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BLUE NOTE RECORDS: A BIOGRAPHY by Richard Cook


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Mule: let me know if you run across evidence that they referrence or mention in footnote the interview that I did with Michael Cuscuna for doobop, currently housed within All About Jazz. I have heard that it did, but have never looked at/had my hands on a copy.

Thanks.

Edited by jazzbo
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Lon,

Don't have the book in front of me, but I definitely remember seeing the footnote that references your interview.

I have only read through a few sections of the book ... hard to say if it reveals a great deal for the hard core BN fan, but it does seem to be a nice book.

Eric

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Lon, your interview with Cuscuna is indeed credited--twice. In chapter four they quote Cuscuna saying that Alfred Lion had gotten a "piddling offer from Atlantic" to buy Blue Note and in chapter ten there's a long quote from Cuscuna explaining how expensive and difficult is was for Lion to maintain the label's success.

Seems obvious to me your excellent interview for "DooBop" was an important part of Richard Cook's research for the book. Congrats!

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The Blue Note lover will not find very much new in this book. It's readable but most memberrs of this board will have formed their own opinions about the records that get a mention, and quite a few that don't.

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  • 2 months later...

I've just finished a paperback version of this that I'm reviewing for my paper.

I'm a little surprised at all the dismissive comments I've read (here and elsewhere).

No, it's not exhaustive by any means. I was familiar with much of the material, but loved reading those stories again.

I'm far from being a BN hardcore nut, but I own just about all of what Cook considers to be the key albums.

What I did like was they way he put the mighty adventures of Lion, Wolff, Quebec and all the rest in cultural and historical perspective - the trials and fiscal challenges of coping with changes in format (78, 45, 10-inch, 12-inch) for instance.

In the more affordable paperback form at least, I think most folks here would enjoy an afternoon of reading (and listening) this provides.

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I think this was an enjoyable read, but I WAS disappointed that in my opinion there really wasn't much meat to the actual early history of the label and its first decade and a half of recording. This history is I think the least chronicled elsewhere, and this was a missed opportunity to make up for a deficit. I'm very interested in learning more about this, and I would have loved for there to be more material within this book.

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  • 2 weeks later...

He even boasts in the intro about skipping Moncur.

I hope this shows up at daedalus books at a discount. I picked up Szwed's Miles book for a fraction of the list price (the fraction is 1/4, to be exact), and they have other remainders of recently issued books. I would galdly pay $7-$8 for Cook's shallow book, but not the list price.

Bertrand.

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He even boasts in the intro about skipping Moncur.

OMG. How shallow is that!! :blink::blink::blink:

Man, you'd think if somebody was gonna write a whole book about an entire label, that they'd at least try to listen to most of the albums by damn near every person on the label during it's core years. For BN, that's clearly everything up to 1970.

Maybe not every Horace Silver record, and not every single Grant Green or Lee Morgan record. But to completely ignore some of the artists who recorded less frequently, is pretty amazing.

If he skipped the Moncurs, then what the hell else did he skip?? Probably Tyrone Washington, for sure. Probably a few of the Andrew Hills. Almost certainly the Eddie Gales. Maybe one or even two of the three Don Cherries?? Possibly one or two of the Ornettes?? Maybe a Sam Rivers or two??

Probably some others I'm forgetting too. Maybe one or both of the Tony Williamses?? Probably one or both of the Cecil Taylors.

You know - I heard the recent full intervew with Cook from the NPR website (quite a bit longer than what was on the radio), and he pretty much said and thinks that "Sidewinder" was the beginning of the end for the label, and that once it was sold to Liberty, that there was little merit to many (possibly "most"??) of the material recorded by Blue Note after 1966 and '67.

Suppose "The Prisoner" was not considered too, maybe.

I know, I'm putting words in the guy's mouth - when I haven't even read his book. Still, to have not even listened to the Moncurs, and then bragged about it - when that aspect of Blue Note is nearly as important (historically speaking, anyway), is really a shame.

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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I think he listened to them - he just didn't include them in his book.

The complete history of BN has yet to be written. An album like Evolution cannot be glossed over. It didn't have the influence it should have had, but it's a highly original and satisfying record nonetheless.

Bertrand.

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  • 10 months later...

Keeping in mind that there were, to say the least, mixed reviews of this book (see the earlier parts of this thread above), I remained curious about it and since it has now come out in paperback in the USA, I picked up a copy at Borders on Saturday and started reading it.

