As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977
In this classic account of the new black music of the 1960s and 70s, celebrated photographer and jazz historian Val Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American culture. Placing the achievements of African-American artists such as Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sun Ra in their broader political and social context, Wilmer evokes an era of extraordinary innovation and experimentation that continues to inspire musicians today. As vital now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Life is the essential story of one of the most dynamic musical movements of the twentieth century.
1127850121
As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977
In this classic account of the new black music of the 1960s and 70s, celebrated photographer and jazz historian Val Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American culture. Placing the achievements of African-American artists such as Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sun Ra in their broader political and social context, Wilmer evokes an era of extraordinary innovation and experimentation that continues to inspire musicians today. As vital now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Life is the essential story of one of the most dynamic musical movements of the twentieth century.
18.95 In Stock
As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977

As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977

As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977
Add to Wishlist
As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977

As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977

Overview

In this classic account of the new black music of the 1960s and 70s, celebrated photographer and jazz historian Val Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American culture. Placing the achievements of African-American artists such as Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sun Ra in their broader political and social context, Wilmer evokes an era of extraordinary innovation and experimentation that continues to inspire musicians today. As vital now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Life is the essential story of one of the most dynamic musical movements of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781788160711
Publisher: Serpent's Tail Publishing Ltd
Publication date: 06/12/2018
Pages: 432
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Val Wilmer is an internationally acclaimed photographer, journalist, author and black music historian who has been documenting African-American music since 1959. In that time she has interviewed and photographed almost every significant figure in post-war jazz, blues and R&B, from Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk to Sun Ra and Albert Ayler via Muddy Waters and Aretha Franklin. As a photographer, her work features in the permanent collections of the British Library, the V&A Museum and the National Portrait Gallery; as a writer and historian, she has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography and the New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Richard Williams

Author’s Prefatory Note

Introduction A State of Mind

PART ONE INNOVATORS AND INNOVATIONS

1 Great Black Music – From a Love Supreme to the Sex Machine

2 John Coltrane – A Love Supreme

3 Cecil Taylor – Eighty-Eight Tuned Drums

4 Ornette Coleman – The Art of the Improviser

5 Sun Ra – Pictures of Infinity

6 Albert Ayler – Spiritual Unity

7 The AACM – Chicago’s Alternative Society

PART TWO WHO ARE THE NEW MUSICIANS?

8 As Serious As Your Life

PART THREE GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME!

9 The Spirit Behind the Musicians

10 A Family of Rhythms

PART FOUR WOMAN’S ROLE

11 It Takes Two People to Confirm the Truth

12 ‘You Sound Good – for a Woman!’

PART FIVE THE CONSPIRACY AND SOME SOLUTIONS

13 Bill Dixon and the Jazz Composers Guild

14 Politics, the Media and Collectivism

15 Recording – Getting the Music Out There

16 Does the Music Have a Future?

Biographies Bibliography Acknowledgements Index of Names
From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Related Subjects

Music, Film & Performing Arts
Music
Jazz
Jazz - General & Miscellaneous
Music, Film & Performing Arts
Music
Jazz
Jazz - General & Miscellaneous

Customer Reviews