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Which jazz book are you reading right now?


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Just ordered a copy of this one. By all accounts an outstanding biography of an elusive legend who disappeared in 2000 and remains to this day on the missing list with still no real leads.

I saw him, unexpectedly, in what must have been, based on the timings, a very late performance in his career (PJ Perry Quintet). Even by then a legendary figure, a bit of a buzz went round the house and I have to say, I was impressed. Remember the permanent cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

Edited by sidewinder
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On 12/10/2020 at 5:58 PM, Gheorghe said:

My father bought me this for Chrismas in 1978. This was my second jazz book after the Joachim Ernst Behrend book. I still like it very much. Arrigo Polillo really had a lot to say and he met many great musicians and had a lot of inside infos......

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It was the Jazz Bible over here back then, the first Jazz Book I had, lost it somewhere in my many movings. There are other excellent books of an italian critic, and photographer, about the history of jazz, never translated ASIK, Gian Carlo Roncaglia.

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Yesterday I finished "Fading To Blue" by Bill Moody. This is a mystery novel in the series featuring a fictional jazz piano player named Evan Horne.  I have read the entire series of (as I recall) 7 books. Moody died a year or so ago, so there will be no more Evan Horne books.

I enjoyed all the books in the series.

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Still perusing this one for the umpteenth time ... (alternating with smaller doses of listening to and reading Allen Lowe's "Turn Me Loose White Man") ...

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... and still marveling at the photographs and the ad graphics but still a bit underwhelmed by some of the interviews ...

But today a parcel arrived with a bunch of secondhand jazz books bought (at prices too good to pass up) from duplicates sold off by a national jazz archive. So which one to choose next? ;)

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So there will be new reading matter in case another longish lockdown should be looming. (The yellow abstract cover at the bottom left belongs to the German edition of Sidney Finkelstein's "Jazz - A People's Music")

 

 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Still perusing this one for the umpteenth time ... (alternating with smaller doses of listening to and reading Allen Lowe's "Turn Me Loose White Man") ...

40283499uu.jpg

... and still marveling at the photographs and the ad graphics but still a bit underwhelmed by some of the interviews ...

But today a parcel arrived with a bunch of secondhand jazz books bought (at prices too good to pass up) from duplicates sold off by a national jazz archive. So which one to choose next? ;)

40283501nj.jpg

So there will be new reading matter in case another longish lockdown should be looming. (The yellow abstract cover at the bottom left belongs to the German edition of Sidney Finkelstein's "Jazz - A People's Music")

 

 

Finkelstein! Haven't heard of that one for decades! I read it when I was 18. Certainly a good corrective to the ultra-blinkered Rex Harris, Jazz, which I'd read the year before.

I seem to recall that I thought the Finkelstein was a Marxist interpretation of the music.

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2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

You may have seen that this book has already been discussed here:

That thread (particularly the final page of the thread) may also explain my above comments on the book to some extent. ;)

 

Yes, I have read that thread. I just thought about maybe some time I´ll buy that book, or put it on a wish list for some occasion.

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Delighted to get hold of a copy of this one. Especially with a new Taylor release on the horizon.

Board member Clifford gets another honourable mention in the text.

Tadd Dameron bio also on order and arriving in a couple of days. Slowly working my way through the list of books I needed to get.  :)

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On 12/29/2020 at 11:00 AM, BillF said:

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I read that one. Fascinating information about his earlier years and career. Not quite so good, I thought, about his full-time band leading career from 1966 onwards.  But overall a good read.  

 

Reading now:

 

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Mark Miller is a fine writer. 

 

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2 hours ago, John Tapscott said:

I read that one. Fascinating information about his earlier years and career. Not quite so good, I thought, about his full-time band leading career from 1966 onwards.  But overall a good read.  

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, Buddy's later story became more a list of gigs, etc. (What, Ronnie's again!) I guess as with most people routine set in, leaving, sadly, the only drama his health crises. :(

Interesting to read the author's take on stories I'd heard as word of mouth when they happened, e.g. Buddy's accelerating anger as they travelled further and further from London into the depths of the countryside to reach the Maltings gig. Also, his deathbed humour about being allergic to country music was good to hear again. :lol:

All in all, what a f-----g character!

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Jon-Gordon-Jazz-Dialogues-feature-1200x8 I am currently reading this book, which follows his excellent biography (For Sue) of his mother and his own unusual life growing up with a single, unstable parent. This collection of interviews and remembrances is fairly freewheeling, where the interviews seem transcribed with little editing, though he does ask insightful questions that a non-musician might overlook. Part of the value of the book is that in addition to talking to many greats, sometimes in a brief recollection of a long ago conversation versus a recorded interview, Gordon also chats with a number of deserving artists who are under the radar. 

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