Jazz 101, John F. Szwed
Jazz 101, John F. Szwed
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Jazz 101
A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz

Author: John F. Szwed

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 9 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/25/2005


Synopsis

Jazz 101 is a fascinating entr├®e into the world of jazz, for the beginner, novice, or jazz enthusiast. Szwed takes listeners on a tour of the varied and nonlinear history of jazz, exploring how it developed from an ethnic music to become America's most popular music and then part of the avant-garde in less than fifty years. Szwed's complete overview includes the major types of jazz and significant jazz musicians of the twentieth century; the roots of jazz, including its European and African influences; and recommended listening, plus appendixes on jazz singers, record guides, and more.Infinitely readable and highly entertaining, Jazz 101 is a vital tool in understanding and appreciating jazz.

About John F. Szwed

John F. Szwed is professor of music and director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. As a jazz musician, he played professionally for more than a decade. He is the author of sixteen books, including So What: The Life of Miles Davis, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, and Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World.

About Grover Gardner

Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on April 28, 2018

They say that writing about music is a bit like dancing about architecture. It just doesn't translate well, and that certainly is the case for this book. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Grover Gardner. While the narration is very good, you might expect that some musical examples could be pl......more

Goodreads review by Michael on April 23, 2015

Any intro to jazz is going to disappoint some jazz lover somehow, but Szwed does better than most all other writers in getting down to the basics in clear language for the beginning jazz listener, and jazz thinker. I use excerpts from this in classes about American culture, where students have only......more

Goodreads review by Jayna on December 05, 2009

The author begins with a wonderful disclaimer that gives the reader the proper expectation for how to interpret the information within. The first part of the book describes basics of jazz music: elements of its sound, musical composition, etc. I found this the most interesting part of the book. The......more

Goodreads review by Peter on December 19, 2017

Not really a 101 of the music but certainly a very good history of the genre. Music, being another language, doesn't always translate well into words especially when it is as complex and intellectual as jazz can be. The language used in this book is often very technical, rendering it difficult to gra......more

Goodreads review by Michael on July 25, 2020

This is a very smart book written by a very smart man and these brief comments will fail to do either of them justice. Szwed argues that because so many different forms of music evolved from southern and ultimately African music, it is all jazz, it is just that fusion, standards, swing, remixes, beb......more


Quotes

“John Szwed’s tone is refreshing…his notes on landmark recordings are concise gems.” AudioFile

“Very worthwhile.”  Booklist