Author: Paul F. Berliner
Description
Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology | Publication Date: October 17, 1994
A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea.
The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world, Thinking in Jazz combines participant observation with detailed musicological analysis, the author's experience as a jazz trumpeter, interpretations of published material by scholars and performers, and, above all, original data from interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Together, the interviews provide insight into the production of jazz by great artists like Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.
Thinking in Jazz overflows with musical examples from the 1920s to the present, including original transcriptions (keyed to commercial recordings) of collective improvisations by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's groups. These transcriptions provide additional insight into the structure and creativity of jazz improvisation and represent a remarkable resource for jazz musicians as well as students and educators.
Berliner explores the alternative ways—aural, visual, kinetic, verbal, emotional, theoretical, associative—in which these performers conceptualize their music and describes the delicate interplay of soloist and ensemble in collective improvisation. Berliner's skillful integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside of performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic, and a tradition. This unprecedented journey to the heart of the jazz tradition will fascinate and enlighten musicians, musicologists, and jazz fans alike.
Product Details
Paperback: 904 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 17, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226043819
ISBN-13: 978-0226043814
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.9 inches
Editorial Reviews: ~amazon.com
From Library Journal
This will certainly be the definitive source on improvisational jazz. A leader in the field, Berliner (ethnomusicology, Northwestern) covers all aspects of improvisation as art form, science, and way of life. Cutting no corners, he includes a vast range of article topics (from inspiration and arrangements to evaluation and audience interaction), music texts (from the 1920s to the present), artist interviews, and disc-, video-, and bibliographies. Of the caliber of Grove's Dictionary of Music, this book is no less important to any serious music collection. Practicing musicians will be satisfied by the text and musical examples, while lay readers will come to understand the significance of jazz in American history and culture. This extraordinary accomplishment is well worth the investment for all academic and large public libraries.
Cynthia Ann Cordes, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Paul F. Berliner is professor of ethnomusicology at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Soul of Mbira, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and is the recipient of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award for outstanding writing in music.
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