Know It All Jazz The 50 Crucial Concepts, Styles, and Performers, Each Explained in Under a Minute

by Gelly, Dave

• ISBN13: 9781577151753
• ISBN10: 1577151755
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2018-04-03
• Publisher: Wellfleet Press

Summary

For non-aficionados, jazz can be slippery and difficult to grasp. Jazz can leave a novice baffled, unsure how to listen, and with the question “How is it that they know what to play?”

Know-It-All Jazz takes readers from the African-American roots and all the way to the global mix of styles and performers in today’s jazz scene. Along the way, it looks at the shape, style, and instruments of the discipline, key personalities and recordings in the jazz canon, and, finally, at what might be expected next from this most diverse of musical forms.

Punchy and engaging entries help readers understand the basics in under a minute, ensuring that this is the ultimate companion for newcomers to the instinctive and diverse world of jazz.


The Know It All series takes a revolutionary approach to learning about the subjects you really feel you should understand but have never gotten around to studying. Each book selects a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart. Each idea, no matter how complex, is explained in 300 words and one picture, all digestible in under a minute.

Other titles in this series include: Know It All Anthropology, Know It All Chemistry, Know It All Classical Music, Know It All Energy, Know It All Fashion, Know It All Great Inventions, Know It All Medicine, Know It All Shakespeare, Know It All Whiskey, Know It All Wine, Space In 30 Seconds, Sports in 30 Seconds.
 

Author Biography

Editor Dave Gelly, born in the swing era, has written extensively on the subject of jazz. A former member of the New Jazz Orchestra, directed by Neil Ardley, he has co-led his own quartets and quintets, featuring Frank Ricotti, Jeff Scott and Barbara Thompson. He joined the Observer in 1974 and has written regularly for them ever since.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
6 Introduction
10 The Shape of Jazz
12 GLOSSARY
14 Bands, Big & Small
16 How the Parts Function
18 How Do They Know What
to Play?
20 The Jazz Language
& How it’s Learned
22 Profile: Duke Ellington
24 Where Jazz Was Played
in the Past
26 Where Jazz is Played Now
28 The Diversity of Styles
30 Styles of Jazz
32 GLOSSARY
34 New Orleans & Classic Jazz
36 Swing
38 Orchestral Jazz
40 Bebop to Hard Bop
42 Profile: Charlie Parker
44 Bossa Nova to Freedom
46 Jazz Rock & Fusion
48 European Jazz
50 Instruments of Jazz
52 GLOSSARY
54 Trumpet & Trombone
56 Saxophone
58 Clarinet & Flute
60 Piano & Keyboards
62 Bass: Double Bass & Bass Guitar
64 Profile: Louis Armstrong
66 Drums & Percussion
68 Guitar: Acoustic & Electric
70 Vocal Jazz
72 GLOSSARY
74 Divas
76 Great American Songbook:
the Men
78 Great American Songbook:
the Women
80 Jazz Entertainers
82 Profile: Ella Fitzgerald
84 Vocal Groups
86 Scat & Vocalese
88 Contemporaries
90 Classic Jazz Albums
92 GLOSSARY
94 Louis Armstrong: Satch Plays Fats
96 Benny Goodman:
The Complete Legendary 1938
Carnegie Hall Concert
98 Count Basie: The Atomic Mr. Basie
100 Profile: Miles Davis
102 Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
104 John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
106 Weather Report: Heavy Weather
108 Michael Brecker:
Michael Brecker
110 Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert
112 Jazz & the Blues
114 GLOSSARY
116 A Shared History
118 Early Blues
120 Jazz Meets the Blues
122 Big Bands & the Blues
124 Profile: B.B. King
126 Boogie Woogie
128 Electric Guitar Blues
130 The Route to Blues-rock
132 Today Is the Question
134 GLOSSARY
136 Citizens of the World
138 Beyond Bop
140 Technophiles
142 Maverick Adventurers
144 Profile: Craig Taborn
146 Avant-now
148 Piano Trio
1 50 Neo-soul Jazz
154 Resources
156 Notes on Contributors
158 Index
160 Acknowledgements