As a Jewish guy whose dog (and wife and daughter) will leave the room when I start talking about jazz, I deeply appreciate this post. Have just begun my jazz reading journey and am enjoying Ashley Kahn's Kind of Blue. Adding all of these to the queue.
Must totally agree with you on Stanley Crouch, and holy smokes is the Miles book superb. Don’t think I have ever seen so many scores settled between the covers of a single book! Albert Murray is a good read if you have interest in that other 20th Century phenomenon: The blues. There are even some Library of America collections of his work to admire.
Huge fan of Murray. I think I've likely read more blues books and I have a feeling there are more of them available but somebody like Murray was top of the heap. He was a great American writer.
As a Jewish guy whose dog (and wife and daughter) will leave the room when I start talking about jazz, I deeply appreciate this post. Have just begun my jazz reading journey and am enjoying Ashley Kahn's Kind of Blue. Adding all of these to the queue.
Jazz guy here, too. Loved Miles' book. Big Bill Evans fan myself. There's a guy with some incredible stories.
Must totally agree with you on Stanley Crouch, and holy smokes is the Miles book superb. Don’t think I have ever seen so many scores settled between the covers of a single book! Albert Murray is a good read if you have interest in that other 20th Century phenomenon: The blues. There are even some Library of America collections of his work to admire.
Huge fan of Murray. I think I've likely read more blues books and I have a feeling there are more of them available but somebody like Murray was top of the heap. He was a great American writer.
Hard agree! And he wrote as much about jazz as blues, and culture more broadly. A fascinating guy.
Proud to say I helped edit this book! It's amazing. The Ike Day paragraph is one of the greatest things I've ever read.