Fifties Jazz Talk

More than 25 muscians who first came to prominence during the 1950s are the subject of this collection of interviews. The author's purpose has been to help preserve the oral history of a great American artform, and this book reveals that jazz musicians who can 'tell a story' with their horn when improvising can be just as articulate in conversation.

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet, founded in Los Angeles in 1952, was widely acclaimed as the first small ensemble in jazz that did not include a chordal instrument such as a piano or guitar. Using original scores and detailed transcriptions of Mulligan's early work, The Gerry Mulligan 1950s Quartets offers an intimate look at Mulligan's musical development from his teenage years to adulthood, analyzing the ways in which his compositions and arrangements evolved through collaborations with Elliot Lawrence, Gene Krupa, and Claude Thornhill, culminating with Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool nonet. Featuring original interviews with Mulligan's associates, author Alyn Shipton presents a fresh take on Mulligan's harmonic creativity, in the process tracing the ups and downs of Mulligan's personal life, heroin addiction, imprisonment, and eventual sobriety.

A visual history of America’s jazz nightclubs of the 1940s and 1950s, featuring exclusive interviews and over 200 souvenir photos. In the two decades before the Civil Rights movement, jazz nightclubs were among the first places that opened their doors to both Black and white performers and club goers in Jim Crow America. In this extraordinary collection, Grammy Award-winning record executive and music historian Jeff Gold looks back at this explosive moment in the history of Jazz and American culture, and the spaces at the center of artistic and social change. Sittin’ In is a visual history of jazz clubs during these crucial decades when some of the greatest names in in the genre—Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, and many others—were headlining acts across the country. In many of the clubs, Black and white musicians played together and more significantly, people of all races gathered together to enjoy an evening’s entertainment. House photographers roamed the floor and for a dollar, took picture of patrons that were developed on site and could be taken home in a keepsake folder with the club’s name and logo. Sittin’ In tells the story of the most popular club in these cities through striking images, first-hand anecdotes, true tales about the musicians who performed their unforgettable shows, notes on important music recorded live there, and more. All of this is supplemented by colorful club memorabilia, including posters, handbills, menus, branded matchbooks, and more. Inside you’ll also find exclusive, in-depth interviews conducted specifically for this book with the legendary Quincy Jones; jazz great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins; Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan; jazz musician and creative director of the Kennedy Center, Jason Moran; and jazz critic Dan Morgenstern. Gold surveys America’s jazz scene and its intersection with racism during segregation, focusing on three crucial regions: the East Coast (New York, Atlantic City, Boston, Washington, D.C.); the Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City); and the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). This collection of ephemeral snapshots tells the story of an era that helped transform American life, beginning the move from traditional Dixieland jazz to bebop, from conservatism to the push for personal freedom.

In Experiencing Jazz: A Listener’s Companion, writer, teacher, and renowned jazz drummer Michael Stephans offers a much-needed survey in the art of listening to and enjoying this dynamic, ever-changing art form. More than mere entertainment, jazz provides a pleasurable and sometimes dizzying listening experience with an extensive range in structure and form, from the syncopated swing of big bands to the musical experimentalism of small combos. As Stephans illustrates, listeners and jazz artists often experience the essence of the music together—an experience unique in the world of music. Experiencing Jazz demonstrates how the act of listening to jazz takes place on a deeply personal level and takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the genre, instrument by instrument—offering not only brief portraits of key musicians like Joe Lovano and John Scofield, but also their own commentaries on how best to experience the music they create. Throughout, jazz takes center stage as a personal transaction that enriches the lives of both musician and listener. Written for anyone curious about the genre, this book encourages further reading, listening, and viewing, helping potential listeners cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the jazz art and how it can help—in drummer Art Blakey’s words—“wash away the dust of everyday life.”

With a foreword by Joe Lovano, an oral biography of the preeminent alto saxophonist of cool jazz

Timme Rosenkrantz (1911-1969) was a journalist, author, concert and record producer, broadcaster, and entrepreneur with a consuming passion for jazz and little head for business. He was the first European journalist to cover the jazz scene in Harlem from 1934 to 1969. In this English translation and adaptation of the original Danish-language memoir published in 1964, Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron's Memoir, 1934-1969 recounts Rosenkrantz's happy stranding in New York City, where he would record jazz artists and bands in his midtown apartment, organize his own jazz band, and run a record shop with his life companion, the black journalist and singer Inez Cavanaugh. Jazz lovers and social historians interested in the intersection of race and the music business will find in Rosenkrantz's memoir an invaluable primary source on Harlem's social scene and its musical legacy.

Learning Jazz: Jazz Education, History, and Public Pedagogy addresses a debate that has consumed practitioners and advocates since the music's early days. Studies on jazz learning typically focus on one of two methods: institutional education or the kinds of informal mentoring relationships long associated with the tradition. Ken Prouty argues that this distinction works against a common identity for audiences and communities. Rather, what happens within the institution impacts—and is impacted by—events and practices outside institutional contexts. While formal institutions are well-defined in educational and civic contexts, informal institutions have profoundly influenced the development of jazz and its discourses. Drawing on historical case studies, Prouty details significant moments in jazz history. He examines the ways that early method books capitalized on a new commercial market, commandeering public expertise about the music. Chapters also discuss critic Paul Eduard Miller and his attempts to develop a jazz canon, as well as the disconnect between the spotlighted “great men” and the everyday realities of artists. Tackling race in jazz education, Prouty explores the intersections between identity and assessment; bandleaders Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson; public school segregation; Jazz at Lincoln Center; and more. He further examines jazz’s “public pedagogy,” and the sometimes-difficult relationships between “jazz people” and the general public. Ultimately, Learning Jazz posits that there is room for both institutional and noninstitutional forces in the educational realm of jazz.