Free Jazz (The Roots of Jazz)

Rating:
Summary: Informative and vintage technical text
Review: This book covers the music of Coltrane, Mingus, Ornette, Cecil Taylor, late period Coltrane, Shepp, Ayler, Cherry, AACM, and Sun Ra. It is valuable as an historical text, since Jost gives good outlines of each musician's career (up to 1974, when the book was published). The German author Jost gives in depth descriptions of formal aspects of each musician's work, which is most interesting in the case of the composers whose work extensively involves the working out of musical structures. It is a very rational approach to a very complex subject. At times, I felt that the absence of discussion of political or spiritual aspects of the music was not a good thing, but it seems like Jost's goal was to discuss history and form for the most part. It's a view of Free Music from a Western point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Great analysis of a misunderstood genre
Review: This book serves as an excellent survey of free jazz in the 60's. Jost uses plenty of examples and a lots of objectivity to write a book that celebrates the many virtues of this multifaceted genre, while maintaining a realistic perspective. He doesn't hesitate, however, to criticize free musicians where it is due, giving his more frequent positive comments more weight. A must for any student of the avante-garde.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and vintage technical text
Review: This is a great book, but, thankfully, it differs from other books on the same topic. This is a fairly in-depth analysis of the musicians' MUSIC. Don't expect long anecdotes about Cecil Taylor's life or John Coltrane's spirituality or about revolutionary politics or whatever. Jost feels that this stuff is abundant in others' books and accounts of the "free" movement, and that it has distracted us from the music itself. That's what I love about this book; the author isn't afraid to dig deep into the music. Also, most of his recorded examples are easy to find (or at least available somewhere). There isn't any of that "one time in 61' I saw Ornette play the harmonica in this pub in sweden and....". This book makes this seemingly difficult music more accessible...check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, Concise, and Worth the Price
Review: This is a great book, but, thankfully, it differs from other books on the same topic. This is a fairly in-depth analysis of the musicians' MUSIC. Don't expect long anecdotes about Cecil Taylor's life or John Coltrane's spirituality or about revolutionary politics or whatever. Jost feels that this stuff is abundant in others' books and accounts of the "free" movement, and that it has distracted us from the music itself. That's what I love about this book; the author isn't afraid to dig deep into the music. Also, most of his recorded examples are easy to find (or at least available somewhere). There isn't any of that "one time in 61' I saw Ornette play the harmonica in this pub in sweden and....". This book makes this seemingly difficult music more accessible...check it out.