Ashley Kahn "Love Supreme: The Creation of John Coltrane's Classic Album" (Granta Books)





A Love Supreme is one of the most important and influential jazz albums of all times, and, certainly, one of Coltrane's most praised records. This book is a kind of biography of that record, presenting, in Chapters 3 and 4, the history of the recording sessions of December 1964 (with recollections of, among others, Elvin Jones) and also describing the surrounding context (musical and otherwise): the early play of Coltrane, including his work with Miles, the formation of his Quartet with Tyner, Garrison and Jones, and the contract with Impulse, and the aftershocks of the album release, describing the influences the album had in the avant-garde jazz scene at the time and in the larger world afterwards. This is a excellent book and a fit tribute to a unique jazz masterpiece.

David Barber "When the Fat Lady Sings: Opera History As It Ought To Be Taught" (Sound And Vision)







The subtitle says it all: Opera History as it ought to be taught. (Although it's really about the composers rather than their operas.)

As with his other books, it is a humorously engrossing book. You don't have to be a big opera buff to enjoy this exhilarating and entertaining book. If you feel down, this will definitely perk you up.

Billy Bragg "The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging" (Black Swan)





Billy Bragg is a well-known singer-songwriter and activist, and this is a very personal account of English identity. He examines both the history of dissent in England and his own family history as a way of examining how he came to his own views, and rounds it off with a passionate plea for a proper, modern Bill of Rights in this country as a way of countering the rise of fascist organisations like the BNP (British National Party), who have been particulalry succesful, until recently, in his own East End of London. It's an interesting account of Englishness (rather than what it is to be British, for the Welsh and Scots seem more secure in their own identity), but it is rather uneven in the way it is written. At times, the account becomes too personal, almost autobiographical, with long sections on the rise of Punk music and his part in the music scene of the time. Interesting in itself, but too much detail compared to the more measured historical analysis of English identity.

Perhaps I was expecting more of the latter and not expecting the depth of autobiography; I certainly enjoyed that part more and became restless when the focus switched back to his own family. Probably this should be two books, not one, each one a little more focused.

Lisa Jardine "Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance" (Papermac)



This fascinating book is essentially a look at how important things, and money, were in shaping what we now think of as the world of the Renaissance.

It starts with an analysis of the National Gallery Crivelli annunciation, a "meticulous visual inventory of consumer goods" from across the known world as well as a beautiful work of art - and itself a desirable possession. Renaissance artists were craftsmen for hire, working to order for the rich and powerful - and sitting at table with the tailors, musicians and other salaried members of the household. Others who fell into this category were people who would now perhaps style themselves as lifestyle consultants. You could have a man to advise you on what paintings, antiquities or books to buy to display your wealth and taste. You could even have someone to pre-read the books for you - Sir Philip Sidney had a private reader who annotated a copy of Livy for him with marginal notes referring to modern parallels to the events in the text, and a number of cross-references to modern works on political and military theory.

Conspicuous consumption was an essential aspect of prestige and authority, often backed up by borrowing on a massive scale. Christopher Columbus' proposal to seek a shorter route to the Indies - and therefore bypass the mark-ups which the spice traders put on their goods - was attractive to Ferdinand and Isabella because they were deeply in debt after a series of costly military campaigns. (For the weddings of two of their children in 1495, Isabella had to redeem her crown of gold and diamonds which had been pledged to raise money for the war against Granada.) And fortunes were made for entire families of bankers because they had received trading concessions in return for loans to popes or kings - the Medici wealth was based on monopolistic access to alum, vital for dyeing cloth. You could also make a fortune by having access to the right piece of information - for example, if you knew that two great houses were planning a wedding, you could stock up on fine fabrics while they were relatively cheap.

I think that since this book was published in 1996, its thesis has become much more widely accepted. But even so, Jardine finds some eye-catching links between things - consumption and discovery - and broad historical changes. The rebuilding of St Peter's Church in Rome, involving some of the greatest artists of the day including Michelangelo and Raphael, was so expensive that Pope Leo X issued a particularly grandiose indulgence, granting remission not just from sins already committed, but "purchasers and their relatives were forgiven every conceivable sin they had committed, or might commit, and exempted from all suffering in Purgatory, advancing immediately to Heaven". The indulgences were sold particularly hard in Germany, because the papacy had agreed that half the proceeds would go to paying off the debts of the Archbishop of Mainz. It was after the issue of this particular indulgence that Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg.

This is definitely a macro-history, ranging across the European continent from Scotland to the Ottoman Empire and in time across a couple of centuries. I am not sure that there was a coherent argument running all the way through it - it's more of a bag of delights, studded with interesting facts that you feel Jardine couldn't bring herself to leave out. I particularly liked the story of a map which deliberately placed the Molucca islands in the wrong place to back up Spain's territorial claim to them - and the related treaty stated that "during the time of this contract, {the Moluccas} shall be regarded as situated in such place" as shown on the map. Even that was only a bargaining chip - as soon as the claim was established the Spanish relinquished them in exchange for cash - "far more valuable to Charles, beset, in established Hapsburg fashion, by enormous debts to his bankers, than monopoly trading rights on the far side of the world".

Illustrated with monochrome and colour plates, which adds to the appeal of the book, I would heartily recommend this as a good read.

