Nuova storia del jazz

A scholarly, comprehensive history of jazz. Shipton is particularly good at showing the early contributions of individual white musicians, the formative influence of black vaudeville, and the contribution of the "territory bands" and obscure local musicians to the development of more celebrated styl Leggi tutto

Comprehensive scope, but poorly written and not enough musical analysis. Almost nothing on harmony, beyond vague descriptions of “developments in harmonic language” etc.

This is pretty damn comprehensive and it's also nicely idiosyncratic. Shipton holds many of the traditional views but he also holds some of his own (and he defends these) which are refreshing given the nature of jazz. For example, rightly criticizes critics of things like fusion and free, and he als Leggi tutto

Alyn Shipton's 'New History of Jazz' is a voluminous book, and it took me more than a year to read it. Shipton is at his best in pre-war jazz. Practically half of it is devoted to developments before Bebop, and the period after 1970 is described scantily. Moreover, most of Shipton's attention to fre Leggi tutto

Finally finished! This book is a bit long even for my taste; Alyn Shipton pays special attention in this book to the formative era of Jazz as a style of music, going into great detail about pre-WWII musicians and the music they played. Less time is spent on the development of the music since the "Be Leggi tutto

Veramente una "nuova storia del jazz". Soprattutto la prima parte, quella sulle origini, che apre prospettive che, ad ora, nessuno aveva proposto. Almeno nella nostra lingua. Un libro fondamentale, per gli appassionati e i volenterosi (più di 1000 pagine...) che apre squarci ad ora poco o punto esplo Leggi tutto

The first third of the book was intriguing with information about the roots of jazz that made me completely change my masterclass about the birth of jazz. After that, there was a bit of rambling and then some statements that were overly-opinionated. Overall, I was very glad to have read it.

I thought that this book was quite good. My only problem with this book is that the author had a tendency to ramble a little bit. The beginning history section was pretty boring, but once it got to the "Jazz Age" it started to get good. I would recommend this.

Had a very hard time with this one. By this time I've read so many jazz histories, it's kind of stupid to take up another one, but it was a gift.

Another great book. This one on Jazz!