Reading Jazz : A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now

Rating:
Summary: A Note on the Editor
Review: Robert Gottlieb is indeed up to the job of editing this anthology. The information about him provided on the book is incomplete--necessarily incomplete, because Gottlieb has one of the longest and most distinguished editing careers in American letters. He was head of a publishing house and editor-in-chief of "The New Yorker." He is responsible for some of the best writing of the last quarter century.

Rating:
Summary: Chock full o' stories!
Review: This book collects a vast range of articles, reviews and biographies covering jazz's most influential musicians. It's a wonderful compendium. I discovered great music from many artists I'd never heard of before. Well worth reading!

Rating:
Summary: Not What I Hoped It Would Be
Review: This is a disappointing book. The Autobiography section is rather good, but the other two-thirds is really quite inadequate. A great many articles by "moldy figs" are included, and one reaches the conclusion that the editor himself is something of a moldy fig. He admits in the introduction that he "came to jazz late in life," and his previous publications are listed as having edited collections of Rudyard Kipling and John Cheever and authored a study of "The Art of the Plastic Handbag 1949 - 1959." Editing a volume on jazz seems to have proven a little beyond his capacity. After the Autobiography section, it's rather good on the 20s and 30s, so-so on the 40s and 50s, and quite lame on anything that has occurred in the past 40 years. There are some gems among the selections, but not enough of them. Incidentally, the astonishing omission of an index is really unforgivable. If you're looking for more up-to-date and more substantive jazz criticism, with more musical analysis, might I recommend a subscription to the quarterly magazine Jazz Improv (which I'm not associated with) whose issues include excerpts from books of jazz criticism of a much higher standard than the selections in this book.