Rate End Of Year Music Books As: Worth Buying, Worth Taking Out Of Library, Worth Browsing in Store, Wouldn't Touch With A Tenpole Tudor

John Mowitt

guy is way ahead of the competition
eg http://www.amazon.com/Percussion-Drumming-Striking-John-Mowitt/dp/0822329190/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201909422&sr=8-1

Started the Doc Pomus book. Pretty good so far- Doc left a lot of journals to be drawn from and a lot of friends to be interviewed and the author is pretty sympathetic. What with Ken Emerson blurbing his blessing on the back and passing along his sources and leads, it's kind of a follow-up to his Brill Building book.

The one story that is told in all of these books is the one about Phil Spector and Doc Pomus at the Spindletop restaurant.

Ben Ratliff Coltrane book was annoying, I guess I should read the Lewis Porter book get the bad taste out.

Ned Sublette New Orleans book is reviewed in Times Book Review, apparently has been out since January. Love to read it, but probably should finish the other one.

I haven't finished the other Sublette one either. I took forever finally reading the excellent Elijah Wald Robert Johnson book. He goes beyond just discussing Johnson to examine why (white) blues collectors celebrated certain artists and not others (kind of a rockism v popism thing).

I was just reading a Washington City Paper blog thing that took Ratliff to task for his kinda snobby and ocassionally wronghead critique of the Grammy album of the year award to Herbie Hancock. Why was Ratliff's Coltrane book annoying?

Because it degenerated into the whole Wynton Marsalis vs. Free Jazz thing, which is someplace I didn't need to go. And, according to Ratliff, the blame for that whole mess rests squarely on the shoulders of John William Coltrane.

I came across some musicians message board called organissimo or something where people recommended the Porter book on Coltrane as being a lot more about the actual music, with actual musical examples, rather than the sociology of the music. I think some people around here have read the Porter book as well.

took Ratliff to task for his kinda snobby and ocassionally wronghead critique of the Grammy album of the year award to Herbie Hancock

where can a dude read this critique

I'll bet it's this right here

Ha, BR brings up Getz/Gilberto as another example of a lightweight, easy-on-the-untrained-ears not-really-jazz album that won.

Note: I never had any beef with him until I read that book. In fact, once at Jazzfest I shared a crawfish beignet with somebody having exactly the same name.

Thanks James Redd. Ratliff seems to be giving the Grammys a lot more consideration as a marker of a particular sort of taste than they deserve? To whom do they really matter, these days?

I don't really want to go to this place either, but there is a certain type of New York Times reader who wants to, if not exactly keep a finger on the pulse of the, um, cultural Zeitgeist, at least throw it a passing glance in the Arts and Leisure now and then.

of course

To whom do they really matter, these days?

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:27 AM

vs.

River: The Joni Letters performed by Herbie Hancock

Did this win this year? That's awesome.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:02 AM

All the HOOS that's fit to print.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/blackplasticbag/

In a February 14th posting Michael J. West says in part : “Inasmuch as it is a jazz album, it is precisely the kind of jazz album that would win this award,” Ratliff says. “It is soft-edged and literate and respectable. It seems, at least, intended as an audience bridger.”

In other words, it’s not really jazz enough to count.

The authenticity debate never dies (Thanks, Wynton), but come on. The musicians who’ve made this “soft-edged,” crossover-friendly album include Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, and Vinnie Colaiuta (not a big name, but a musician’s musician–cited by Modern Drummer as “the most important drummer of our time”). You couldn’t get a higher pedigree if you resurrected John Coltrane.

Resurrecting Coltrane would apparently have been a problem too.

He would have been viewed as a "free jazz casualty" who had been forced to dumb it down after all the damage sustained by all the overblowing.

(Sorry I confused Oregon with Washington State with D.C.)

Will Hodgkinson's Song Man recently made it over here to the states. I bought it, and would heartily recommend it. Aside from having a couple of fascinating chapters dealing w/Lawrence from Felt, he interviews Hal David, Arthur Lee, Andy Partridge, Chan Marshall, Lamont Dozier, Chip Taylor, Bridget St John...

I have no complaints with the book whatsoever.

Sacks' Musicophilia book totally not holding my interest. It seems scattered, almost like a series of essays.

OTOH I want that Moondog bio really bad, think I'm gonna order it next paycheck.

Sacks' Musicophilia book totally not holding my interest. It seems scattered, almost like a series of essays.

I haven't read Musicophilia, but aren't all of his books arranged in that format? Regardless, I am still haunted by the chapter in the one book of his which deals with the Grateful Dead fan who became a Hare Krishna, and ended up having a brain tumor...does anyone else remember that one?

All of his fellow Krishna devotees celebrated his meditative powers, but his apparent ability to exist blissfully in the present or whatever was due to the fact of some massive tumor growing in his brain. At one point, he goes to a Dead concert, and despite being completely blind, he says, "oh yeah, there's Jerry over there! Look at him! He's amazing!"

Clapton and Patti books are out in paperback but still steering clear of them. Yesterday bought the Moondog bio and the Lee Konitz interview book from last year.

Would love to see this thread resuscitated for the o-12!

Good books about music