Favorite jazz books of 2009

[ajf67]

Just finished "Death of a Bebop Wife" and it was as advertised above. A definite organizational mess, and it really needed an editor, even if just for punctuation. But it did succeed in painting a portrait of Al Haig, and it seemed very honest and credible to me. Rutan didn't seem to have an ax to grind, and Haig is allowed to emerge through the oral histories with what seems like an authentic complexity. It HAD to be hard to be this guy's friend, but he could play. Also, the oral histories are great for history beyond just that associated with Haig, as they cover what was going on at the time, with good discussion of the music. Definitely order it from Cadence though, because the amazon prices are absurd.

[fomafomic65]

I'd like to read Szwed's Miles bio myself--thanks for reminding me of it.

The most enjoyable Miles book of the several I've read. Szwed's one a hell of a good writer (IMHO).

Have you read his Sun Ra biography? That one was immensely helpful to me when I was putting together the "Second Magic City" show about Sun Ra's Chicago years.

Indeed Ghost. That book has plenty of love and respect for all the SUn Ra bizzarre complexity. No wonder Szwed is an Anthropologist... I never forget that whole page and more list of all the weird names under whose Ra and his groups played in their career.

[AllenLowe]

re: Haig - honestly, his friendship when I knew him (post 1976) was not difficult, though reading that book was something of a shocker. He was steadfast, reliable, and considerate when I knew him. I think a lot of what happened was related to alcohol abuse. I especially think this because of Curley Russell's accounts of Al being the straightest guy in the world during the early 52nd Street Bird days ("he used to go home to New Jersey every night right after the gig", Curley told me). On the other hand, clearly, from what people have reported (see Phil Woods and Chan's accounts of his liquored-up visits) there was something going on aside from just the booze; though I'm sure that accentuated the problem.

I disagree about whether Grange Rutan has an agenda, much as I like her - for just one instance, one person mentioned in the book was described to me (by Grange) as senile and out of touch; a subsequent conversation I had with this person told me otherwise, that she was fine and happy and completely in possesion of her faculties. This made me distrust some other things I read, though I still find the book to be a fascinating funhouse account of the weirdnesses of a whole generation of musicians, not just Al.

Edited August 18, 2010 by AllenLowe