New Book on Fred Anderson, the Velvet Lounge

[Lazaro Vega]

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/dat.../023113682X.HTM

The Velvet Lounge

On Late Chicago Jazz

Gerald Majer

"Gerald Majer's propulsive, rhythmic essays celebrate the history and spirit of jazz. Like a seasoned improviser, he varies and syncopates his delivery, casting rim-shot fragments against long, slalomlike sentences—pushing, probing, and staying on the run through fast-track narrative and lyric measure. The prose fluidly shifts between earthy vernacular and reflective mood swing. And yet Majer's technical gifts as an essayist never betray or eclipse the emotional heart of these engaging, memorable meditations."

—Sascha Feinstein, author, Misterioso; editor, Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz and Literature

"The Velvet Lounge is a book like none other. Part memoir, part homage, Gerald Majer's remarkable odyssey through the world of late Chicago jazz is a haunted, vertiginous account of both the music and the lives it was made from. This is finally a book about soul—no, about the soul—rapt by essence and experiment. Majer writes with an exhilarating passion and a rare elegance, and his book is sure to be a classic."

—J. D. McClatchy, author of Hazmat: Poems

"Interesting descriptions of the jazz scene emerge--most notably in the chapter on the Velvet Lounge."

—Library Journal

"His descriptions actually make you want to hear again--or listen to for the first time--the music described."

—Ken Waxman, jazzword.com

"A quietly visionary autobiography, the story of a life and of a complex, ugly/beautiful city."

—Sunday Herald

"Far closer to capturing the experience of listening to music than any jazz book you've read this year."

—Matthew Lurie

"He is a virtuoso writer, wrapping the reader in his lush descriptions of concerts."

—Elizabeth Hoover, Chicago Tribune

"A quietly visionary autobiography, the story of a life and of a complex, ugly/beautiful city."

—Brian Morton, Sunday Herald (Scotland)

"A deeply moving memoir in tune with the rhythms of jazz music itself and its influence on American society."

—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

"A deeply moving memoir in tune with the rhythms of music itself and its influence on society."

—James A. Cox

Troubled urban neighborhoods and jazz-club havens were the backdrop of Gerald Majer's life growing up in sixties and seventies Chicago. The Velvet Lounge, an original hybrid of memoir, biography, and musical description, reflects this history and pursues a sustained meditation on jazz along with a probing exploration of race and class and how they defined the material and psychic divides of a city. With the instrument of a supple, lyrical prose style, Majer elaborates the book's themes through literary and intellectual forays as carefully constructed and as passionately articulated as a jazz master's solo. Throughout the work, issues of identity and culture, art and politics achieve a rare immediacy, as does the music itself.

In portraits of Jimmy Smith, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Sun Ra, and others, Gerald Majer conveys the drama and artistry of their music as well as the personal hardships many of them endured. Vivid descriptions and telling historical anecdotes explore the music's richness through a variety of political, social, and philosophical contexts. The Velvet Lounge, named after the famous Chicago club, is also one of the few works to consider the music of such avant-garde jazz musicians as Fred Anderson, Andrew Hill, and Roscoe Mitchell. In doing so, Majer builds a bridge from the traditionalist view of jazz to the world of contemporary innovators, casts a new light on the music and its makers, and traces connections between jazz art and postmodernist thought.

Present throughout Majer's spirited encounters with the worlds of jazz is Majer himself. We hear and appreciate the music through his individual sensibilities and experiences. Majer recounts growing up in racially divided Chicago—his trips to the famed Maxwell Street market, his wanderings among its legendary jazz clubs, his riding the El, and his working in a jukebox factory. We witness his awakening to the music at a crossroads of the intimately personal and the intellectually provocative.

Contents

Jug Eyes

Stitt's Time

Proxima Ra

Monstrosioso

Batterie

The Velvet Lounge

Le Serpent Qui Danse

Dreaming of Roscoe Mitchell

Intuitive Research Beings

Discography

About the Author

Gerald Majer is professor of English at Villa Julie College. His poetry and essays have appeared in a variety of journals including, Callaloo, The Georgia Review, and The Yale Review.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Lazaro Vega

[ghost of miles]

Sounds great! I'll definitely check this out--thanks for posting it, Lazaro. Love reading about Chicago jazz history... The author of the first plug, Sascha Feinstein, did his graduate work here at IU. His journal BRILLIANT CORNERS is a good read for those interested in jazz essays, fiction, and poetry.

[sheldonm]

This has been out for at least 8 months or so....picked it up and read it while in San Francisco last August. It's really a book about Chicago jazz, not just the Velvet.....I found it a strange read....a little disjointed to me.....probably just not my favorite style of writing.

m~