I don't generally pick up ranking and survey books, but in the case of Ratliff, I should make an exception. He's one of my favorite writers on music in general, so I'm sure he has plenty of insights I'll find interesting.

I look forward to hearing what you think of it, CfA.

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quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate:
I don't generally pick up ranking and survey books, but in the case of Ratliff, I should make an exception. He's one of my favorite writers on music in general, so I'm sure he has plenty of insights I'll find interesting.

I look forward to hearing what you think of it, CfA.

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I'm about two-thirds of the way through Ratliff's book and, while well done, it is geared more for the jazz novice than for someone like myself who has been listening to jazz and reading about jazz for more than 20 years. It would be a great book for someone just getting started in jazz who needs some guidance about where to start building a collection. Ratliff's choices also raise a few eyebrows.

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisFromAstoria:
Ratliff's choices also raise a few eyebrows.

Do tell!

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quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate:

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisFromAstoria:
Ratliff's choices also raise a few eyebrows.

Do tell!

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions Vol. 3

Stan Kenton: New Concepts of Artistry

Louis Jordan: Let the Good Times Roll

Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake: The Newest Sounds Around

Evan Parker: Monoceros

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisFromAstoria:
Ratliff's choices also raise a few eyebrows.

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions Vol. 3

Stan Kenton: New Concepts of Artistry

Louis Jordan: Let the Good Times Roll

Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake: The Newest Sounds Around

Evan Parker: Monoceros

Huh. It's hard to comment without having read Ratliff's justification, but several of those are indeed brow-raising.

My knee-jerk reactions are:

I buy the Kenton without reservation, but I've come down on the Kenton-as-undersung-genius side of any controversy over him, so I'm hardly objective.

I also love Evan Parker, but would be curious to see how he approaches the avant-garde as a whole (quantity and quality) to justify what I would consider a good, but somewhat obscure record.

I've never been the biggest Ran Blake fan, so I can't say that I know The Newest Sound Around well enough to comment intelligently, but I expect I'll pick up a copy just to find out, which is what still makes survey and list texts valuable in the end.

Wills and Jordan are going to be the hard ones to sell for me. I love them both, but question the degree to which they had an influence on jazz rather than vice versa. If we're just picking good records, one might just as easily pick Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in the former case and several of Earl Bostic's King sides in the latter. After all, Bostic was widley acknowledged as a virtuoso if not influence on musicians including Charlie Parker and his band hosted Coltrane briefly.

As I say, though, without the context of Ratliff's take on them, I'd best be prepared to eat each and every one of these words. I'm intrigued though and very grateful for the feedback as always, CfA.

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I'm not a fan of organ combos, but Ratliff's choice was to include a Baby Face Willette disc. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but I would think that is you were going to record an organ combo selection, it would have been something by Jimmy Smith, who essentially invented the genre. Willette's claim to fame is his obscurity. No one knows whatever became of him.

Yeah. That's going to be hard choice to defend in the context of the "100 Most Important" jazz recordings. I know I have Willette on a couple of Grant Green sides. I've never checked out his solo work, but it's hard to argue that I guy who came on the scene around a decade later than Jimmy Smith is going to eclispe the latter's contributions.

Of course, now I'm going to go seek out Willette's solo sessions and check out Ratliff's book for myself, so I guess Ben's doing his job, eh?

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I actually started a book on Miles Davis by an author named Mike Tingin or something like that. I got about 30 pages into it and when I woke up this a.m. the book was gone. I made a couple of stops on my way home last night and must have left the book behind. The book wasn't very good and it focused on Miles' electric period (late 60's on), which is not of great interest to me. So, I'm am not shedding any tears over the book's loss, though I will say I did read some interesting stuff in there.

So, I'll substitute a new music book and I haven't read either of Leroi Jones' (nee Amari Baraka) books on jazz, "Blues People" and "Black Music" so I think I'll crack open the former when I head into Manhattan later in the day.

I recently read a couple of Leroi Jones' books, "Blues People" & "Black Music." Both are considered classic jazz books, with the former the stronger of the two books. Jones, nee Amiri Baraka, traces the development of jazz from its origins in BP. The latter book, BM, gives a great snapshot of the NYC jazz scene in the early-to-mid 1960s and chronicles the development of the avant-garde scene, which Jones embraced.

Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo by Andy Greenwald

When Greenwald explains in the first couple of chapters the history behind "emo music" and where the term "emo" comes from, it's fantastic. However after the history lesson, don't even bother reading the rest. Actually just rip out those pages because during the rest of the book all he seems to write about is Dashboard Confessionals and other stereotypical "emo kid" stuff. You know, the emo kid that everyone hates.

The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast

The bible of Ambient music. It includes everyone from Gustav Mahler to Air. If you don't want to read the almost 500 pages, at least look at the essential 100 recordings in the back.

I'm in the middle of Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Volume I.
I generally steer clear of autobiographies, for no real reason, but I assumed (correctly) that anything written by Dylan is worth reading. It's an amazing read and gives some real insight into his influences, both musical and cultural. I wasn't fortunate enough to be alive during Dylan's ascent, so this book adds a little more texture to his music.
Well worth it.

I'm about to crack open a slight book and discography called "Eric Dolphy: A Musical Biography & Disography" published by Da Capo press.

I just cracked open "Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has It Moved To a New Address) by Stuart Nicholson, which was published earlier this year. It is basically a polemic about the whole "New Lions Movement" personified by Wynton Marsalis/Stanley Crouch/Albert Murray and their views about what jazz is and isn't.

I don't agree with Nicholson's take, but he is a good jazz writer. He wrote a good biography of Bille Holiday that I read and another book of his about the 1980s jazz resurgence is one of the better jazz books I've ever read.

"Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales From Childhood" by A.J. Albany

From what I understand this is a memoir/bio of her father, jazz pianist Joe Albany. Albany was an obscure bebop pianist who battled substance abuse problems. I had never heard of the book, but stumbled across information on it on the Internet. It sounded so compelling I bought it.

"Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America" - A text that creates a framework for looking at our evolving intolerance in a less-pluralistic society... and it name drops some Greeks.

A first-rate bio of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk waits to be written, so I'm making do with one of the extant Monk bios. I didn't have much luck with the atrocious Leslie Gore's take on Monk and last night I started reading French jazz pianist Laurent de Wilde's Monk bio. It is not shaping up as a good read -- real shallow -- but in defense of de Wilde the book has been translated from French to English so no doubt something was lost. de Wilde, though, has a shakey grasp of U.S. history, confusing the Roosevelts, Franklin Delano & Teddy and seeming not to know when Prohibition ended.

South By Southwest: A Roadmap To Alternative Country is one of the worst books Ive ever read period. Big dissappointment too cause I like some of that music but the book is so shallow and lacking in information you may as well just read the index of band names cause thats basically all it is, a barrage of band names.

quote:

Originally posted by keylimetrev:
I still think Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus is probably the best bookon music ever written, heck I think it's one of the best books period. If you like your punk rock over-analyzed to the point where you'll never be able to just listen to it again, this is the one for you. And if you do just want to listen to your classic punk records, well then there's probably something wrong with you. Just a joke, but seriously, Greil Marcus, give it a try.

Nothing like a late response

For mine, Marcus has always been Jekyll and Hyde. His prose is prolix and frequently incomprehensible (did I mention In The Fascist Bathroom?). However, when he turns a fan's dead eye onto the music itself, he's without peer (I'm thinking here of the annotated discography accompanying Mystery Train and his essays for The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll).

My favourite rock read is Charles Shaar Murray's Crosstown Traffic. Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop. Murray attempts to locate Hendrix's music along the continuum of black music and makes a good fist of it.

At the risk of agreeing with the Duke, i ...(gulp)...have to agree with his above remarks!!!

Also, get thee a copy of Jon Savage's Time Travel. Excellent set of essays.

quote:

Originally posted by Ishmaels coffin:
At the risk of agreeing with the Duke, i ...(gulp)...have to agree with his above remarks!!!

Also, get thee a copy of Jon Savage's Time Travel. Excellent set of essays.

Gasp!! We could be twins!

I hadn't heard of Time Travel. I'll check it out.