Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues

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Overview

Here’s the definitive one-volume resource on everything jazz and blues! From their roots in African culture to their expression in the music of the twentieth century, the history of jazz and blues reveals how this truly American music came to be part of the soundtrack of contemporary urban life. Comprehensive,
authoritative, and accessible, The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues is organized chronologically by decade. Each section gives a historical overview plus an A to Z of influential artists and their key recordings. Readers will learn how jazz and blues have changed over the past century—and then use dedicated Web links to hear those changes. With history, artist biographies, and illustrative mp3s, this book is onestop shopping for a great overview of two important musical forms.

• Comprehensive yet concise

• Decade-by-decade history plus A–Z of artists

• Perfect for students, jazz and blues fans,
and all music lovers

Editorial Reviews

VOYA

Both jazz and blues are uniquely American musical forms. Blues has deep roots in African culture, as Southern plantation slaves chanted songs strong in their African timbres, rhythms, and cadences. Slaves with musical talent often entertained their white masters with Scottish-Irish fiddle tunes, English ballads, church hymns, and marching bands. The merging of these musical styles gave rise to the blues in the early 1900s. Blues are simple and typically played with few instruments such as bass, guitar, and drums. Jazz emerged in the late-nineteenth century in New Orleans, a melting pot of cultures, most notably African, Creole, and Latin American. Unlike blues, jazz is vibrant and enthusiastic, full of syncopated rhythms and perfect for marching bands. Whereas blues has remained relatively true to form, diverging little from its roots, jazz spawned a variety of subforms including swing, bebop, hard bop, cool, hot, and free. This encyclopedia attempts to describe the music in the context of world events. Each chapter discusses a decade of the twentieth century, segregated into blues and jazz sections. Each section contains a four- to six-page narrative, several two-page biographies of key artists with a list of their significant recordings, and thumbnail sketches of many more artists. There are many photographs, quotes, and boxes highlighting popular melodies. The bottom of each page contains cross-references. The editor succeeds to some extent; however, there is no depth of subject matter. The musical descriptions use "music review" phraseology that someone unfamiliar with the genre cannot understand and internalize. Thus much meaning was lost to this reviewer. The narratives andbiographical sketches are full of references to other musicians, which soon make for dull reading. There are Internet links to MP3 files of one jazz and one blues song for each decade, which is not enough for a novice to get a feeling for the music. A CD or two would have been invaluable. Supplemental sections include instruments and equipment, a listing of artists (in microscopic print), a list of further reading that lacks any Internet sites, author biographies, and picture credits. Teens needing to research these music forms would be better served by more authoritative sources such as Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians which has readable narratives, cross-referencing, further reading, and links to Internet sites such as the Library of Congress (referred to here). This encyclopedia is more a pleasure-reading book and would better suit an aficionado's coffee table than a library's collection. 2005, Billboard Books/Watson-Guptil, 352p.; Glossary. Index. Illus. Photos. Further Reading., $45. Ages 11 to Adult.
—Ed Goldberg

Library Journal

That this encyclopedia covers both jazz and blues could have been a drawback. But editor Mandel, a contributor to Down Beat magazine, strikes a remarkable balance in terms of the text and illustrations with the help of his quality contributors (e.g., James Hale, Bob Porter, Bill Milkowski, and Todd Jenkins). Each genre is fluidly chronicled by decade, beginning with a broad stroke of background from the 1800s to the present. These ten-year increments convey an understandable historical time line and emphasize the continuity of the music's development. While many of the accompanying color and black-and-white photos and illustrations have been featured in other books and articles on the topics, they are well chosen and do nothing to detract from the quality of the text. (A shot of the Fletcher Henderson Band circa 1924, in fact, shatters the stereotype that early jazz musicians were unschooled primitives.) Principle musicians are then allotted a biographical sketch of roughly two pages, with key song explanations and highlights. An "A-Z of Artists" follows with shorter, less-detailed profiles, but these provoke interest nonetheless. Illustrative MP3s are accessed via nifty web links. The book concludes with sections on instruments of blues and jazz, a glossary, and an extensive listing of jazz and blues artists. Bottom Line While nothing breathtakingly original is included here, the balance and intermingling of jazz and blues make this a fine resource for most libraries, even ones with extensive music holdings. The only thing lacking is a list of suggested recordings to guide readers to further involvement in the music.-William G. Kenz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780823082667
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Publication date: 10/28/2005
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 10.58 (w) x 11.50 (h) x 1.25 (d)

Meet the Author

Howie Mandel

Howard Mandel, general editor,
contributes to Down Beat magazine and produces arts features for National Public Radio. The author of How Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor Revolutionized the World of Jazz and Future Jazz, he lives in New York City.
A distinguished team of eleven US and UK authorities contributed to this book.

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Henry_Berry

Posted January 22, 2009

reader-friendly illustrated jazz and blues history and reference

The innovative user-friendly touch of the Internet links is integrated into the sections of many of the artists (i. e., not put in an appendix or resources section at the back of the main text) by graphics with a web address. Another reader-friendly touch is a graphic noting the most representative recording by a particular musician. This is especially helpful considering the long careers, many recordings, and evolving styles of many of them. Most of the photographs show the artists in performance. Blues and Jazz are taken decade by decade from the early years through the nineteen twenties down to the eighties and the contemporary era, with a closing section on the instruments and equipment going with the two long-lasting and changeable types of music. Profiles of each artist cover biographical background, music career, and the artist's influences on or contributions to the field. For historical overview, comprehensive treatment of all the leading jazz and blues performers, and primary references cited, the 'Illustrated Encyclopedia...' is an ideal introduction to these interrelated fields of music.
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Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues

Overview

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More About This Book

Overview

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Editorial Reviews

VOYA

Library Journal

Product Details

Meet the Author

Howie Mandel

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reader-friendly illustrated jazz and blues history and reference