Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Retrospective

by Gordon Jack

Overview

More than 25 muscians who first came to prominence during the 1950s are the subject of this collection of interviews. The author's purpose has been to help preserve the oral history of a great American artform, and this book reveals that jazz musicians who can 'tell a story' with their horn when improvising can be just as articulate in conversation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810849976
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/27/2004
Series:	Studies in Jazz , #47
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Gordon Jack is a freelance writer and has been record reviewer for Jazz Journal International for the past ten years.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 1. Gene Allen Chapter 5 2. Mose Allison Chapter 6 3. Dave Bailey Chapter 7 4. Chuck Berghofer Chapter 8 5. Eddie Bert Chapter 9 6. Bob Brookmeyer Chapter 10 7. Pete Christlieb Chapter 11 8. Bill Crow Chapter 12 9. Joe Dodge Chapter 13 10. Bob Enevoldsen Chapter 14 11. Don Ferrara Chapter 15 12. Herb Geller Chapter 16 13. Corky Hale Chapter 17 14. Peter Ind Chapter 18 15. Frank Isola Chapter 19 16. Lee Konitz Chapter 20 17. Stan Levey Chapter 21 18. Jack Montrose Chapter 22 19. Gerry Mulligan Chapter 23 20. Gerry Mulligan Quartet, 1952-1953 (with Larry Bunker, Chico Hamilton, Carson Smith, and Bob Whitlock) Chapter 24 21. Lennie Niehaus Chapter 25 22. Jack Nimitz Chapter 26 23. Hod O'Brien Chapter 27 24. Bill Perkins Chapter 28 25. Bub Shank Chapter 29 26. Phil Urso Chapter 30 27. Phil Woods Chapter 31 Bibliography Chapter 32 Index Chapter 33 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

The merit of such a book as this lies in the balance it strikes between the familiar and the unfamiliar. People such as Lee Konitz, Bob Brookmeyer and Bud Shank have been interviewed often whereas Don Ferrara, Gene Allen and Joe Dodge have spoken far less often. If anything, one might have liked more from some of these minor figures. But it's a job well done.

Jazzwise

...a useful source book. largely authoritative and dependable.

Jazz Review

...excellent book...Great humor appears throughout, whether in descriptions of characters like altoist Gene Quill or in quotes from well-known wits like Al Cohn or Zoot Sims.

Jazzreview.com

The book is interesting reading because every musician speaks his own mind. Many fascinating and humorous details surface along the way...This is an important publication because - to my knowledge - no other book treats the history of jazz in the 1950s this way.

Jazz Special - Frank Büchmann-Møller

Gordon Jack is one of the jazz world's most skillful interviewers. He asks all the right questions and then gets out of the way, letting his subjects reveal themselves. What a pleasure to have all this material collected in one book!

Bill Crow

[Gordon Jack's] knowledge of the period and the recordings it produced is unsurpassed...I guarantee that any readers who thought they knew all there was to know about the thirty musicians featured in this book will be in for a surprise.

Alun Morgan

[Gordon Jack's] knowledge of the period and the recordings it produced is unsurpassed...I guarantee that any readers who thought they knew all there was to know about the thirty musicians featured in this book will be in for a surprise.--Alun Morgan, author of Modern Jazz: A Series of Developments since 1939

Gordon Jack is one of the jazz world's most skillful interviewers. He asks all the right questions and then gets out of the way, letting his subjects reveal themselves. What a pleasure to have all this material collected in one book!--Bill Crow, author of From Birdland to Broadway(1992, Oxford University Press)

...excellent book...Great humor appears throughout, whether in descriptions of characters like altoist Gene Quill or in quotes from well-known wits like Al Cohn or Zoot Sims.--Jazzreview.com

From the Publisher

The book is interesting reading because every musician speaks his own mind. Many fascinating and humorous details surface along the way...This is an important publication because - to my knowledge - no other book treats the history of jazz in the 1950s this way.

Jazz Special - Frank Büchmann-Møller

The book is interesting reading because every musician speaks his own mind. Many fascinating and humorous details surface along the way...This is an important publication because - to my knowledge - no other book treats the history of jazz in the 1950s this way.
— Frank Büchmann-Møller

Jazz Special