This chapter of Shim’s biography of Lennie Tristano deals with the pianist’s arrival in New York and his critical and professional reception thereafter. Tristano’s music startled some, confused others, and inspired many more, including protegés Billy Bauer, Lee Konitz, and Warne Marsh.
Gerald Majer, a native of Chicago's racially segregated South Side, has written a book about its musical life. The Velvet Lounge combines his personal experiences with the story, or stories, of his community, merging his account of the music and with the difficult conditions that shaped it. The result is an innovative combination of history, subjective experience of that history, and reflection on its meaning-that is, of fact, literature, and criticism.
"New Yorkers' imaginations operate on a large scale," claims Stewart, in their choice of orchestras as well as in other pursuits. This article describes the high level of musicianship, variety, and sheer numbers of big bands operating in the city, and surveys the venerable history of New York big bands beginning in the first decades of the 20th century.
Guthrie Ramsey's Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop explores the lationship between music and African American identity. Surveying an array of black music styles, Ramsey asks how African Americans have identified themselves in music. He draws upon his experience as a jazz and gospel pianist and his family's participation in the Great Migration to generate an ethnographic method that positions family narrative at the intersection of racial identity and musical expression.
Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't calls for examination of specific musical texts and for situating the artistic practices that they represent in a larger social and cultural milieu.
Caliban, a journal of alternative poetry, featured this collection of articles on the workings and the implications of Thelonious Monk's music. The contributions include poetry inspired by Monk, analysis of his music, and social commentary. These writings were featured in Caliban 4 (1988). To read the current issue online, please go to calibanonline.com.
McMillan places Lee Morgan's early development and tastes within the context of the jazz scene in Philadelphia. Rather than viewing Morgan as an isolated hero or astounding prodigy, McMillan portrays his talent as a product of the flourishing jazz community that surrounded him.
McMillan is the author of a new book on Morgan, Delightfulee: the Life and Music of Lee Morgan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008). Material from the article posted here appears in this new volume. Purchasing information is available on the University of Michigan Press website.
Barry Ulanov's liner notes to a recording by Lennie Tristano that also included Lee Konitz, Gene Ramey, and Art Taylor.
Ulanov explores the early career of the pianist/composer in order to ask what the roots of his prodigious talent may be.
Translator Timothy S. Murphy notes that Jacques Derrida wrote "Play-The First Name" in response to Ornette Coleman's invitation for him to perform onstage with Coleman and pianist Joachim Kühn at a concert in France. The piece contains Derrida's meditations on the nature of improvisation.
