schuller - Combining two books here just for the impressive combined 1300 pages. Been sitting on the shelves forever, but I'm going to read them right about don't know when.
5) Lost Chords: White Musicians and their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945 - 900 pages dedicated to a ridiculous proposition but I read it and loved it nonetheless.
6) A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music - George Lewis - 700 pages and I hate myself more every day that goes by without reading this cover to cover.
1) Alyn Shipton - A New History of Jazz - Started on the 1000-page original edition from the library before realizing there's a 2007 edition that supposedly has 20% fewer pages and 20% more material. How'd they manage that, cut the type size by 40%?
2) Thinking in Jazz - Paul Berliner - 900 pages on how people become jazz musicians, definitely going on the list if only to understand where I failed.
3) Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original - Robin D. G. Kelley - I've read it, best jazz bio I've read by far, if a little light at "only" 600 pages or so.
4) Early Jazz and The Swing Era - Gunther Schuller - Combining two books here just for the impressive combined 1300 pages. Been sitting on the shelves forever, but I'm going to read them right about don't know when.
5) Lost Chords: White Musicians and their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945 - 900 pages dedicated to a ridiculous proposition but I read it and loved it nonetheless.
6) A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music - George Lewis - 700 pages and I hate myself more every day that goes by without reading this cover to cover.
