Visions of Jazz: The First CenturyPoised to become a classic of jazz literature, Visions of Jazz: The First Century offers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning, and from the swinging elegance of Duke Ellington to the pioneering experiments of Ornette Coleman, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Writing with the grace and wit that have endeared his prose to Village Voice readers for decades, Giddins also widens the scope of jazz to include such crucial American musicians as Irving Berlin, Rosemary Clooney, and Frank Sinatra, all primarily pop performers who are often dismissed by fans and critics as mere derivatives of the true jazz idiom. And he devotes an entire quarter of this landmark volume to young, still-active jazz artists, boldly expanding the horizons of jazz--and charting and exploring the music's influences as no other book has done. |
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VISIONS OF JAZZ: The First Century
User Review - KirkusGiddins, a longtime Village Voice contributor and one of our most skillful jazz critics (Faces in the Crowd, 1992, etc.), offers a monumental work of ambition, an attempt to encapsulate a hundred ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - rocketjk - LibraryThingVisions of Jazz is a collection of 49 essays, each one describing a different jazz musician or group, moving more or less chronologically through the 20th century. Giddins is a very good writer, which ... Read full review
Contents
| 3 | |
| 11 | |
A NEW MUSIC | 67 |
A POPULAR MUSIC | 151 |
A MODERN MUSIC | 231 |
A MAINSTREAM MUSIC | 337 |
AN ALTERNATIVE MUSIC | 437 |
A STRUGGLING MUSIC | 527 |
A TRADITIONAL MUSIC | 585 |
Acknowledgments | 655 |
| 657 | |
| 671 | |
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Common terms and phrases
album alto American arrangements audience ballad bars bass bassist Ben Webster Benny Benny Carter Berlin big band Billy Blue Note brass Carter Cecil Taylor Charlie Parker chords chorus clarinet classic Club Coleman Coleman Hawkins Coltrane Coltrane's composer concert dance debut Dizzy Gillespie drummer drums duet Duke Ellington ensemble Getz Gillespie Goodman harmonic Hawkins Henderson improvisation instrument jazz Jimmy John John Coltrane Johnny Johnny Hodges Johnson Jones later Lester Young Lewis listener Louis Armstrong Love Lunceford melody Miles Davis Mingus Monk musicians never Oliver orchestra Orleans performance phrase pianist piano piece played players quartet quintet recorded release repertory rhythm section rhythmic riffs Rollins saxophone saxophonist session Sinatra singer singing solo soloists song Sonny Sonny Rollins sound Strayhorn studio style swing Tatum Taylor tempo tenor Thelonious Monk theme timbre tour trio trombone trumpet tune vocal voice wrote York Young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Visions of Jazz: The First Century |
| Author | Gary Giddins |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 1998 |
| ISBN | 0199879532, 9780199879533 |
| Length | 704 pages |
| Subjects | › › Biography & Autobiography / Music Music / Genres & Styles / Jazz Music / History & Criticism |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |