Bob Porter's SOUL JAZZ book

[Dan Gould]

My order was cancelled as not in stock within a day or two; I re-ordered thru Amazon immediately - while it showed as back-ordered. Just yesterday got a shipping update that indicated it should be shipping between the 19th and the 24th. So they have stock or expect sufficient stock to get my order out soon.

[JSngry]

Updated shipping notice received, now due Thursday!

[jlhoots]

Let us know if it's any good.

[Big Beat Steve]

Bob Porter don't write no duds, I am pretty sure ...

[JSngry]

Book arrived in the last hour, started reading it...so far it's not telling me anything I didn't already know, but in a very pleasant, readable way. And I love the irony that a white guy writing a book about jazz (this type, anyway) as explicitly Black Music is probably gonna be hailed as making a valuable contribution while at the same time noting that a lot/most of the music and artists covered in this book were either under-recognized or overlooked entirely in their time by the same community/communities that will likely be making these hailings today. Irony on toast, please!

The sharpest point for me so far (and I've just barely gotten into it) comes in the preface(!):

SOUL JAZZ is devoted to a time that has long since passed. The musicians, the clubs, the radio stations,and the record labels are all memories now.The best way to experience the music as it was is on recordings.

Well, uh....apart from the fundamental contradiction inherent in the notion that it is even possible to experience anything that "no longer exists" "as it was"...I think his point is that this was music that sprung organically from a people, by a people, and for a people, and that those of us who were coming to it from the outside will always be doing so, no matter how much we embrace and allow envelopment, and that the only for for that to ultimately not matter is to just shut up and accept that it does.

Amiri Baraka routinely took a lot of heat for saying such things "from the inside", and about a broader set of musics (and sociologies). But lord knows, Bob Porter appears to be totally comitted to telling the truth here, so let that fall where it falls.

Otherwise, the book seems to be mostly capsule/bio-driven, which is ok for me, because the general premise is established at the start, and from I can read, the bios all are presented in that context. Don't seem to be a whole lot of anecdotes. for or second hand, and that's a disappointment (if that's how it really is, like I said, just barely cracked it today). But yeah, this is going to be a fun read, if for no other reason than it's a book that feels like The Recovery Room or Club Arandas back in the day, the whole damn thing, the bandstand, the music, the conversations, the clientele...the people, all of them (and this is true for all musics, imo).

The best way to experience the music "as it was" is through memories of things that really happened, things that you saw yourself, then work from there.

For everything else, there's MasterCard.

[Big Beat Steve]

And yet ... despite your reservations you're making me curious. And I hope our Amazon over here will be able to ship soon.

Just by way of comparison, where would you situate this book's approach to the subject matter (coverage of the evolution and history of a specific style of jazz) overall compared to, say Ted Gioia's "West Coast Jazz" and Arnold Shaw's "Honkers and Shouters", for example?
I just checked the excerpts accessible on amazon.com and the table of contents has me intrigued and surprised in places. Pleased about the Gene Ammons chapter and am looking forward to reading about the other sax men too . And needless to say, I'll be fine-combing the "Big Beat" chapter.

As we around here for the most part are white too and yet are getting deeply into music that originated in the black community and as we do think we have a feeling for that music (don't we? ) I certainly won't hold the author's skin color against him.

By the way, where are you, MG, to have your say on this? Your opinion would be most welcome.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

Ok, I see what's happening here...this is not a book about "Soul Jazz" per se, this is a book called "Soul Jazz" that is (mostly) about its subtitle, "Jazz in the Black Community, 1945-1975". so, if you're looking about an entire book about Jimmy Smith, Johnny Lytle. and Baby Face Willete records or some such, this ain't it. This a look at some of the jazz musics in and of a community, and as such, a look at all of the musical tastes of that community are considered so that the places of the jazzs therein are given more fuller contexts.

Here are the chapters and page $s to give you an idea of how the book is buil:

• Preface - Pg IX
• Introduction - Pg XI
• Race Music- Pg 1
• Illinois Jacquet - Pg 47
• Rhythm and Blues - Pg 57
• Gene Ammons - Pg 105
• The Big Beat - Pg 113
• Hank Crawford - Pg 149
• Soul Jazz - Pg 157
• Grant Green - Pg 201
• Funk and Fusion - Pg 211
• Grover Washington Jr - Pg247
• The Producers - Pg 255

I just finished the portrait of Illinois Jacquet, and, yeah, somebody writing this kind of thing about Illinois Jacquet in a freakin' book is beautiful. Expecting the same to be true about Gene Ammons & Hank Crawford, and, possibly, even, Grover.

Readin to this point has still been mostly/entirely factual/data, but not in an "encyclopedic" kind of a way. More like, these things were happening at the same time, and in this context. Context, that's what this book is doing, to this point, really well, providing context for Hal Singer and Illinois Jacquet, and Savoy Records and King Records and Sonny Til and just all sorts of things that individually might not seem like much, but in the aggregate, yeah, this IS where the "is" of all this was. Nobody gets a lot of ink, really, but otoh, Bob Porter name-checks Henry Glover and makes it a point to say that no, you don't usually hear about Henry Glover in the history books.

If it's a more personal/inside approach you're looking for, read Johnny Otis's books. Hell, read them anyway. But this bob Porter book, read it, I'll say.

 

 

[Eric]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Ok, I see what's happening here...this is not a book about "Soul Jazz" per se, this is a book called "Soul Jazz" that is (mostly) about its subtitle, "Jazz in the Black Community, 1945-1975". so, if you're looking about an entire book about Jimmy Smith, Johnny Lytle. and Baby Face Willete records or some such, this ain't it. This a look at some of the jazz musics in and of a community, and as such, a look at all of the musical tastes of that community are considered so that the places of the jazzs therein are given more fuller contexts.

Actually sounds like a more interesting read ...

[rostasi]

My copy has been sitting here - still in it's package - for a couple days now.
Looking forward to digging in to it!

[CJ Shearn]

I look forward to checking this one out too

[JSngry]

There's a profile on Paul Williams that not once notes the similarity between "The Hucklebuck" and "Now's The Time", focusing instead on Lucky Millender's "Blues In D"...has that ever happened in a jazz book?

Also, as of page 72, Ralph Bass has been mentioned as many times as Duke Ellington, Teddy Reig almost as many times.

This is not a book that really "sets fire" to the critical orthodoxy in terms of literary style, but not more than 2 or 3 pages go by that I see something and I think wow, this guy's going there. And he keeps going there.

Still lacking anectodes/personal recountings, a LOT of reliance on record producers and sales charts, and that's good for what it does, but there's more to life than data. Still, there's a picture being painted here that needs to be painted...not even painted, more like some photographs being found and collated...in terms of jazz books as we have come to know them, this is pretty radical, and so far, enjoyable.

[JSngry]

pg 122:

...Duke Ellington...the departures in 1951 had forced changes upon Ellington. The rhythmic innovations introduced by Louis Bellson priovided the band with fresh inspiration. Upon Bellson's departure, Ellington tried Butch Ballard and Dave Black; and each, while competent, could not provide the spark that Ellington was seeking.

Sam Woodyard, who followed Black, was the answer. Woodyard had worked with organist Milt Bucker before joining Ellington in July 1955...he gave the Ellington band the strongest backbeat it had ever had. If the "big beat" was what Ellington wanted, then Woodyard could deliver...In many ways, the arrival of Woodyard heralded a New Testament Ellington band.

The term "big beat" here is used in reference to the Alan Freed era of R&B/R&R, and Freed gets some light shone on him in this book for his various big band involvements - and the people involved, most of whom came from black dance/big bands of the pre-bop type. Also looked at is Basie's involvement with Freed, as well as Morris Levy's involvement with both Freed and Roulete, where Basie was produced by Teddy Reig, him of the earlier R&B records. None of this is really labored on, jsut ittle "oh by the way" dropping of facts that keep adding up with every page.

This matter-of-fact declaration that Sam Woodyard gave the Ellington band the strongest backbeat it had ever had..well, yes. HELL yes, in fact!  Why has it taken until 2016 for this to be noted and put into context?

Dots being connected for a general audience at last! Hooray for Bob Porter!

[Big Beat Steve]

Your comments make me more and more eager to get my hands on this book. For reasons maybe not considered appropriate by all of the "jazz as pure art" segment of the jazz powers in that this book seems to tie a few OTHER loose ends together that IMHO have been waiting to be tied together, e.g that jazz ("valuable" jazz to use criteria used by jazz scribes earlier) could indeed be entertainment and music for partying and all-out dancing even AFTER (well after) 1945, much like MG has pointed it out in an earlier post of his about the primary function of soul jazz (even beyond "soul jazz" in the strictest sense of the word - a couple of years ago I picked up a 47W63rd St., DG, ear in wax copy of Cannonball Adderley's "Something Else" with surprisingly O.K. cover at the "princely" sum of 1 (yes, ONE) euro at a local record store clearout sale - priced so because the record with all its scuffs, scratches and "odd and hard to clean" stuff in the grooves spelt out a life of PARTY fodder in big letters).

I can't put my finger on it but I seem to have read something about Sam Woodyard before to the effect that you quote - maybe in some  contemporary review of one of the Ellington orchestra tours from that period. And it wasn't even a writeup on the 1956 Newport festival (I'd venture a guess the combination of Paul Gonsalves and Sam Woodyard on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" would have kept even the dancers at most honkin' sax R&B parties happy (and exhausted) - even today - and no need for anyone to be sniffy about those who enjoy the recording in such a setting as "missing the point" - IMHO they'are not, they are rather distilling the gutsier immediacy out of that performance).

And what you say about Alan Freed and the big bands he worked with OTOH does not come as much of a surprise or revelation to me, maybe also because I've read John Jackson's Alan Freed bio "Big Beat Heat" before.  My forum nick is no coincidence, though I certainly wouldn't say this is my #1 interest area in jazz - I'd rather consider it a "special interest" area of mine that has been in the shadow everywhere - it seems to have been neglected by jazz history AND by many historians of early rock'n'roll as well. Count Basie's cooperation with Freed came to an unhappy end, BTW, though I wonder if it was more for artistic or more for monetary reasons.

Anyway .. thanks again for your comments. You're making me more curious than ever.

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

Finished the book this afternoon, and have to say that the "snapshots" that are the form of the book tend to get a little more annoying when they move into the actual (as popularly considered) music of the book's title..chronologies are either condensed or left hanging to be taken back up later, There are also some curious de-emphasizings of the entire Joel Dorn/Atlantic era, a really brief look at Ramsey Lewis that doesn't get taken until the book until the narrative reaches the 70s (Ray Bryant's Argo/Cadet gets an earlier and more detailed look, nothing against ray Bryan, he deserves it, but, really, who sold more records to Black Audiences for that label, Ray Bryant or Ramsey Lewis?), a curious reference to Charles Earland as the last great organist to record for Prestige or something like that, which I was like, uh...Leon Spencer, perhaps? He's barely mentioned, which seems odd...)And a curious habit of referring to anything that references funk or latin musics and/or employs electric instruments other than guitar and organ as "fusion"...the last feature profile in the book is of Grover washinton, Jr. It is a kind and understanding one, and worthy of the man, but...it refers to all his records as "fusion". So I guess when "jazz" was intersecting with one kind of R&B it was "Soul Jazz", and then when R&B itself evolved, the jazz that intersected with it was "fusion? Not sure if /I get that...Also almost no, really, no mention of Ahmad Jamal. and I know very well that black people bought a LOT of Ahmad Jamal records when they came out

OTOH...a totally accurate portrayal of CTI, why it happened, how it happened as music and as product, with the simple truth that Creed Taylor's genius lay in greating setting for jazz artists that treated them like pop singers, and that they advertised in Essence (how many jazz history book come from a perspective that is even aware of what Essence magazine is?) and some cool inside baseball stuff about things like the impact the discontinuing mono had on jazz record sales, stuff like that. And plenty shoutouts to worthy producers such as Ozzie Cadena & Esmond Edwards, as well as noting that the alte 50s & early 1960s saw Black Men (producers, A&R) having control over who recorded jazz records and how those records got made than at any time previously, and that these records were made to sell to Specific Black Audiences, not just Jazz Fans.

No doubt an essential book, if not a definitive one (that would require a lot more granular look at individuals and places than this one book can hold, and given how people are dying off and real estates constantly redefining, such a book may well be impossible?). For fans of the music and the social fabric which spawned it (and/or for those who inherited it either directly or indirectly), yes, read it. It's delightfully square-on look a very particular reality i.e. - about half the book is about the evolution from Race Music to R&B to R&R and not once is Elvis Presley mentioned...Deems Taylor Award on those grounds alone imo!

The guy might have some quirks, but he tells no lies, nor does he make shit up in the interest of mythology. Hooray for Bob Porter!!!

[Mark Stryker]

I'll be getting this (of course). Quick question: Is there any discussion about Detroit specifically?

[JSngry]

Not particularly...A general mention or two as point of origin of some of the usual suspects, not much more.

It's mostly a book about records, radio, bookings, and the people who made all that work.

[Mark Stryker]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 10:46 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Not particularly...A general mention or two as point of origin of some of the usual suspects, not much more.

It's mostly a book about records, radio, bookings, and the people who made all that work.

Not at amazon.de yet, unfortunately.

And that half-price offer via Superbooksdeals is no longer on amazon.de either. (BTW, @Dan Gould, did they confirm your order?)

But as a paperback copy from amazon.com would have been almost the same price (including shipping from the US) as a hardcover copy bought here, I pre-ordered the book anyway and will be keeping my fingers crossed they will get it in stock before long.

 

 

Thanks. I met Porter maybe five or six years ago when he came to the Detroit Jazz Festival to give a presentation. I ended up sharing a table with him and his wife at a media brunch and found him really genuine and open. I grilled him about Gene Ammons (one of my heroes), who he knew really well, and the kinds of things he told me were rooted in the invaluable perspective you describe from the book -- things like Jug had a different repertoire and approach depending on whether he was playing on the "north" or "south" sides of town, which meant the largely white, more formal clubs (north) and largely black, neighborhood joints (south). I came away thinking the only way to really understanding the totality of that music was to have heard in live as a part of those social scenes. I mean, you can transcribe it, analyze it, copy it, assimilate it, but musicology only takes you so far. Of course, if you can't transcribe it, analyze it, etc, then sociology will only take you so far too. Two sides of a coin. 

[JSngry]

Al Sears, y'all.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

From the movie ROCK ROCK ROCK

Can be found on this ...

 

or this ... (depending on which pressing you can - or want to - get hold of)

 

 

[JSngry]

 

[JSngry]

 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

See what you miss if you don't come here (embarrassed grin).

Just ordered it.

MG

See what you miss if you don't come here (embarrassed grin).

Just ordered it.

MG

[BillF]

2 hours ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

See what you miss if you don't come here (embarrassed grin).

Just ordered it.

MG

See what you miss if you don't come here (embarrassed grin).

Just ordered it.

MG

Two copies!!

[Big Beat Steve]

8 hours ago, BillF said:

Two copies!!

I just about managed to avoid that myself ...

After having ordered the book on amazon.de and waiting for more than one week for it to become available (it had been listed as being "currently unavailable" both in the hardback and the paperback version) I finally ordered a paperback copy from amazon.com on the 23rd. And when I then cancelled my hardback order on amazon.de (not wanting to end up with two copies) I found that in the meantime the paperback version (which surprisingly is more expensive than the hardback version over here) had gone "in stock" there (the day before it had still been unavilable). Oh well .. gotta wait longer now for the copy from the US to ship and arrive ...

 

Edited December 25, 2016 by Big Beat Steve

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, I’ve got this book now and finished reading it today.

You all know Soul Jazz is MY music, so no one should be surprised that I think it’s the best book on jazz I’ve ever read.

There’s not a lot in it that’s new to me, as I’ve got a lot (if not all) of the records by the main Soul Jazz artists. But it’s VERY well put together, in my view. There are very useful discussions at the right times of developments in the record and radio industries, and in sports and legislation, which are vital to understanding the social background against which Soul Jazz developed. It contains perhaps not quite enough about record producers, DJs, distributors. But that may be a personal prejudice, because I’ve always been more interested in those guys than in musicians themselves. But it’s the first music history that has treated music as if it were what it really is; a part of society which has no valuable existence independent of the society it comes from and serves.

And he makes an important point on timing that I’d failed to notice before. In the late fifties and early sixties, four black guys moved into very influential positions in some of the leading record companies dealing in jazz: record producers Esmond Edwards at Prestige; Syd McCoy at Vee-Jay; and musicians Ike Quebec at Blue Note; and Cannonball Adderley at Riverside. I’d always noted the conjunction between Edwards and Quebec, but hadn’t put it together with the others. Only Atlantic and Chess lacked black advocates for jazz, and Edwards moved from Prestige to Argo in 1962.

I think this is interesting. Porter is not, in my view, saying that white people can’t produce great black music records. No one would be so foolish as to make such an assertion as the vast preponderance of great black music recorded in the forty years since the recovery from the Great Depression really got under way was recorded by small firms owned by white people. But those four guys in key positions were clued into black society in a way that enabled them to appreciate more immediately what was going on and gaining in popularity (and potential profitability) than the generally white owners of those companies. They made a big difference to the kind of jazz musicians brought into the studios. And I’ve found that a fascinating conjunction to have thrust down my throat.

Also, there’s discussion of a few people I’ve ignored, for example Jonah Jones. So it’s a quick trip to Discogs to find out what he did and then see what I can pick up around and about.

I only noticed one error. It was so slight and unimportant (the number of albums someone made for some label) that I didn’t make a note of it and can’t now find it.

What has disappointed me about the book is that there’s no discussion about Soul Jazz vocalists.

To briefly list the most important Soul Jazz vocalists: Etta Jones; Gloria Lynne; Esther Phillips; Arthur Prysock; Lou Rawls; Della Reese; Irene Reid; Little Jimmy Scott; Dakota Staton; and Nancy Wilson.

Rawls doesn’t get a mention. Lynne, Reese, Reid and Staton all get mentioned in a list of lady singers on the Soul Jazz circuit. Prysock gets seven mentions, Jones and Wilson five, and Phillips and Scott four. That is not very much at all about very important artists, not obscurities.

What makes those singers Soul Jazz singers and Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and, on the other side, Etta James and Jimmy Witherspoon not? I don't really know and would like to find out. I KNOW Bob knows more about this than I do and I’d hoped to learn.

But that said, I’m really glad Bob wrote it, and glad I read it. Thank you Bob.

MG