New History of Jazz - Softcover

Shipton, Alyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826473806 ISBN 13: 9780826473806

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2004

Synopsis

In this major update of the acclaimed and award-winning jazz history, Alyn Shipton challenges many of the assumptions that surround the birth and growth of jazz music. Shipton also re-evaluates the transition from swing to be-bop, asking just how political this supposed modern jazz revolution actually was. He makes the case for jazz as a truly international music from its earliest days, charting significant developments outside the USA from the 1920s onwards.

All the great names in jazz history are here, from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis and from Sidney Bechet to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. But unlike those historians who call a halt with the death of Coltrane in 1967, Shipton continues the story with the major trends in jazz over the last 40 years: free jazz, jazz rock, world music influences, and the re-emergence of the popular jazz singer.

This new edition brings the book completely up-to-date, including such names as John Medeski, Diana Krall, Django Bates, and Matthias Ruegg. There are also impor¬tant new sections on Latin Jazz and the repertory movement.

About this title

About the Author

Alyn Shipton presents jazz radio programs for the BBC and is a critic for The Times in London. He is the author of several books on music, as well as a music publisher and editor. He divides his time between Oxford and the French countryside. In 2010, he was voted UK Jazz Broadcaster of the Year.

Review

“In this monumental study, Shipton, who presents jazz programs for the BBC, covers what he believes to be the most significant musical form to emerge during the 20th century. The book delves deeply into all aspects of the music, from boogie-woogie, big bands and bebop to the experiments of the postmodern era. The author’s emphasis on jazz as an international phenomenon...sets the book apart from other histories, as does his examination of the politicization of this music in the 1960s through organizations such as the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Black Artists’ Group in St. Louis....His observations on style are succinct and evocative...This comprehensive book, with its wealth of information presented in a nontechnical style accessible to the general reader, is a major contribution to the literature of jazz.” - Publisher's Weekly, August 2001 (Publishers Weekly)

“As jazz underwent a renaissance of sorts in the 1990s, jazz criticism flooded the publishing market. But few of those books were as nuanced or readable as British critic Shipton’s, which spans the entire history of jazz, from its mid-nineteenth-century origins to the present day. Shipton’s detailed treatment seeks to rebut some of the more popular myths about the origins of jazz, many of which have been accepted as fact, especially following the release of Ken Burns’ Jazz documentary. The author makes a convincing case for several new theories about the origins and spread of jazz....Those who want the true history of jazz should definitely jump into this impressive work.” - Booklist, September 1, 2001 (Booklist)

“In this unusually thoughtful and comprehensive history , Shipton, a BBC announcer and a critic for the Times, uncovers and explores a broader spectrum of jazz developments in addition to tackling commonly accepted stereotypes and myths. Things weren’t as neat and tidy as previous jazz writers would have you believe. It’s accepted as fact, for example, that jazz was born in New Orleans, moved north to Chicago, then east to the Big Apple. Shipton, however, illustrates that there was much more interplay among musicians, that word and note did not spread in any one direction. The author also shatters the creation myth of bebop: it was, he convincingly argues, the work of small bands playing night after night?not the result of after-hour jams, which were open to more or less anyone. Shipton also points out how strongly jazz was grasped by musicians in Europe, the Far East, and Latin America, and the book is worth purchasing for these sections alone (Gary Giddins’s Visions of Jazz...failed to investigate this phenomenon). The inclusion of post-late 1950s jazz genres, including free improvisation, are also treated with the respect that they deserve. Highly recommended.” - Library Journal, September 15, 2001 “A New History of Jazz is particularly sharp in describing jazz’s earliest roots...Shipton’s done his homework, and he knows how to tell a story. Don’t be put off by the fact that this 976-pager weighs more than Cannonball Adderley.” - Blender Magazine "The author writes extensively and intelligently about jazz from its origins in the nineteenth century to its fragmentation at the end of the twentieth...a penetrating history of the birth, development, and triumph of this most American of art forms." - Foreward Magazine "Engrossing... Shipton is excellent on the social context of the music... A New History of Jazz is a massive scholarly achievement and a major addition to the jazz literature." -Jazz Review “Any wife looking for a Christmas present for her husband couldn’t do better than Alyn Shipton’s huge and beautifully bound A New History of Jazz, a dazzling display that provides a refreshing challenge to many long-held canards within its faultlessly researched accounts." -Jazz Journal (UK) “A more useful addition than the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Shipton has delved deeply into untapped source material....He also drops the kind of biographical detail that should be in Grove, but isn’t.” -Independent on Sunday “If Ken Burns’ recent PBS series on jazz left you wanting more, or if you found Mr. Burns’ approach too centered on Louis Armstrong, then this massive but easily digestible new work...may fill in a lot of the holes the TV special left behind. In fact, A New History of Jazz ranks...as one of the most important examinations of the music released during the past decade....Shipton takes an analytical approach that frequently claims new territory....his distanced eye casts new and important views on American trends as well...succinctly explains not only why [Coleman’s] early work was so important but also how it came to fruition and why it so profoundly affected his contemporaries...a review of more recent trends, such as fusion and jazz-rock, are a valuable addition to jazz history....[an] important new overview.” -The Dallas Morning News, December 17, 2001 “Absorbing...Shipton casts welcome light on the evolution of fusion and other jazz styles abroad.” -The San Diego Union-Tribute, December 2, 2001 “‘Is there anything more delightful than hot jazz?’ the French critic Charles Delaunay once mused. ‘Nobody knows the answer to this question. But probably the answer is no.’ Nobody really knows quite where this delectable music came from, either. But a more detailed, thoughtful, and painstaking explanation of that?and of other points of jazz history?is contained in this new book than was ever available before....To the reader familiar with the orthodox version of jazz history, the results are stimulating; indeed sometimes startling.” -Sunday Telegraph, November 18, 2001 (Library Journal)

"Essential to grasping a misunderstood culture, music and art form"Record Collector, January 2008

"This huge, magisterial book is particularly strong on the origins of jazz... providing a wealth of new information and anecdotes and is a major achievement that will surely replace its predecessors" (Literary Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0826473806
• ISBN 13: 9780826473806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 965