4thace reviewed How to listen to jazz by Ted Gioia
A good starting point for listeners who might be interested
4 stars
This book goes all the way back before jazz itself was a genre up to the 2010s, providing an overview that even most aficionados are unlikely to be familiar with. The author writes with enthusiasm about the things a newcomer would want to know - where jazz had its stat, who was influential in changing the direction it would go, the kinds of audiences that listened to early jazz both live and recorded, the waves of re-creation it went through during the mid-century decodes as new players reacted to what went before. The author is a well known music journalist whose articles and books have won him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association. He has performed himself on piano and writes here about the struggles a practicing musician typically finds keeping up with ever increasing new ideas in the art form. He does not dive deep into …
This book goes all the way back before jazz itself was a genre up to the 2010s, providing an overview that even most aficionados are unlikely to be familiar with. The author writes with enthusiasm about the things a newcomer would want to know - where jazz had its stat, who was influential in changing the direction it would go, the kinds of audiences that listened to early jazz both live and recorded, the waves of re-creation it went through during the mid-century decodes as new players reacted to what went before. The author is a well known music journalist whose articles and books have won him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association. He has performed himself on piano and writes here about the struggles a practicing musician typically finds keeping up with ever increasing new ideas in the art form. He does not dive deep into music theory beyond a description of the most prevalent song forms. Nor does he try to be an encyclopedic source, concentrating on getting the newcomer excited about what they will be able to find. Nearly all the greats of jazz are mentioned by name and a brief sketch of their important contributions is provided for the reader to explore further through listening.
I had been hoping the audiobook version would have had some audio segments to go along with the points the author was making, but no such luck. There isn't an official companion recording with all the suggested listening, but when I looked I found many of them on streaming sites in the form of playlists users have compiled. I think that reading this as a physical book or ebook along with the downloadable pdf list of recent musicians worth paying attention to would actually be more convenient that the audiobook format.
