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I Dream of Jazz Writing
May 16, 2007
By trade, as it were, I write poems, critical prose, and PW news stories. But my secret ambition--after being a singing bass player in a rock band--has long been to be a jazz critic. I think that would be so cool--all the free CDs I could eat, free jazz shows, and then coming home to the difficult and satisfying task of finding words to describe another language: music.
So, in order to fan the flame of this fantasy (and because I'm just damn tired of literature), I've been reading a couple of books of jazz criticism and biography, and have a couple more on deck.
First came a forthcoming book: Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff, due out from FSG this September. I won't say much about this one, other than that it's really well written, properly skeptical without sacrificing any adoration, and give a really good close reading of Coltrane's whole career.
Now, I'm in the middle of Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter by Michelle Mercer, published by Tarcher/Penguin. Just after Coltrane came Shorter, whose sound is perhaps a bit harder to pick out of a musical crowd, but no less deep. And unlike Coltrane, shorter made it past the 60s, and has lived through all the subsequent movements in jazz, including the fusion era, when his band, Weather Report, achieved real popular success. And his music now--well, it makes me wonder what wonders we'd be hearing if only Coltrane had lived. Mercer is a good biographer--perhaps a bit too enthusiastic--and an uneven music critic--I don't always trust her assessments of what's going on in the music, but generally, I'm really enjoying the decades of jazz gossip to be found in the book.
In between these two, I've been glancing at a couple of reference books by Richard. Cook--The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings and Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia. 
He's a great writer, whose opionons on what's been important throughout the history of jazz I often disagree with, which is part of the fun.
Next, I hope to look at The Producer by Dunston Prial, and then, if I'm feeling grouchy, poet Philip Larkin's jazz writings, though I hope I don't have to resort to any more of that literature crap.
Posted by Craig Morgan Teicher on May 16, 2007 | Comments (1)
