Read Online Jazz Is Nat Hentoff 9780380018581 Books

Download As PDF : Jazz Is Nat Hentoff 9780380018581 Books

"A beautifully written, evocative tribute to an elusive art... Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, and Gato Barbieri." - Performing Arts

Read Online Jazz Is Nat Hentoff 9780380018581 Books

"I've been reading Hentoff for over half a century and he never disappoints. In reading him here, one has the feeling of being at his side and following him around to the many smoke-filled, darkened night spots as he made the rounds of various jazz joints over the years. Hentoff shares his own views and stories of some of jazz's biggest names and what they themselves said about their music. Recommended."

Product details Mass Market Paperback Publisher Avon (March 1978) Language French ISBN-10 0380018586

Tags : Jazz Is [Nat Hentoff] on . A beautifully written, evocative tribute to an elusive art... Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong,Nat Hentoff,Jazz Is,Avon,0380018586,1002-WS0801-A04010-0380018586

Jazz Is Nat Hentoff 9780380018581 Books Reviews :

Jazz Is Nat Hentoff 9780380018581 Books Reviews

• In his introduction to Jazz Is, noted jazz critic and long-time jazz fan Nat Hentoff states his purpose "This book is a selective tribute and guide to the jazz life, the players, and the music. It is not a chronological or comprehensive history, but rather a personal exploration through variegated seminal figures of the nature of the music (and how it keeps changing). And it is about the nature of those who make the music -- temperaments as disparate as those of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. It tells too of the political economy of jazz, its internationalization, the continuing surprises of its further frontiers."
  
  Hentoff concentrates on a number of major figures in jazz and blends his own memories of attending concerts or nightclubs and also listening to recordings with recollections of encounters or interviews with some of these musicians or their peers. Separate chapters are devoted to the following musicians Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, and Gato Barbieri. Another chapter near the end of the book focuses on what the author calls the political economy of jazz.
  
  Although the chapters on musicians' lives and legacies make up the majority of this book, Hentoff adds to its interest by interspersing between chapters a brief collection of quotations from noted jazz musicians and critics regarding the definition of jazz. Hentoff provides no commentary on these various quotes but merely lets them stand apart from the rest of the text seemingly as a means of provoking readers' thoughts.
  
  Anyone who has encountered Mr. Hentoff's perceptions of jazz through some of the liner notes written by him over the past few decades will recognize in this book a person with a genuine love for the music and an appreciation for its artists that borders on reverence and awe. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn about the way jazz has mattered in modern life in America.
• I've been reading Hentoff for over half a century and he never disappoints. In reading him here, one has the feeling of being at his side and following him around to the many smoke-filled, darkened night spots as he made the rounds of various jazz joints over the years. Hentoff shares his own views and stories of some of jazz's biggest names and what they themselves said about their music. Recommended.
• A very readable volume with insights that make the music more interesting to listen to. I've read other works by Hentoff, and I'm a fan of his jazz journalism, not necessarily his politics or religious ideology. He devoted his life to really understanding jazz through the eyes of performers.
• A great look into the personal lives of many jazz legends. Nat Hentoff describes "ground zero" for many jazz events, as jazz was happening.
• Very well written by someone who knows what they're talking about. I don't like to read about music unless it's going to give me some insight into the reason the music exists, why it's being played the way it is, or what influenced someone to push themselves to become a virtuoso. Music can transcend the mundane and allow you to communicate with the spirit; even if it's only momentary. At times, Nat Hentoff does that same thing in his book. He's a well known author on jazz and this book shows you why.
• A top pick among the hundred or so books on jazz I own... enjoyable over and over again!
• Jazz is gives an insight into the major figures who created jazz as an art in the US. Hentoff knows many of the central figures personally, and he tells a lively story.
• A jazz classic.