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jazzy_daveMartin Williams "Jazz In Its Time" (Oxford Univ. Press)
Jazz In Its Time is a collection of Martin Williams' short record reviews, columns, and articles first published in Down Beat, Jazz Times, Metronome, and Saturday Review. In addition, several LP record annotations are included.
Williams covers a wide range of jazz musicians in these fairly brief pieces, including Sidney Bechet, Pee Wee Russell, Lester Young, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Teddy Wilson, Fats Navarro, Art Farmer and Jim Hall, Sonny Stitt, and Jacki Byard.
In a section entitled "Appreciations," Williams gathers together what he calls "profile-appreciations," slightly longer essays on six fairly well-known jazz artists: Lee Konitz, Lionel Hampton, Bud Freeman, Thad Jones, Bobby Hackett, and Harry Carney. In these pieces, Williams deftly summarizes the musicians' contributions to jazz while at the same time presenting readers with a glimpse of these figures as individuals away from the nightclub stage and recording studio.
The record annotations included here also reflect Williams' wide range of expertise in the important task of writing liner notes. His comments deal with LP records by Count Basie, Charlie Parker, The Modern Jazz Quartet, and a rather diverse group of trumpeters: Freddy Keppard, Tommy Ladnier, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Henry 'Red' Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.
Williams covers a lot of territories, and in the process offers a number of judgements about developments in jazz. For example, while acknowledging the seminal influence of Miles Davis' record, Bitches Brew, on the jazz "fusion" movement, Williams argues that fusion was basically an artistic "dead end." Williams also comments on such pivotal figures during this period as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, as well as two musicians who belong to the movement once called the "New Thing" -- Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman. Williams' remarks on both Dolphy and Coleman reflect his genuine admiration for their contributions to jazz, a position that not many American jazz critics took at that time.
Jazz In Its Time is a book that rewards its readers through its author's use of clear, jargon-free prose that offers pleasurable reading while at the same time educating jazz fans on some of the greatest musicians and most controversial trends in jazz history.
Jazz In Its Time is a collection of Martin Williams' short record reviews, columns, and articles first published in Down Beat, Jazz Times, Metronome, and Saturday Review. In addition, several LP record annotations are included.
Williams covers a wide range of jazz musicians in these fairly brief pieces, including Sidney Bechet, Pee Wee Russell, Lester Young, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Teddy Wilson, Fats Navarro, Art Farmer and Jim Hall, Sonny Stitt, and Jacki Byard.
In a section entitled "Appreciations," Williams gathers together what he calls "profile-appreciations," slightly longer essays on six fairly well-known jazz artists: Lee Konitz, Lionel Hampton, Bud Freeman, Thad Jones, Bobby Hackett, and Harry Carney. In these pieces, Williams deftly summarizes the musicians' contributions to jazz while at the same time presenting readers with a glimpse of these figures as individuals away from the nightclub stage and recording studio.
The record annotations included here also reflect Williams' wide range of expertise in the important task of writing liner notes. His comments deal with LP records by Count Basie, Charlie Parker, The Modern Jazz Quartet, and a rather diverse group of trumpeters: Freddy Keppard, Tommy Ladnier, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Henry 'Red' Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.
Williams covers a lot of territories, and in the process offers a number of judgements about developments in jazz. For example, while acknowledging the seminal influence of Miles Davis' record, Bitches Brew, on the jazz "fusion" movement, Williams argues that fusion was basically an artistic "dead end." Williams also comments on such pivotal figures during this period as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, as well as two musicians who belong to the movement once called the "New Thing" -- Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman. Williams' remarks on both Dolphy and Coleman reflect his genuine admiration for their contributions to jazz, a position that not many American jazz critics took at that time.
Jazz In Its Time is a book that rewards its readers through its author's use of clear, jargon-free prose that offers pleasurable reading while at the same time educating jazz fans on some of the greatest musicians and most controversial trends in jazz history.
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