Thoughts on jazz books

So I'm reading two books on jazz right now and I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts about the books and some things I've learned from them. I'm almost done with both books, maybe even just a mere 60-80 pages away from finishing both. I've been doing a lot of reading...

Anyways, I'd like to talk about Stanley Crouch's biography on Charlie "Bird" Parker called Kansas City Lightning-The Life and Times of Charlie Parker. This book is so heavily detailed with history about jazz, the black musical tradition (including Jim Crow and minstrelsy) and American history you sometimes forget that its about Bird. What Crouch does best is cultural critique. You might not always agree with what he's saying but what he says comes with a sense of seriousness and care for jazz, and ultimately black people and their history. For that his work is incredible, even if I think his thoughts on free jazz are way wrong.

Kansas City Lightning goes into much detail about Parker. He was a pampered only child to a single mother, lived with his girl friend (and later wife) with his mother, and was laughed off the bandstand to such a degree that he went home and cried. He said never again and practiced and practiced until he nailed all the changes, all the melodies, and then some. He was already playing professionally in bands at the age of 16 even though he wasn't a good sight reader (good at reading music charts, notation) and only knew a few keys (most popular songs of the day were played in only a few keys). All that would change.

Once he got used to the nightlife and hanging out all night into the morning he found the world he wanted to belong to. That's when he starting using (code for heroin). I'm still reading the book but one can only assume that he would become super famous and then descend into ruin. That's the story of all so-called greats. They become great, fly too close to the sun, and then crash land to ruin or in some cases death. I'm interested to see how Crouch will end the book.

The other book is author (bassist, composer, music theory teacher) Paul Steinbeck's biography and music analysis on the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It's called Message to Our Folks, which was one of their early albums. This book is much more appealing to me because the Art Ensemble is one of my favorite music groups ever. I was awed by them when I saw their videos on Youtube some four or five years ago. When I heard them I found out that jazz can mean much more and be much different from the other free jazz stuff I had heard in the past (Ornette, late period Trane, Ayler, Sanders, Shepp). The AEOC's music has a lot more collective improvisation (much like Louis Armstrong's Hot Five) but they can also go into bebop, swing, blues, and even European harmonies-sometimes all within the same tune. There's nothing quite like them. You should listen to their music if you aren't familiar with their work.

Going forward, the book starts off as a biography about all the guys in the band. Its interesting to note that most of the guys were in the army, went to college (but most didn't stay) because of the GI bill, and most of them all came from musical and religious families. Pretty typical stuff. I was a little surprised to read that most of them were in the army. In today's world going to the army is seen as a much different thing as back then. It's good to know where all the guys came from.

After that history part there's musical analysis of the album A Jackson in Your House (Jackson was the name of saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell's cat). I listened to the entire album before I read it and although I don't think Steinbeck can completely explain the music in words I do think its cool that he added transcriptions (music notation) of certain parts to the music. That's something I've never seen before, its new, and totally exciting. Again, I think he does a good attempt at explaining the music in words but I don't think words do it justice. Its just too hard to explain the variety of sounds that this band can produce. However, its still great reading.

After that there's more talk about their next period, the 1970s. They were in a good spot by then. They had reached international acclaim in Europe (particularly Paris, where they stayed from 1969-1971 and when they came back home they were already the most famous band to come from Chicago's AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). However, work was still hard to come by so they played on and off about twelve times a year and in between they played side gigs where they could earn a living (mostly playing with other AACM groups). Eventually they began to become more popular in America (once they got signed to a major label-Atlantic) and they started to get regular gigs where they increased their price. They've had a big influence on me musically and culturally. I look forward to reading more.

When I'm done reading these books I'll probably write a final little excerpt about it. This is a great step forward in my jazz history.

It don't a thing if it ain't got that swing.