What Jazz Is: An Insider's Guide to Understanding and Listening to Jazz - Softcover

King, Jonny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802775195 ISBN 13: 9780802775191

Publisher: Walker Books, 1997

Synopsis

"You have to talk about how jazz is like a language. Musical improvisation can put people at a distance, primarily because of jazz's limited exposure. When people realize that everyone who creates a sentence is improvising within basic rules, making statements up spontaneously, the music begins to make more sense." –Jonny King

Imagine you are in the audience of a jazz club. The piano player invites you up on stage to meet the musicians after the set is finished. You listen to them talkabout the tempo of the last tune, the order of songs for their next set, and the different jazz greats they admire.

What Jazz Is gives you the experience of "being there" as Jonny King takes you on stage and into the core of modern jazz. From the unique perspective of a professional jazz pianist, King explores the basic elements and language of jazz. He explains each instrument's role in locking in the tempo, establishing the harmony, and stating the melody, and he reveals the order and logic behind the seeming randomness of improvisation. Along the way, he celebrates the distinctive playing styles of such classic jazz artists as Art Blakey, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk, as well as his contemporaries, such as Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride, and Joshua Redman. Whether you are about to attend a jazz club for the first time or buy your umpteenth CD, your listening experience will be enhanced by reading this eloquent and passionate account of how jazz works and why it sizzles!

About this title

About the Author

Jonny King has played jazz piano since he was nine. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America, and Downbeat magazine described him as "One of the strongest piano voices of the new generation." His three albums include Notes from the Underground and The Meltdown. King is also an attorney specializing in copyright law. He lives in New York City.

From Booklist

There have been many jazz appreciation primers over the years, but none clearer and more accessible than King's, and, of course, his is up-to-date. A pianist with two albums as leader to his credit, King describes jazz's musical basics (improvisation, musical conversation, and swing) and the elements crucial to its performance (the rhythm section of bass, drums, and piano; the melodic voices of horns, other instruments, and singers; and the set list or on-the-spot performing repertoire) both abstractly for those who know virtually no jazz (e.g., onomatopoeically representing musical effects) and by reference to particular musicians' characteristics (e.g., bassist Ron Carter's "smooth attack where each note is articulated but sustains into the note that follows") for those with some listening experience. The final third of the book he devotes to guiding readers through some classic recorded performances exemplifying various common jazz forms (blues, ballads, etc.). This is a staple tactic of jazz primers that King recharges by choosing working musicians' rather than critics' favorites to analyze and by restricting his sampling scope to the middle 1950s through the 1960s, the period most influential upon today's jazz mainstream. So quit moanin' low, "I can't get started." Take some time out with King, and start cookin'. Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802775195
• ISBN 13: 9780802775191
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176