Visions of Jazz: The First Century

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: The research and time but into this indepth overview of the first century of jazz is absolutely remarkable. Discussing the most influential and popular jazz artists of the century, this book gives insight into the artists and their music as well. Absolutely outstanding!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Jazz Book
Review: This is an indispensible book on jazz and essential reading for all lovers of this music. The book's format consists of chapters on individual artists. It can be read as a reader selecting the chapters of interest. Reading the book as a whole, it reads as a novel with interconnecting parts. Giddins' style sets the artists within the context of their times and provides a great deal of insight on the men and women who created jazz. Five big stars.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable Study
Review: This is an outstanding, invaluable guide to jazz. I recommend it fully, with just one caveat -- not enough coverage of the incredible influence of Brazilian music (percussion, bossa nova, rhythms, MPB composers) on jazz. For that reason, one should also consult "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press) as a supplement to this work.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of information in short readable chapters
Review: This is avery informative guide and will appeal to those who know "something" about jazz, but really don't know that much about specific eras or classic jazz artists. The book does not include some important players, but such a thing is not avoidable. My only concern was the lack of consistent referencing of classic or otherwise notable recordings. In some chapters, Giddins provides titles and record lables, as well as choice cuts. In others, he'll say something like "Ella Fitzgerald's classic 1945 recording" and its up to the reader to see if any of the 400 available Fitzgerald recordings might be the one.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of information in short readable chapters
Review: This is avery informative guide and will appeal to those who know "something" about jazz, but really don't know that much about specific eras or classic jazz artists. The book does not include some important players, but such a thing is not avoidable. My only concern was the lack of consistent referencing of classic or otherwise notable recordings. In some chapters, Giddins provides titles and record lables, as well as choice cuts. In others, he'll say something like "Ella Fitzgerald's classic 1945 recording" and its up to the reader to see if any of the 400 available Fitzgerald recordings might be the one.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to find a better book on jazz !
Review: Veteran jazz critic Gary Giddins is immensely articulate and intelligent, and yet so readable and user-friendly. As erudite as he is, he never pontificates, or "talks down" to the reader, as many jazz writers often do. Few writers can "hear" the music as well as he does -- and he somehow transmits this to the reader. Not content to be merely an historian, Giddins can also analyze a Charlie Parker solo with the best of them (as he does here), and his musical knowledge is formadible. He provides telling accounts and anecdotal information of the great jazz players and singers with great authority, a strong command of the language and an intrinsic love for this music. Of the dozens of books on jazz I have read, this is still my favorite. Each refreshing chapter stands on its own, and as a jazz player and teacher, I simply can't recommend a better book than "Visions of Jazz".

Rating:
Summary: Hard to find a better book on jazz !
Review: Veteran jazz critic Gary Giddins is immensely articulate and intelligent, and yet so readable and user-friendly. As erudite as he is, he never pontificates, or "talks down" to the reader, as many jazz writers often do. Few writers can "hear" the music as well as he does -- and he somehow transmits this to the reader. Not content to be merely an historian, Giddins can also analyze a Charlie Parker solo with the best of them (as he does here), and his musical knowledge is formadible. He provides telling accounts and anecdotal information of the great jazz players and singers with great authority, a strong command of the language and an intrinsic love for this music. Of the dozens of books on jazz I have read, this is still my favorite. Each refreshing chapter stands on its own, and as a jazz player and teacher, I simply can't recommend a better book than "Visions of Jazz".

Rating:
Summary: Hard to find a better book on jazz !
Review: Veteran jazz critic Gary Giddins is immensely articulate and intelligent, and yet so readable and user-friendly. As erudite as he is, he never pontificates, or "talks down" to the reader, as many jazz writers often do. Few writers can "hear" the music as well as he does -- and he somehow transmits this to the reader. Not content to be merely an historian, Giddins can also analyze a Charlie Parker solo with the best of them (as he does here), and his musical knowledge is formadible. He provides telling accounts and anecdotal information of the great jazz players and singers with great authority, a strong command of the language and an intrinsic love for this music. Of the dozens of books on jazz I have read, this is still my favorite. Each refreshing chapter stands on its own, and as a jazz player and teacher, I simply can't recommend a better book than "Visions of Jazz".

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book with customary OUP lousy index
Review: Well, at least Oxford provided an index which they sometimes fail to do with books that cry out for one. At least they separated the song titles. This was a good idea. But the presence of 100 Armstrong pages, to name only one, with no secondary captions is next to useless. An expanded, properly labeled index would have turned this into a 5+.