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Title: Jazz : A History of America's Music by Ken Burns, Geoffrey C. Ward ISBN: 0-679-44551-X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Start Here
Comment: As a jazz fan and a professional music retailer, I can recommend this book as a wonderful place to begin one's discovery of jazz or gain more knowledge of the cultural legacy of the music. In conjunction with the excellent video series and a box of cds by the titans written about by Ward, ie. Armstrong, Ellington, Davis, Parker, Holiday, etc., one can have a wonderful adventure either discovering the music for the first time or revisiting and expanding old passions. Those who quibble with its incompleteness run the risk of branding themselves cynics after the fashion of Wilde's definition: "A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."
Rating: 4
Summary: Great overview of jazz.
Comment: I enjoyed listening to this extensive overview of the history of jazz. The reader, LaVar Burton, was excellent in his reading of the text. The quotations and remarks from various musicians through the years were refreshing and interesting. My only wish, as this was an audiobook, was more musical examples of the artists. For example, after explaining a style of a musician, having a short interlude illustrating it would be nice. Overall, I enjoyed listening to it and found it very interesting and informative.
Rating: 3
Summary: Out of Burns' league, I'm afraid.
Comment: Burns has crafted a highly successful documentary career based on his own personal style and approach to presenting history, but he is clearly out of his depth in this beautifully illustrated but sadly unbalanced work on jazz. While they are certainly giants in their field, there is much more to the incredibly complex and multi-faceted world of jazz music than Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, who seemingly intrude on every page of Burns' misguided essay. Breaththrough artists such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and other "difficult" musicians are glossed over, and innovators such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis are sadly underrepresented given the scope of their influence. All in all, Burns seems to see jazz as a triumph of the mainstream rather than the rebellion against established norms that truly defines what the music is all about.
The photographs are undoubtedly beautiful, and many have had rare circulation in the last century. For graphic presentation alone, the book rates three stars. But Burns' overall viewpoint is ultimately a cozy, yuppie-class look at a music that defies and transcends his eagerness to rein it in into a neat, tidy narrative.
Seductively rendered, disappointingly researched.
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Title: The Oxford Companion to Jazz by Bill Kirchner ISBN: 019512510X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title:Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music ASIN: B000050HVG Publisher: Sony Pub. Date: 14 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $59.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $53.99 |
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Title:The Best of Ken Burns Jazz ASIN: B000050HVJ Publisher: Sony Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $13.98 |
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Title: The History of Jazz by Ted Gioia ISBN: 019512653X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title:Jazz - A Film by Ken Burns ASIN: B00004XQOU Publisher: PBS Home Video Pub. Date: 02 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $199.92 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $179.93 |
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