As the new century loomed, it was an honor when Bill Kirchner asked me to contibute to a book he was editing. It turned out to be one of the most significant anthologies ever published about jazz. Now Kirchner announces that the book is entering its next stage of life. Here’s his message.<\/p>\n
In the fall of 2000, The Oxford Companion to Jazz <\/em>was published\u00e2\u20ac\u201d864 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.”
\nI’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).
\nIf 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.
\n1) African Roots of Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dSamuel A. Floyd, Jr.
\n2) European Roots of Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dWilliam H. Youngren
\n3) Ragtime Then and Now\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMax Morath
\n4) The Early Origins of Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJeff Taylor
\n5) New York Roots: Black Broadway, James Reese Europe, Early Pianists\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThomas L. Riis
\n6) The Blues in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBob Porter
\n7) Bessie Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dChris Albertson
\n8) King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet: M\u00c3\u00a9nage \u00c3\u00a0 Trois, New Orleans Style\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBruce Boyd Raeburn
\n9) Louis Armstrong\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDan Morgenstern
\n10) Bix Beiderbecke\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDigby Fairweather
\n11) Duke Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMark Tucker
\n12) Hot Music in the 1920s: The “Jazz Age,” Appearances and Realities\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRichard M. Sudhalter
\n13) Pianists of the 1920s and 1930s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHenry Martin
\n14) Coleman Hawkins\u00e2\u20ac\u201dKenny Berger
\n15) Lester Young\u00e2\u20ac\u201dLoren Schoenberg
\n16) Major Soloists of the 1930s and 1940s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJohn McDonough
\n17) Jazz Singing: Between Blues and Bebop\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJoel E. Siegel
\n18) Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday\u00e2\u20ac\u201dPatricia Willard
\n19) Jazz and the American Song\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGene Lees
\n20) Pre-Swing Era Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJames T.Maher & Jeffrey Sultanof
\n21) Swing Era Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMax Harrison
\n22) The Advent of Bebop\u00e2\u20ac\u201dScott DeVeaux
\n23) The New Orleans Revival\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRichard Hadlock
\n24) Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJames Patrick
\n25) Cool Jazz and West Coast Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dTed Gioia
\n26) Jazz and Classical Music: To the Third Stream and Beyond\u00e2\u20ac\u201dTerry Teachout
\n27) Pianists of the 1940s and 1950s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDick Katz
\n28) Hard Bop\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGene Seymour
\n29) Miles Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBob Belden
\n30) Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging After World War II\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoug Ramsey
\n31) Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBrian Priestley
\n32) John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u201dLewis Porter
\n33) The Avant-Garde, 1949-1967\u00e2\u20ac\u201dLawrence Kart
\n34) Pianists of the 1960s and 1970s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBob Blumenthal
\n35) Jazz Singing Since the 1940s\u00e2\u20ac\u201dWill Friedwald
\n36) Jazz Since 1968\u00e2\u20ac\u201dPeter Keepnews
\n37) Fusion\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBill Milkowski
\n38) Jazz Repertory\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJeffrey Sultanof
\n39) Latin Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGene Santoro
\n40) Jazz in Europe: The Real World Music…or The Full Circle\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMike Zwerin
\n41) Jazz and Brazilian Music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dStephanie L. Stein Crease
\n42) Jazz in Africa: The Ins and Outs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHoward Mandel
\n43) Jazz in Japan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dKiyoshi Koyama
\n44) Jazz in Canada and Australia\u00e2\u20ac\u201dTerry Martin
\n45) The Clarinet in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMichael Ullman
\n46) The Saxophone in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDon Heckman
\n47) The Trumpet in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRandy Sandke
\n48) The Trombone in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGunther Schuller
\n49) The Electric Guitar and Vibraphone in Jazz: Batteries Not Included\u00e2\u20ac\u201dNeil Tesser
\n50) Miscellaneous Instruments in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dChristopher Washburne
\n51) The Bass in Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBill Crow
\n52) Jazz Drumming\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBurt Korall
\n53) Jazz and Dance\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRobert P. Crease
\n54) Jazz and Film and Television\u00e2\u20ac\u201dChuck Berg
\n55) Jazz Clubs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dVincent Pelote
\n56) Jazz and American Literature\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGerald Early
\n57) Jazz Criticism\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRon Welburn
\n58) Jazz Education\u00e2\u20ac\u201dCharles Beale
\n59) Recorded Jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDan Morgenstern
\n60) Jazz Improvisation and Concepts of Virtuosity\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDavid Demsey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n