Visions of Jazz The First Century [Paperback]

Poised to become a classic of jazz literature,Visions of Jazz: The First Centuryoffers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning, and from the swinging elegance of Duke Ellington to the pioneering experiments of Ornette Coleman, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Writing with the grace and wit that have endeared his prose toVillage Voicereaders for decades, Giddins also widens the scope of jazz to include such crucial American musicians as Irving Berlin, Rosemary Clooney, and Frank Sinatra, all primarily pop performers who are often dismissed by fans and critics as mere derivatives of the true jazz idiom. And he devotes an entire quarter of this landmark volume to young, still-active jazz artists, boldly expanding the horizons of jazz--and charting and exploring the music's influences as no other book has done.

Part One: Precursors
1. Bert Williams/Al Jolson (Native Wits)
2. Hank Jones/Charlie Haden (Come Sunday)
3. Louis Armstrong/Mills Brothers (Signifying)
4. W.C. Handy (Birth of the Blues)
5. Irving Berlin (Ragging the Alley)
6. Spencer Williams (The Bard of Basin Street)
7. Ethel Waters (The Mother of Us All)
8. Bunk Johnson/George Lewis (Pithecanthropus Jazzman)
Part Two: A New Music
9. Jelly Roll Morton (Red Hot Dandy)
10. King Oliver (Working Man Blues)
11. Louis Armstrong (The Once and Future King)
12. Duke Ellington (Part 1: The Poker Game)
13. Coleman Hawkins (Patriarch)
14. Pee Wee Russell (Seer)
15. Chick Webb (King of the Savoy)
16. Fats Waller (Comedy Tonight)
Part Three: A Popular Music
17. Benny Goodman (The Mirror of Swing)
18. Jimmie Lunceford (For Listeners, Too)
19. Count Basie/Lester Young (Westward Ho! and Bacl£