What was the first jazz record? Are jazz solos really improvised? How
did jazz lay the groundwork for rock and country music? In Why Jazz,
author and NPR jazz critic Kevin Whitehead provides lively, insightful
answers to these and many other fascinating questions, offering an
entertaining guide for both novice listeners and long-time fans.
Organized chronologically in a convenient question and answer format,
this terrific resource makes jazz accessible to a broad audience, and
especially to readers who've found the music bewildering or best left to
the experts. Yet Why Jazz is much more than an informative
Q&A; it concisely traces the century-old history of this American
and global art form, from its beginnings in New Orleans up through the
current postmodern period. Whitehead provides brief profiles of the
archetypal figures of jazz―from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to
Wynton Marsalis and John Zorn―and illuminates their contributions as
musicians, performers, and composers. Also highlighted are the building
blocks of the jazz sound―call and response, rhythmic contrasts,
personalized performance techniques and improvisation―and discussion of
how visionary musicians have reinterpreted these elements to continually
redefine jazz, ushering in the swing era, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop,
and the avant-garde. Along the way, Why Jazz provides helpful
plain-English descriptions of musical terminology and techniques, from
"blue notes" to "conducted improvising." And unlike other histories
which haphazardly cover the stylistic branches of jazz that emerged
after the 1960s, Why Jazz groups latter-day musical trends by decade, the better to place them in historical context.
Whether read in self-contained sections or as a continuous narrative,
this compact reference presents a trove of essential information that
belongs on the shelf of anyone who's ever been interested in jazz.
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