Red Head

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant musical analysis, interesting writing
Review: I had never heard of Stephen Stroff before reading this book, but afterward...I went and bought his other two books, "Discovering Great Jazz" and "Opera: An Informal Guide." All of them display an agile musical mind, capable of sophisticated analysis, while being able to convey this in readable, entertaining language. An absolute joy--and quite informative on Nichols' unjustly-neglected recordings.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious book that misses the point
Review: Many years ago I attended a piano recital by Stephen Stroff. While a bit amateurish, he played with genuine relish, and after reading this book, I feel that perhaps he should have stuck with being a performer. He definitely had potential, but as a writer he is a bit too pretentious, and too often gets bogged down in asides. At least that is the case with this book. He is a far better writer on classical music than jazz, and I wish he would return to that area of writing.

Rating:
Summary: Re-evaluating a neglected jazz master
Review: There are, usually, two ways to approach 1920s jazz: love it or hate it. The former attitude normally emanates from hopeless Romantics who find its peppy melodies and stiffish rhythms jolly and optimistic. The latter comes from everyone else, particularly lovers of cool or bebop. In this book, however, the author has struck on a middle path: `20s jazz can be great depending on who you're listening to, but only a few bands escape negative criticism. Among these he cites Duke Ellington, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Jelly Roll Morton, Tiny Parham--and Red Nichols.

This is surprising in light of Nichols' reputation as a stiff, emotionally neuter cornetist but, as Stroff points out, this is missing the forest for the trees. Red and his core musicians (Arthur Schutt, Miff Mole, Vic Berton, Fud Livingston, Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto and Glenn Miller) were among the most harmonically advanced minds of their day. In their little three-minute masterpieces, records that Red called "syncopated chamber music," they explored virtually the entire lexicon of jazz as it existed in their time and was to exist up until the extended chord positions of bebop. Within a window of seven years (1925-1932), they explored and augmented every style of jazz in their time and beyond. Stroff proves his point by analyzing about four dozen of their best recordings, often using musical examples.

This book is a brilliant tour-de-force that is well worth the price and, yes, even the wait from the publisher. If you are a serious musician or music-lover, you will not be able to put it down. At long last, musicians like Mole, Tarto, Schutt, Livingston and even Miller are lifted above the flotsam and jetsam of the mainstream and given their just due. Forget five stars--I give it ten!!