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July 15, 2005
TT: Words to the wise
Bill Kirchner, editor of The Oxford Companion to Jazz, writes:In the fall of 2000, The Oxford Companion to Jazz was published--864 pages long, with 60 essays by 59 distinguished musicians, scholars, and critics. In 2001, the Jazz Journalists Association voted it "Best Jazz Book" of the year. And it received over 50 reviews worldwide, about 90 percent of them positive. My favorite "review," though, came from composer-arranger Johnny Mandel, who remarked: "Putting this book together must have been like being contractor for the Ellington band."
I'm pleased to announce that this month, the Companion has just become available in a new paperback edition, complete with a number of small additions and corrections. It can be purchased in bookstores internationally as well as from a variety of Internet outlets. At, I might add, an even more reasonable price than previously: $29.95 U.S. (retail).
If you haven't yet checked out this book (which a number of schools have used as a textbook), I hope that the following list of essays and contributors will serve as encouragement.
- "African Roots of Jazz"--Samuel A. Floyd, Jr.
- "European Roots of Jazz"--William H. Youngren
- "Ragtime Then and Now"--Max Morath
- "The Early Origins of Jazz"--Jeff Taylor
- "New York Roots: Black Broadway, James Reese Europe, Early Pianists"--Thomas L. Riis
- "The Blues in Jazz"--Bob Porter
- "Bessie Smith"--Chris Albertson
- "King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet: Ménage à Trois, New Orleans Style"--Bruce Boyd Raeburn
- "Louis Armstrong"--Dan Morgenstern
- "Bix Beiderbecke"--Digby Fairweather
- "Duke Ellington"--Mark Tucker
- "Hot Music in the 1920s: The 'Jazz Age,' Appearances and Realities"--Richard M. Sudhalter
- "Pianists of the 1920s and 1930s"--Henry Martin
- "Coleman Hawkins"--Kenny Berger
- "Lester Young"--Loren Schoenberg
- "Major Soloists of the 1930s and 1940s"--John McDonough
- "Jazz Singing: Between Blues and Bebop"--Joel E. Siegel
- "Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday"--Patricia Willard
- "Jazz and the American Song"--Gene Lees
- "Pre-Swing Era Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging"--James T. Maher and Jeffrey Sultanof
- "Swing Era Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging"--Max Harrison
- "The Advent of Bebop"--Scott DeVeaux
- "The New Orleans Revival"--Richard Hadlock
- "Charlie Parker"--James Patrick
- "Cool Jazz and West Coast Jazz"--Ted Gioia
- "Jazz and Classical Music: To the Third Stream and Beyond"--Terry Teachout
- "Pianists of the 1940s and 1950s"--Dick Katz
- "Hard Bop"--Gene Seymour
- "Miles Davis"--Bob Belden
- "Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging After World War II"--Doug Ramsey
- "Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus"--Brian Priestley
- "John Coltrane"--Lewis Porter
- "The Avant-Garde, 1949-1967"--Lawrence Kart
- "Pianists of the 1960s and 1970s"--Bob Blumenthal
- "Jazz Singing Since the 1940s"--Will Friedwald
- "Jazz Since 1968"--Peter Keepnews
- "Fusion"--Bill Milkowski
- "Jazz Repertory"--Jeffrey Sultanof
- "Latin Jazz"--Gene Santoro
- "Jazz in Europe: The Real World Music...or The Full Circle"--Mike Zwerin
- "Jazz and Brazilian Music"--Stephanie L. Stein Crease
- "Jazz in Africa: The Ins and Outs"--Howard Mandel
- "Jazz in Japan"--Kiyoshi Koyama
- "Jazz in Canada and Australia"--Terry Martin
- "The Clarinet in Jazz"--Michael Ullman
- "The Saxophone in Jazz"--Don Heckman
- "The Trumpet in Jazz"--Randy Sandke
- "The Trombone in Jazz"--Gunther Schuller
- "The Electric Guitar and Vibraphone in Jazz: Batteries Not Included"--Neil Tesser
- "Miscellaneous Instruments in Jazz"--Christopher Washburne
- "The Bass in Jazz"--Bill Crow
- "Jazz Drumming"--Burt Korall
- "Jazz and Dance"--Robert P. Crease
- "Jazz and Film and Television"--Chuck Berg
- "Jazz Clubs"--Vincent Pelote
- "Jazz and American Literature"--Gerald Early
- "Jazz Criticism"--Ron Welburn
- "Jazz Education"--Charles Beale
- "Recorded Jazz"--Dan Morgenstern
- "Jazz Improvisation and Concepts of Virtuosity"--David Demsey
To order a paperback copy of the revised and corrected Oxford Companion to Jazz, go here. Even if you don't like my chapter (of which I'm actually quite proud), it's still worth every cent.
Posted July 15, 2005 12:03 PM
