Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Bebop Years

by Burt Korall

Overview

Burt Korall is widely recognized as the most authoritative writer on jazz drumming. His first book Drummin' Men--The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Swing Era is considered a classic. Now, in this exciting sequel, Korall offers a richly informative history of drumming in the Bebop era. Korall looks at this music through the eyes of the musicians themselves, covering a whole range of important jazz drummers, but focusing upon the most original and significant--principally Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Korall provides a knowledgeable background about the history of bebop--and the unfortunate and almost universal heroin addiction that swept through the jazz world in the wake of Charlie Parker's habit. The book contains Korall's own memoir of nearly 50 years in the jazz world, linked by his narrative of the careers of these drummers and their place in the bebop jazz scene.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195346510
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/29/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Burt Korall, himself a jazz drummer, is a music business veteran and jazz authority who has written on jazz for The New York Times, Village Voice, Modern Drummer, and a number of other jazz publications. He has been Director of Special Assignments at BMI and is currently founder and director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. He lives in Mount Vernon, New York.

Editorial Reviews

The drummer is one of the jazz band's most important members, providing the energy, pulse, and drive that can make or break a unit. Korall illuminates these points and more in his latest offering, a fine follow-up to his Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz; The Swing Years, which was published in 1990. A jazz authority whose writings have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Modern Drummer, and the Village Voice, Korall is also a jazz drummer and can thus talk knowledgeably about various stylistic aspects of drumming. As in his previous work, he uses interviews with musicians to address various key artists and concepts. It's hardly surprising that drummers Art Blakey, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and Roy Haynes are included, but the unexpected coverage of artists like Tiny Kahn, Stan Levey, Shadow Wilson, and Don Lamond provide diversity and a greater understanding of how bop drumming evolved. While there is some overlap between the two books, Korall's latest offering is no carbon copy. It is a readable tome that would appeal to jazz enthusiasts and jazz scholars alike. Recommended for academic and public libraries with a jazz interest. Ronald S. Russ, Arkansas State Univ., Beebe Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"An invaluable book for musicians as well as listeners. It is not only an illumination of master drummers, including some deserving more renown, but also the interviews with a wide range of musicians add new insight into jazz history." —Nat Hentoff

"If you want to know what modern drumming is all about, this is your book. Burt Korall has done a remarkable job, and I strongly recommend it."—Artie Shaw

"Attention drummers, jazz lovers, bebop lovers, and students of jazz history! Run—I repeat, run—do not walk to your local bookstore and purchase this absolutely wonderful book."—Allegro "Korall digs deep into the hippest period in drumming history. A fascinating must-read for any drummer of style or lover of modern jazz."—William F. Miller, Editorial Director, Modern Drummer Magazine

"Nobody writes about jazz drumming like Burt Korall. He gets inside the important drummers, the jazzmen who played with them, the arrangers and the leaders, to capture the excitement, the feel, even the sound of the Bebop Era. What an achievement!"—Dom Cerulli, The Jazz Word

"Korall's eagerly awaited sequel to his swing-era treatise is a lively, fascinatingly detailed text composed of narrative, exegesis, interviews and musical examples. Korall tells you exactly what these tub-thumpers did to make their music sound the way it did, from the obscure Lou Fromm to the familiar Kenny Clarke."—Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer

From the Publisher