I agree that it is not the book that most BN fans on this board would like to read (it doesn't look like he did any new research or interviews and he does gloss over a lot of the second tier artists), but it is very well written and Cook clearly has a great love for the early Blue Note and its history. Even though I am more of a big fan of '60's BN (like a lot of the people on this board), I found the material about 1939-1960 to be the best and most informative in the book. Especially the material about the transition from '78s to LPs (10 inch or 12 inch) during 1949-1950.

I think I would say that if one is fan of the Penguin Guide, one may enjoy this book for what it is, but if one does not enjoy the Penguin Guide, who is sure to dislike it.

Edited by HWright
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I finished reading my copy while on vacation at the beach last week. Richard Cook is either way more fascinated with pre-LP Blue Notes or he had to hurry the ending to meet deadline. And he leaves us holding a rather thin text with a hasty finish -- quite a disservice to Blue Note collectors. There is very little to learn from this breezy sop. I was ready to toss it into the ocean (Destin, FL).

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Bill, although it is possible that Cook ran out of time, I tend to believe that the absence of coverage of a lot of the mid to late 1960's Blue Notes is really a reflection of Cook's negative view of much of that material. If you read the entries on the artists in question in the Penguin guide (much of which was either written by or edited by Cook, I think), you will find the same views. Cook just does not think that most of the later BNs are of interest.

As an example, both in the biography and in the Penguin guide he makes it quite clear that he think that Lee Morgan went down hill after the success of "The Sidewinder," and really the only exception he makes is for "Search for the New Land." Given that this is his view, it is not at all suprising that he does not comment in any detail on most of Morgan's later output or on Hank Mobley's, which he dismises at the same time in the same paragraph, in fact. As for more obscure figures like Tyrone Washington or Grachan Moncur, I don't think he thinks they were ever relevant. Personally, I find this unfortunate, since his chapters on 1939-1960 make a point of highlighting various under-rated BN artists such as Tina Brooks.

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Well, I really liked the book ...no, it wasn't an exhaustive, comprehensive look at Blue Note, but it provided me with some interesting insight into the label's history.

I would recommend it as a good starting place (with an emphasis on "starting place") for someone interested in learning more about Blue Note jazz.

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I was very dissappointed by the book, and I like to think that if Cook were reviewing it for the Penguin guide he would blast it as the underachieving, make-a-quick-buck, phone-it-in effort that the book is in my opinion. One and a half stars.

I'm an avid reader and lover of the Penguin guides, for a lot of reasons. As has been mentioned before in various threads, I think Cook and Morton provide rock-solid analysis based on their years of listening and knowledge of jazz. While I don't think each edition is as useful to pick up as they used to be (mostly because they only focus on in-print CDs), I still think it is the essential reference book, and it's what I recommend to newcomers as what they should purchase before any other jazz book. The AMG has more listings (which I like as an LP listener), but oh man is some of the analysis cringe-inducing.

For anyone who has read the Penguin Guide, there is little reason to read Cook's biography, because most of it has already been written in the Guide. And once you get through the early part of the book (the part of Cook's history that earns him at least some praise), there is almost nothing new. Add to that his neglect of important artists like those mentioned above and it just starts to make me mad.

One of the things that ticked me off about this book is that I imagine it will make it harder for someone else -- someone who really wanted to put out a book worthy of the label -- to get a Blue Note history published. Now it's already been "done."

I picked up this book without reading any reviews and really expected something worthy of Cook. This isn't it. I will grant that it is a good starting point, as has been mentioned above. But a book by Richard Cook about a label as important as Blue Note should have usefulness far beyond being a simple starting point for those new to jazz. It's like his own ratings for later Sonny Rollins albums, where he acknowledges that the ratings are "miserly", but "we're talking about Sonny Rollins." Same applies here.

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Very good points. I agree that one sad thing about this is that it may make it more difficult for a better book to appear on the subject. I wish Michael Cuscuna would find the time some day to write one. From an interview with him for about fifty minutes I got a lot of fascinating information out of him on Alfred Lion and the label's history, two parts of which Cook couldn't find elsewhere and used in his book. I would rather read Cuscuna's book about his friends Lion and Wolff and their labors of love. . . .

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Richard Cook's slight effort in writing about Blue Note makes it all-the-more

LIKELY for a BETTER, more inclusive and personal book to be written.

Yes, if Michael Cuscuna could take a one-year sabbatical, he might very well write the authoritative, 'inside' book of Blue Note that we are clamoring for.

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