Jazz: essential listening

Preface

Introduction

Part I : Early jazz (1900-1930). Chapter 1. The roots of jazz. Jazz and ethnicity ; Folk traditions ; Blues. Bessie Smith ; Popular music ; Art music ; Ragtime. Scott Joplin ; The path to jazz : Wilbur Sweatman

Chapter 2. New Orleans. The city on the Gulf. Buddy Bolden and the birth of jazz ; Storyville ; New Orleans style ; The Great Migration ; Jazz moves on : First recordings. Original Dixieland Jazz Band ; Jelly Roll Morton ; King Oliver ; Gennett Records. Sidney Bechet

Chapter 3. New York in the 1920s. Arabian nights ; Transformations ; Dance bands and symphonic jazz. Paul Whiteman ; Fletcher Henderson ; The Alley and the stage ; The Harlem Renaissance ; Stride. James P. Johnson ; The player piano. Duke Ellington begins

Chapter 4. Louis Armstrong and the first great soloists. Louis Armstrong ; The Hot Five and Seven. Enter Earl Hines ; Bix Beiderbecke ; Coleman Hawkin ; Satchmo's world ; Louis Armstrong chronology

Part I Summary.

Part II. The swing era. Chapter 5. Swing bands. From jazz to swing. Benny Goodman ; John Hammond and other fans ; A few major swing bands (Among many). Artie Shaw ; Voices (Roy Eldridge) ; Jimmie Lunceford ; Voices (Eddie Durham) ; Glenn Miller ; Cab Calloway

Chapter 6. Count Basie and Duke Ellington. The Southwest and boogie-woogie ; Territory bands : Andy Kirk and Mary Lou Williams ; Count Basie ; Lester Young and the Lesterian mode ; The incomparable Ellington ; Ellingtonians ; Voices (Duke Ellington) ; Duke Ellington chronology

Chapter 7. A world of soloists. Jammin' the blues. Coleman Hawkins ; The Hawkins school ; Over there. Django Reinhardt ; Benny Carter ; Women in jazz ; Voices (Clora Bryant) ; Singers. Lady Day ; Voices (Billie Holliday) ; Rhythm in transition ; Piano. Fats Waller ; Art Tatum ; Plugging in. Charlie Christian ; Bass. Jimmy Blanton ; Drummers step out

Part II Summary.

Part III. Modern jazz. Chapter 8. Bebop. Bebop and jam sessions. Charlie Parker ; Dizzy Gillespie ; Bird on record ; The bebop generation ; Voices (Amiri Baraka) ; Bud Powell ; Jazz in Los Angeles : Central Avenue. Dexter Gordon ; Aftermath : Bebop and pop ; Jazz at the Philharmonic

Chapter 9. The 1950s : Cool Jazz and Hard Bop. New schools ; Cool jazz. Lennie Tristano ; Todd Dameron ; Birth of the cool. Gerry Mulligan and West Coast jazz ; John Lewis and the modern jazz quartet ; Voices (Percy Heath) ; Heating the cool and changing the time. Dave Brubeck ; Hard bop. Art Blakey ; Horace Silver ; Four soloists. Clifford Brown ; Sonny Rollins ; Wes Montgomery ; Ella Fitzgerald

Chapter 10. Jazz composition in the 1950s. Thelonious Monk. Monk's 71 ; Billy Strayhorn ; Charles Mingus ; Voices (Charles Mingus / Duke Ellington) ; Gil Evans ; Voices (Miles Davis) ; George Russell

Chapter 11. Modality : Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The sorcerer : Miles Davis ; Bill Evans ; Voicing chords ; John Coltrane ; Miles Davis's Second Quintet ; Miles Davis chronology

Part III Summary.

Part IV. The avant-garde, fusion, historicism, and now. Chapter 12. The Avant-Garde. Forward march. Ornette Coleman ; Cecil Taylor ; The Five Spot ; Voices (Andrew Cyrille) ; The new thing. Eric Dolphy ; Albert Ayler ; Three paradoxes ; Voices (Sun Ra) ; Anthony Braxton ; David Murray

Chapter 13. Fusion. The R&B connection. Louis Jordan ; Ray Charles ; Jimmy Smith ; Singers in the mainstream. Frank Sinatra ; Sarah Vaughan ; Latin jazz : Cuba. Mario Bauzá, Machito, and the Dizzy Factor ; Bossa nova : Jobim, Gilberto, and Getz ; Salsa ; Mass media jazz ; The challenge to jazz ; Miles ahead : The breakthrough ; Miles's musicians throughout the years ; Mahavishnu, Return to Forever, and Weather Report ; Chameleons : Herbie Hancock ; Keith Jarrett ; Fusion and rock

Chapter 14. Historicism : Jazz on jazz. The weight of history ; From Bunk to the Academy (1940s and 50s) ; Avant-garde historicism and Neoclassicism (1970s and 80s). Wynton Marsalis ; Repertory vs. nostalgia ; The new mainstream : Homecoming ; Betty Carter ; Voices (Betty Carter) ; Michael Brecker ; Jason Moran

Chapter 15. Jazz today. Paradigms lost and found ; Classical jazz ; Lingua Franca. Vijay Iver ; Esperanza Spalding ; Cécile McLorin ; Salvant ; Enjoying the shadows. Abdullah Ibrahim

Glossary

Primer on music notation.