Saturday, January 21, 2012

Books: Jazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz [Paperback]


Author: John Szwed

Description
Anyone interested in learning about a distinct musicjazzwill welcome this newest addition to the popular 101 reference series. Noted anthropologist, critic, and musical scholar John F. Szwed takes readers on a tour of the musics tangled history and explores how it developed from an ethnic music to become North Americas most popular music and then part of the avant garde in less than fifty years. Jazz 101 presents the key figures, history, theory, and controversies that shaped its development, along with a discussion of some of its most important recordings.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Hyperion (August 23, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786884967
ISBN-13: 978-0786884964
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 1 inches

Editorial Review About the Author ~amazon.com
John F. Szwed is currently a professor of anthropology, African and African-American studies, music, and American studies at Yale University. He has written eight books on music and African-American culture and numerous articles and reviews on related subjects. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship. He lives in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Customer Reviews:
By C. Williamson (USA) ~amazon.com
Those who really want an excellent book on the history of jazz should eschew Ken Burns' incomplete doorstop of a picture book and turn to John F. Szwed's compact and comprehensive volume. In only a little over 300 pages, Szwed succinctly and skilfully covers the entire spectrum of jazz, offering the reader everything and looking askance at nothing. Though opinionated at times (and who could not be, writing a book of this sort), Szwed is never judgmental, and his knowledge of the field and its many aspects is broad and sweeping without seeming superficial. And please note that this isn't just a book for jazz newbies -- I've been a jazz fan for many years, with a huge collection of records, CDs and books, and I still learned a lot. Szwed's illuminative sidebars on individual songs and albums had me pulling out some old favorites and hearing them with fresh ears. This volume belongs on the shelf of every jazz buff.

More Details & Buy »» ~amazon.com

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