Jazz and its discontents : a Francis Davis reader / Francis Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Francis, 1946-2025.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jazz--History and criticism.

Jazz.

Jazz musicians.

Musical criticism.

Musicians.

Physical Description:

xiv, 336 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Da Capo Press edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, 2004.

Summary:

From Bob Hope to Sun Ra, from the jazz age to middle age, with thoughts on everything in between, Francis Davis has been writing about American music and American culture for more than twenty years. His essays have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, and the Village Voice among countless other publications from coast to coast. And now here is a selection of the most important writings of his impressive career -- the quintessential Davis on everything from Duke Ellington to Wynton Marsalis, Jack Kerouac to Jerry Seinfeld, jazz to rap. And Davis's writing is as enjoyable as the culture of which he writes. The New York Times Book Review has compared Davis's work to "a well-blown solo." Wire said that Davis "packs in data, asides, and encapsulated opinions with enviable skill." No matter what the subject is, Jazz and Its Discontents shows as never before a writer of deep opinions and thoughtful insight -- one of the most dazzling critics of our times.

Contents:

Only Myself to Blame: Introduction and Acknowledgments ix

From in the Moment

An Improviser Prepares (Sonny Rollins) 3

No Success Like Failure: Ornette Coleman's Permanent Revolution 15

Leading Lady (Abbey Lincoln) 26

Anthony Davis's New Music 33

From Outcats

Surviving Ellington 55

Ellington's Decade 68

The Mystery of Herbie Nichols 76

Sunshine, Too (Sheila Jordan) 82

She's Susannah McCorkle 93

Too Late Blues (Bobby Darin) 101

West Coast Ghost (Frank Morgan) 105

Black Like Him (Bobby Short) 111

The Home and the World (Abdullah Ibrahim) 116

Streams of Consciousness (Ran Blake) 123

Circles, Whirls, and Eights (Borah Bergman) 128

From Bebop and Nothingness

Pres and His Discontents (Lester Young) 135

Apple Pie (Art Blakey) 141

Real Stuff in Life to Cling To (Tony Bennett) 145

"Zorn" for "Anger" 151

Bagels and Dreadlocks (Don Byron) 158

Out There (Charles Gayle) 167

White Anglo-Saxon Pythagorean (Roswell Rudd) 174

Recurring Characters

The Unsure Egoist Is Not Good for Himself 187

Talking with Miles 190

Miles Agonistes 195

Hottentot Potentate 200

Sun Ra, Himself 204

The Right Stuff 210

Born Out of Time 213

Wynton's Ellington Jones 219

Bonus Tracks

My Worthy Constituents 225

Jim Hall Has It Made 230

Other Folks' Music

Full of Foolish Song (Guys and Dolls) 239

Infection (Stephen Sondheim) 248

Black Faces, Black Masks 258

Mixed Media

At the Movies 269

Talking Kerouac 286

Standup Sitcom (Seinfeld) 290

Onward (Mort Sahl) 297

Bob Hope, Prisoner of War 302

America Surrenders 307

Only in the Movies 320.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0306810557

OCLC:

54881185