Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music & Some of Its Makers
by Doug Ramsey
University of Arkansas Press, 1989 Paper: 978-1-55728-061-9 | eISBN: 978-1-61075-212-1 Library of Congress Classification ML3507.R29 1989 Dewey Decimal Classification 781.57
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Rich in anecdote and insight, Jazz Matters is a collection of essays, profiles, and reviews by Doug Ramsey, and observer and chronicler of jazz and its musicians for more than thirty years. It stirs the reader to discover or rediscover the music and performers Ramsey describes. His accounts of recording sessions and live performances enhance this excellent review of the history, variety, and artistic depth that make jazz so profound an element in modern culture.
Jazz Matters gives the reader a basis for understanding jazz improvisation Ramsey’s sensitive, straightforward, and entertaining pieces promote appreciation of the accomplishment of artists from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Doug Ramsey is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism.
Visit Doug Ramsey’s blog, Rifftides, a winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association.
REVIEWS
“Ramsey too is head-over-heels in love with jazz, and this collection of his essays, profiles and reviews, culled from various publications, brilliantly conveys the intensity of the music and the voices of the musicians who make it. With intelligence, warmth and wit, Ramsey writes of the revolutionaries (from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis), the tragic geniuses who succumbed to drugs (“Even when Charlie Parker required physical support so that he could solo, his playing has an imperial, desolate beauty”) and those who are accused of selling out (“when a superior musician e.g., George Benson achieves success with watered-down material he doesn’t necessarily dilute his art, however rarely he may choose or be allowed to work at it”). Occasionally the essays meander, but on the whole, Ramsey has compiled a valuable overview of the sadly underappreciated ‘mother lode of American music.'”
—Publishers Weekly
“[Jazz Matters] brings to mind hours of great conversations with old friends and memories of musicians who have now departed this planet. This book revives (in the true sense of the word) those lives.”
—Dave Brubeck
“[Ramsey] understands, he appreciates, he values excellence wherever he finds it, he cares deeply—and he is able to express his feelings with warmth, wit, and intelligence. I am an unabashed Ramsey fan.”
—Orrin Keepnews
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
A Common Language
Maturity
Don't Shoot the Critic; He's Doing His Best
Keeping Time with the CLU and Other Thoughts
Stompin' by the Bayou
The Uses of Tradition
Prince Albert/Don Albert
Clark Terry
Art Farmer
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Cannonball Adderley
Bebop
Bud Powell
Wardell Gray
Seeing Red/Red Garland
Woody Herman
Bass Hit/Gene Ramey
Freddie Hubbard
George Benson and Jack McDuff
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take Five with Paul Desmond
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Reunion
Remembering Desmond
Thelonious Monk
Charles Mingus
John Handy
Four Tenor Saxophonists
Ben Webster
Phil Woods
Love for Sale
Listener's Journal
Zoot Sims
Dukes of Dixieland
Gerry Mulligan
Chet Baker
Art Pepper
Modern Jazz Quartet
Duke Ellington
Lester Young
Gene Ammons
Frank Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim
Charles Lloyd
Ornette Coleman
George Russell
Roswell Rudd
Stan Getz/Laurindo Almeida
New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album
Brother Ray: Ray Charles's Own Story
Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm
To Be or Not to Bop
The Bass Saxophone
Louis Armstrong: An American Genius
Riding on a Blue Note
The Music
A Few of My Favorite Things
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music & Some of Its Makers
by Doug Ramsey
University of Arkansas Press, 1989 Paper: 978-1-55728-061-9 eISBN: 978-1-61075-212-1
Rich in anecdote and insight, Jazz Matters is a collection of essays, profiles, and reviews by Doug Ramsey, and observer and chronicler of jazz and its musicians for more than thirty years. It stirs the reader to discover or rediscover the music and performers Ramsey describes. His accounts of recording sessions and live performances enhance this excellent review of the history, variety, and artistic depth that make jazz so profound an element in modern culture.
Jazz Matters gives the reader a basis for understanding jazz improvisation Ramsey’s sensitive, straightforward, and entertaining pieces promote appreciation of the accomplishment of artists from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Doug Ramsey is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism.
Visit Doug Ramsey’s blog, Rifftides, a winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association.
REVIEWS
“Ramsey too is head-over-heels in love with jazz, and this collection of his essays, profiles and reviews, culled from various publications, brilliantly conveys the intensity of the music and the voices of the musicians who make it. With intelligence, warmth and wit, Ramsey writes of the revolutionaries (from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis), the tragic geniuses who succumbed to drugs (“Even when Charlie Parker required physical support so that he could solo, his playing has an imperial, desolate beauty”) and those who are accused of selling out (“when a superior musician e.g., George Benson achieves success with watered-down material he doesn’t necessarily dilute his art, however rarely he may choose or be allowed to work at it”). Occasionally the essays meander, but on the whole, Ramsey has compiled a valuable overview of the sadly underappreciated ‘mother lode of American music.'”
—Publishers Weekly
“[Jazz Matters] brings to mind hours of great conversations with old friends and memories of musicians who have now departed this planet. This book revives (in the true sense of the word) those lives.”
—Dave Brubeck
“[Ramsey] understands, he appreciates, he values excellence wherever he finds it, he cares deeply—and he is able to express his feelings with warmth, wit, and intelligence. I am an unabashed Ramsey fan.”
—Orrin Keepnews
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
A Common Language
Maturity
Don't Shoot the Critic; He's Doing His Best
Keeping Time with the CLU and Other Thoughts
Stompin' by the Bayou
The Uses of Tradition
Prince Albert/Don Albert
Clark Terry
Art Farmer
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Cannonball Adderley
Bebop
Bud Powell
Wardell Gray
Seeing Red/Red Garland
Woody Herman
Bass Hit/Gene Ramey
Freddie Hubbard
George Benson and Jack McDuff
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take Five with Paul Desmond
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Reunion
Remembering Desmond
Thelonious Monk
Charles Mingus
John Handy
Four Tenor Saxophonists
Ben Webster
Phil Woods
Love for Sale
Listener's Journal
Zoot Sims
Dukes of Dixieland
Gerry Mulligan
Chet Baker
Art Pepper
Modern Jazz Quartet
Duke Ellington
Lester Young
Gene Ammons
Frank Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim
Charles Lloyd
Ornette Coleman
George Russell
Roswell Rudd
Stan Getz/Laurindo Almeida
New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album
Brother Ray: Ray Charles's Own Story
Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm
To Be or Not to Bop
The Bass Saxophone
Louis Armstrong: An American Genius
Riding on a Blue Note
The Music
A Few of My Favorite Things
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE