Icons of Jazz

Rating:
Summary: icons of jazz
Review: The Icons of Jazz is, with a few exceptions, exactly that; short biographies and wonderful photos of the author's 84 choices for the top jazz personalities of the past century. While the selections do an excellent job of presenting the top names in jazz, some of the choices are questionable. I'm not sure that Jan Garbarek, Clara Bley and Michel Petrucciani are "jazz icons." Also, the somewhat rigid format of one page of text per artist does a disservice to the more notable and prolific artists; ex. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong. However, there are several strengths to the book. The choice of photos is excellent. In many cases, the photos illustrate the artists' personalities perfectly (in particular, the photos of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are right on the mark). Also, there are recommended recordings for almost all of the artists presented in the book. The biographies are very informative and are a good starting point to explore each artist more fully. If you're just getting interested in jazz and its personalities, this would be a very good starting point