Richard King "How Soon Is Now?:: The Madmen and Mavericks who made Independent Music 1975-2005" (Faber & Faber)



This is a dense and involving tome of roughly 600 pages. Even though this book is very long and took me two months to finish, it doesn't feel overlong; in fact, I felt it glossed over certain people and labels (Mute gets a chapter all to itself towards the beginning, then is barely mentioned until the end when it's sold off; meanwhile 4AD and Factory all get multiple chapters).

That said, this is a very interesting book on a subject I really had never thought about prior to reading. I loved the music covered in the book, and had never considered the people who ran the labels it came out on. I thought the book might get bogged down in business specifics, being about labels and all, but the author smartly focuses on the individual label heads and their sort of "character arcs" rather than deals and money (though that shows up too, of course).

In many ways this reads as a sort of British version of Our Band Could Be Your Life. That book, one of my favorites, profiles 12 bands in the 80s American Indie scene, but since many of those artists either ran their own labels or were close to the label heads, it ends up covering the business side as well. This book definitely focuses on the business end, but there is plenty of info about the bands as well (and when Blast First shows up, it even covers the same bands as OBCBYL).

I'm not sure I could recommend this book if you weren't at least interested in some of the bands mentioned on the back cover of the book, since it is quite long, but this expansive history of independent record labels is definitely not as dry as it may seem at first glance, and as with all good books about music, it inspired me to go away and explore or revisit some of the key tracks from the era.

For example, I'd completely forgotten about Colourbox despite loving their music when it was released - thirty years on they still sound wonderful. I was also very interested to read how a massive hit single effectively stopped their career in its tracks.

It was a remarkable era for popular music and this book is a compelling reminder of a glorious and important musical era. The book concludes in 2005 when, in a reverse of the rest of the music industry, many modern independent labels are prospering relative to the major labels. That said, if this book proves one thing, it's that it is very difficult to run a small and successful independent record label - and always has been.

Francos King "Frozen Music" (Arena Arrow)




A fairly simple little novella looking at India before and after independence. Rupert, recently divorced, is travelling around with his elderly father Philip and the latter's new wife, Kirsti, who is Rupert's age. They want to visit the grave of Philip's mother, who died during an earlier family trip to India in the 1930s, when Rupert was still a child. And of course it all leads to a lot of readjusting of perspectives and revising of memories.

It's really more an expanded short story than a compressed novel, and King uses the extra space to sketch in minor characters like the group's Indian driver, Rajiv, and the hotel manager Mr Solomon, whose father had worked for Rupert's uncle. Slight, but very nicely done.

Graham Swift "Last Orders" (Picador)




This is Swift's Booker Prize-winning novel from 1996, and for me it is a re-read. Some have noted similarities between it and Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, but that does not detract from its quality which has been evident in Swift's writing since his earlier success with Waterland (a novel that was short-listed for the Booker). While I found it a bit slow at first, it eventually evolved into a captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request--namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. None could be better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies--insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war.

The narrative start is developed with an economy that presents (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth with a minimum of melodrama. The group is uncomfortable at first as evidenced by weak and self- conscious jocular remarks when they meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader gradually learns why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does--or so he thinks. As you might expect there are stories shared with topics like tales of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms. There is even a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling sea waves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Graham Swift is able to avoid artificiality by listening closely to these lives and presenting realistic voices that share stories of humanity with the proverbial ring of truth. If you have seen the film version, then you will know these characters, but if you have not, I totally recommend this novel forst.

Greil Marcus "Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads" (Faber & Faber)



Whether you like Greil Marcus or not, the book is like a poetic metaphor, and as such should be read that way. At times it is overwhelming due to the intensity of the words, as well as difficult due to the images it composes, but always delightful, like savouring a Rimbaud poem. Metaphorically speaking, it is a mind expanding drug.

But and here is the caveat, if you're not a die-hard Dylan fan, you might find it quite boring. Above all, I recommend listening carefully to Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home in their entirety before reading the book. Being a Dylanesque devotee, I can only recommend.

Stuart Jeffries "Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern" (Verso)






Our current time is an era marked by opinion, in which there seems to be no room for objectivity. We find ourselves immersed in what has been defined in political theory since the 1970s as "postmodernism," an era marked by social and artistic movements that sought to subvert established hierarchies and traditional values through humour, provocation, irony, and nihilism. But neoliberalism crossed the roadmap of postmodernism, finding in this new era of irreverence fertile ground for establishing an individualistic society governed by the free market. Today, we seem convinced that there is no alternative.

Stuart Jeffries traces the origins of postmodernism and neoliberalism to understand their roots and the impact they have had on the world. He reveals the contradictions of a society that, in its struggle for individual freedom, has fostered the rise of new totalitarianism. A fascinating book, whether you are into history , philosophy or just curious, and hence has my recommendation.

Paul Morley "Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City" (Bloomsbury Publishing)




This is a bit of a re-read as it is a very esoteric history of pop, which I like. A ride in a very fast car. Insightful and entertaining. Lots and lots of lists some of which will interest you and some won't. It will alomost certainly make you curious about some artist or genre you have never heard of. Plenty of philosphy and ideas - for example a discussion of celebrity. Goes well beyond a history of pop and leaves out as much as it takes in. Eclectic and wacky. I still take it off the shelf to get inspiration as to what to listen to next- or what to challenge Amazon music with.

I have always been that adventurous with music, so I would definitely recommend this book to the very curious music lover.