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 enlarge | Authors: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
Publisher: Pimlico
Category: Book
Buy New: $128.54
New (1) Used (4) from $51.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 6392867
Media: Paperback
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 9.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0712667695
Dewey Decimal Number: 781
EAN: 9780712667692
ASIN: 0712667695
Publication Date: January 25, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Book is brand new, and has never been opened. Thousands of satisfied customers!
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| Customer Reviews:
Should be "Jazz Origins: Popular Jazz & It's Evolution." June 16, 2004
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
I really liked this book because it gave great detail to the Founding Giants of Jazz. I get disapointed with books that try to be all things to all people and end up just skiming over everything. I like that this book went in-depth with the most popular artists. To try to fully cover the "Complete History of Jazz" would take about 10,000 pages of similairly over-sized books broken into about 20 volumes. Critics I have read on this page do a lot of name dropping to show off some knowledge. Perhaps they should write a book or two on the subject; I would love to read such a book. "Fusion: The Complete Evolution" would be a great volume in the above mentioned theoretical 10,000 pager, but most people have no interest in fusion. If you start going into Anthony Braxton's complex sheet music you are just going to loose people. This book sticks to the popular art form which is an evolution of sorts on it's own. An evolution of popular music and the evolution of the "musician's music" are two different things. I think the authors gave people what they wanted with this book. The REALITY of publishing a book like this is that it has to have broad appeal. You just aren't going to get funding to do a book that spends 25 pages on an extremely talented yet popularly obscure artist. This book is great for the novice or for the more educated jazz historian who wants to read some great stories and see some great photo's even if many of them are "common jazz knowledge" and repeats. (The story of Armstrong running into Oliver while selling tomatoes is a classic. I hadn't heard that one.) It is not as comprehensive with the modern era but I feel that it is proportional to the popularity of Jazz. If you want a complete Jazz history, you will need a library of about 100 books. This book should be in that library.
 Start Here April 20, 2003
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
As a jazz fan and a professional music retailer, I can recommend this book as a wonderful place to begin one's discovery of jazz or gain more knowledge of the cultural legacy of the music. In conjunction with the excellent video series and a box of cds by the titans written about by Ward, ie. Armstrong, Ellington, Davis, Parker, Holiday, etc., one can have a wonderful adventure either discovering the music for the first time or revisiting and expanding old passions. Those who quibble with its incompleteness run the risk of branding themselves cynics after the fashion of Wilde's definition: "A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."
Great overview of jazz. February 20, 2002
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I enjoyed listening to this extensive overview of the history of jazz. The reader, LaVar Burton, was excellent in his reading of the text. The quotations and remarks from various musicians through the years were refreshing and interesting. My only wish, as this was an audiobook, was more musical examples of the artists. For example, after explaining a style of a musician, having a short interlude illustrating it would be nice. Overall, I enjoyed listening to it and found it very interesting and informative.
 Out of Burns' league, I'm afraid. December 6, 2001
24 out of 30 found this review helpful
Burns has crafted a highly successful documentary career based on his own personal style and approach to presenting history, but he is clearly out of his depth in this beautifully illustrated but sadly unbalanced work on jazz. While they are certainly giants in their field, there is much more to the incredibly complex and multi-faceted world of jazz music than Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, who seemingly intrude on every page of Burns' misguided essay. Breaththrough artists such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and other "difficult" musicians are glossed over, and innovators such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis are sadly underrepresented given the scope of their influence. All in all, Burns seems to see jazz as a triumph of the mainstream rather than the rebellion against established norms that truly defines what the music is all about. The photographs are undoubtedly beautiful, and many have had rare circulation in the last century. For graphic presentation alone, the book rates three stars. But Burns' overall viewpoint is ultimately a cozy, yuppie-class look at a music that defies and transcends his eagerness to rein it in into a neat, tidy narrative. Seductively rendered, disappointingly researched.
That's a nice introduction to Jazz July 20, 2001
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
I think that the guys who are complaining about this book should understand that it's important to have some atractive devices to people that are interested in jazz but are afraid of so many different opinions, groups, tendencies... In this sense, I believe that this book is important. To many people, specially outside US, jazz looks like a kind of hermetic tradition. It's a nice introduction, though I am sure it's not sufficient once you have already started hearing jazz.
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