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Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging
from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn
of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller
explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the
twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis
Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher
Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing
their music in the context of the other musical cultures of the
twentieth century and offering analyses of many great jazz
recordings.
Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz
world. A classic study, it is both a splendid introduction for
students and an insightful guide for scholars, musicians, and jazz
aficionados.
The autobiography of composer and conductor Gunther Schuller and a
recounting of the American musical scene through the twentieth
century and into the twenty-first. Simultaneously the memoir of a
famed composer, conductor, and music educator, and an important
historical sourcebook on the American musical scene during the
twentieth century and into the twenty-first, the autobiography of
Gunther Schuller chronicles the first thirty-five years of this
multifaceted and expansive figure's life and work. Schuller began
composing music at an early age and joined the Cincinnati Symphony
as its principal French horn player at seventeen. Since then he has
written for many major orchestras and his work has earned him a
MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant and the Pulitzer Prize in 1994
for his large-scale orchestral piece Of Reminiscences and
Reflections. Perhaps most famously, Schuller contributed to a new
stylistic blend between progressive factions of jazz and classical
music, for which he coined the term "Third Stream," and
collaborated with John Lewis, the ModernJazz Quartet, and others in
the development of this style. In this exquisitely detailed
reflection on his early influences, experiences of good fortune,
and powers of curiosity, as well as firsthand recounting of
critical cultural and social moments and major movers of the jazz
world, Schuller here beautifully and honestly narrates a life lived
beyond limits. Gunther Schuller has been on the faculties of the
Manhattan School of Music andYale University; he was, for many
years, head of contemporary music activities (succeeding Aaron
Copland) and Director of the Tanglewood Music Center, and served as
president of the New England Conservatory. He is the author of The
Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945; Early Jazz: Its
Roots and Musical Development; The Compleat Conductor, and many
other books.
Written by a world renowned conductor and composer, this highly provocative critique of modern conducting is sure to spark debate in the music world.
This collection of writings by Gunther Schuller--the first composer
to be awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Composer's Chair of the Chamber
Society of Lincoln Center--provides a marvelous introduction to the
man and his extraordinary range of musical experience, taste, and
learning. In Part I, "Jazz and the Third Stream," Schuller offers
his reflections on jazz, insightful pieces on such figures as Duke
Ellington, Cecil Taylor, and Sonny Rollins, and several essays on
"the third stream," the genre where jazz and classical music
intersect. Part II, "Music Performance and Contemporary Music,"
includes articles on the art of conducting, the future of opera,
the question of a new classicism, and Schuller's own thoughts on
his controversial opera The Visitation. The final section, "Music
Aesthetics and Education," presents Schuller's reflections on such
matters as form, structure, and symbol in music; the need for
broadening the audience for quality music; and his vision of the
ideal conservatory and the total musician.
Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second
volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When
the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it
immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on
American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a remarkable breakthrough in
musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times
Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any
standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been
universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from
its beginnings until 1933.
The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American
musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with
America's popular music, its social dances and musical
entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical
perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this
well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing
perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson
and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a
master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's
finest work...how Duke Ellington used the highly individualistic
trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence
Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday
developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how
the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten
John Nesbitt helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence
on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also
provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures
as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee
Russell, and Joe Mooney.
Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time,
which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black
bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines,
Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory
bands"--and popular white bands like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie,
Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical
assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn
Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical
soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester
Young, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as
Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.
Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging
from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn
of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller
explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the
twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis
Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher
Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing
their music in the context of the other musical cultures of the
twentieth century and offering analyses of many great jazz
recordings.
Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz
world. A classic study, it is both a splendid introduction for
students and an insightful guide for scholars, musicians, and jazz
aficionados.
Musings gathers together the essays, speeches, liner notes,
dictionary entries, and magazine articles of Gunther Schuller, one
of the most important musical figures of the century. The writings
in this collection cover such artists as Paul Whiteman, Duke
Ellington, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Sarah
Vaughan, Gil Evans. Schuller also writes about such topics as the
"Third Stream," the art of conducting, the future of opera, and the
need for broadening the audience for quality music. A marvellous
introduction to the man and his experience, taste and erudition,
Musings is essential reading for anyone interested in
twentieth-century music.
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