MY BOOKS
I have been fortunate enough to
have written ten books on jazz thus
far. Here is a brief description of
each of them. Those of you who
are interested in purchasing copies
of the books, feel free to send me
an E-mail.
(scottyanowjazz@yahoo.com)
Each book goes for $20 plus $5
postage except for the giant Jazz
On Record 1917-76 which is $60
plus $10 postage and the
upcoming Jazz Singers book. I
don't have copies of Duke Ellington,
Jazz: A Regional Analysis and the
All Music Guide To Jazz for sale,
sorry. Also, it will take a two extra
weeks to get a copy of Jazz On
Record sent to you since it has to
be ordered.
I have been involved with the All
Music Guide for a decade, writing
an uncountable number of record
reviews, over 10,000. Although I
was in the first two editions of the
All Music Guide To Jazz when it
was edited by Ron Wynn, it was in
the third edition which I edited
where I really became busy,
rewriting much of the book and
having fun fixing things. Since then
there has been a fourth edition and,
although I was not its editor, many
of my reviews are included. It
remains one of the top jazz
reference books.
After the third edition of the All
Music Guide To Jazz was
completed, the good people at
Backbeat Books (which was then
known as Miller/Freeman) wanted
to know if I would be interested in
writing a series of jazz books,
particularly ones featuring specific
styles. It took about two seconds
before I agreed. The first one I
wrote was Swing. I wanted this to
be a different type of book, not just
sticking to the swing era but
covering through historic essays,
biographies and record reviews, all
aspects of swing music. So it
discusses swing of the 1920s, the
bandleaders, top soloists and
singers of the Swing era, and the
top swing stylists to come to
prominence after the big band era
ended. In addition, it is the first
mainstream book to take seriously
the Retro-Swing movement of the
1980s and ‘90s and groups such
as the Royal Crown Revue and Big
Bad Voodoo Daddy. Are those
bands any good, are their
recordings worth getting, and who
have been the leaders of that
movement? I thought that that was
a topic way overdue to be covered.
The Retro Swing movement was
already declining when I wrote
Swing, but some of the best groups
(particularly Lavay Smith’s Red Hot
Skillet Lickers) are still performing
exciting music. So, in addition to
Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington,
Count Basie, Artie Shaw and the
expected names, there are some
surprises in this book.
Next up was Bebop. Bop is the
foundation of modern jazz and I
focused both on the classic bop era
(1945-49) and the bop soloists who
matured in later years. The most
difficult part about writing this book
was separating bop from cool jazz
and hard bop since many
musicians and singers constantly
cross those boundaries, and few
jazz musicians today do not play a
bop tune on an occasional basis. I
wrote Bebop taking it for granted
that I would eventually write books
on Cool Jazz and Hard Bop
although those projects have not
been started yet. In addition to
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
Bud Powell, Fats Navarro,
Thelonious Monk and their
contemporaries, this book talks
about the more advanced stylists of
the swing era, the swing big bands’
individual reactions to bop, and the
many bop recordings that were cut
during the remarkably fertile era of
1945-49.
Writing Afro-Cuban Jazz gave me a
chance to explore the history,
current scene and legacy of Latin
jazz, one of the most creative styles
of music around today. I separated
jazz from Cuba from that of Brazil
(which could be a separate book
altogether), focusing on the former.
The hardest part about writing Afro-
Cuban Jazz was that in 2000 there
were very few books on the subject
so I was largely starting from
scratch. Since Afro-Cuban Jazz has
been published, many other works
on this rewarding music have at last
been written, so now there are
more writers to steal from! My book
covers the main innovators of each
era in alphabetical order, from Tito
Puente and Cal Tjader to David
Sanchez and Chucho Valdes, and
has a section called “They Also
Recorded Afro-Cuban Jazz” which
talks about the Latin recordings of
more mainstream jazz musicians.
Since dixieland is my first love, it
was only right that I would eventually
write a book on the 1920s. Classic
Jazz mostly sticks to the 1917-33
period. When I wrote it in 2001, I
covered virtually every CD and Lp
that included recordings from that
era although naturally many others
have been reissued since. It was a
pleasure really digging into that
period, and I do not think that I
missed anyone of significance in
my biographies. I particularly love
1920s jazz so Classic Jazz is my
love letter to that era.
The trumpet has always been my
favorite instrument even though I
cannot get a decent note out of that
illogical horn. Trumpet Kings has
biographies of 479 trumpeters from
all styles and covers every soloist of
importance from 1901-2001. It
includes many original quotes
gathered from questionnaires that I
sent to all of the living trumpeters,
and there is a liberal amount of
humor since many trumpeters are
simply crazy! Be sure to check out
the entry on Jack Purvis which I
have duplicated on this website.
Having written five books (Swing,
Bebop, Afro-Cuban Jazz, Classic
Jazz and Trumpet Kings) in a two-
year period, the folks at Backbeat
must have thought that I needed a
real challenge. They suggested that
I write a book covering the history of
jazz on record, a modest
undertaking. I have always believed
that rather than one style “replacing”
another one, such as bop replacing
swing and fusion replacing hard
bop, the history of jazz is much
more confusing, with each new style
joining the older ones and adding to
the mix, with everything influencing
everything else to a certain degree.
Swing did not disappear during the
bebop era, there was plenty of
great dixieland in the 1950s and
‘60s and bop was certainly around
during the fusion era of the 1970s.
Jazz On Record was designed to
make it to the present time, but
there were so many recordings in
the 1950s and ‘60s, and I did not
want to miss anything important,
that I finally had to cut it off in 1976
or I’d still be writing it, so it is called
Jazz On Record – The First Sixty
Years. It is over 800 pages and
discusses what everyone in jazz
(and I do mean everyone) was up to
during each period. I put some
humor and ridiculous trivia in the
timeline sections, kept the
thousands of record reviews very
short, and tried to portray the entire
jazz world during each period. See
what you think!
Jazz On Film is a book that was
really needed. In it I review 1,400
films, documentaries, shorts,
videos and DVDs, all of which have
at least a brief appearance by a
jazz musician or singer onscreen,
not just on the soundtrack. In one
film, drummer Jo Jones appears in
view with his band for a total of four
bars, perhaps five seconds; I
included it. I had an opportunity to
spend a year watching TV,
pretending I was working! There
are so many new jazz DVDs being
put out these days that I hope
eventually I will get to write a
second edition. Jazz On Film
covers most of what was available
and known about by 2004.
Two of my other books have been
written for other publishers. Jazz: A
Regional Exploration, put out by
Greenwood Press, discusses the
history of jazz and its different styles
in an unusual way, by cities and
regions. Duke Ellington
(Friedman/Fairfax) is a beautiful
photo book that has many rare
shots. I wrote the text.
As for The Jazz Singers book, it will
be published by Hal Leonard and is
scheduled to be released in
October 2008. It is a large book
featuring entries on 521 singers. I
will provide more information when
it comes out.
Many more projects are upcoming,
including text for a book featuring
photos of jazz gravesites that is
called A Jazz Life.
I'll keep you informed!