Jazz Masters in Transition, 1957-69,

Arts & Photography

Williams, Martin

Music

The Macmillan Co.

Praised variously as "perhaps the greatest living jazz critic" (Gunther Schuller) and "one of the most distinguished critics (of anything) this country has produced," (Gary Giddins, The Village Voice), Martin Williams has been perceptively chronicling the development of jazz for more than 30 years. Both The Jazz Tradition, which many consider a classic history of jazz, and his previous collection of jazz writings, Jazz Heritage, received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Excellence in Music Criticism. In this, Williams's newest jazz collection, the author gathers together many of his best pieces and covers new ground, with short columns on Teddy Wilson and George Winston and a longer article, "How Long Has This Been Going On?," examining the current state of jazz. In this last work, Williams notes that jazz is experiencing a period of "stylistic retrenchment or, if you will, a period of conservatism," and questions the fusion of jazz with rock. Williams cites the opinion of Wynton Marsalis and a number of other musicians, who "seem to see the whole fusion thing as a kind of commercial opportunism and artistic blind alley, maybe even a betrayal of the music." Arranged roughly according to the form of the writing (music reviews, profiles, etc.) the pieces included here examine the musicianship of jazz greats from Sidney Bechet to Ornette Coleman, including Lionel Hampton, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, and others. There are also thought pieces on the development and direction of jazz and jazz scholarship. Together, these works provide an insightful overview of the development of jazz over the past 20 years.

Jazz in Its Time

Oxford University Press

An evening with Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot Cafe. Jelly Roll Morton's recordings for the Library of Congress. Langston Hughes reading poetry to the sound of jazz. The tragic life of Billie Holiday. Over the years, Martin Williams has explored subjects both intimate and imposing, always with a sharp eye and prose as musical as his beloved jazz. In Jazz Changes, he brings together some of the finest pieces he has written over the last thirty years to take readers on an engaging personal tour of the changing jazz world. Jazz Changes is Williams's third and perhaps best collection of jazz portraits, interviews, narrative accounts of recording sessions, rehearsals, and performances, important liner notes, and far-reaching discussions of musicians and their music. Here he offers an extended interview with Ross Russell about the famous Dial Record sessions with Charlie Parker that Russell initiated, his extensive notes for the reissue of the famous recording session conducted with Jelly Roll Morton at the Library of Congress in 1938, as well as profiles and comments on such performers as John Lewis, Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington, and Fats Waller. We read amusing parodies of how jazz critics in 1965 might have assessed the Beatles (he has one well-known critic saying that Paul McCartney "sings as if he half expected a shrewish mother to scold him for paying too much attention to the girls") and reflections on the Ellington era (Ellington "worked with [the orchestra] as the great playwrights have worked with their companies of actors...as the great European composers have worked for specific instrumentalists or singers"). He concludes with an eloquent plea for critics to pay attention to jazz history: "We all need to show that we are absolutely serious about this music as a contribution to world culture. And that means we must treat it in the same way that man has always treated a past he wants preserved and respected." And on every page, Williams's keen mind and gifted pen bring the music and the musicians to life. Praised as "perhaps the greatest living jazz critic" (Gunther Schuller) and "one of the most distinguished critics (of anything) this country has produced" (Gary Giddins, The Village Voice), Martin Williams has been perceptively chronicling the development of jazz for more than three decades. Building on the great success of his previous collections of jazz writings--The Jazz Tradition, Jazz Heritage, and Jazz in its Time--this book offers brilliant insights into today's changing jazz scene.

Jazz Changes

From record album liner notes to serious academic pieces, Martin Williams has been perceptively chronicling the development of jazz for over three decades. In this, his newest collection of jazz writings, Williams brings together many of his best pieces and covers new ground, with short columns on Teddy Wilson and George Winston and a longer article, "How Long Has This Been Going On?," examining the current state of jazz. In this last work, Williams notes that jazz is experiencing a period of "stylistic retrenchment or, if you will, a period of conservatism," and questions the fusion of jazz with rock. Williams cites the opinion of Wynton Marsalis and a number of other musicians, who "seem to see the whole fusion thing as a kind of commercial opportunism and artistic blind alley, maybe even a betrayal of the music." Arranged roughly according to the form of the writing (music reviews, profiles, etc.) the pieces included here examine the musicianship of jazz greats from Sidney Bechet to Ornette Coleman, including Lionel Hampton, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, and others. There are also thought pieces on the development and direction of jazz and jazz scholarship. Together, these works provide an insightful overview of the development of jazz over the past twenty years.

When Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States in 1974, he announced that his hero as a dancer was Fred Astaire. Many Americans were surprised that a highly popular figure from the movies could inspire a classically trained European dancer, just as they would be surprised to hear Duke Ellington called a great composer in the same breath with Ravel. But these artists and others, writes Martin Williams, deserve such praise. Twentieth century America, he argues, has produced a rich and innovative culture whose best artists should be a source of national pride. In Hidden in Plain Sight, acclaimed critic Martin Williams offers an eloquent celebration of the achievements of American culture. Americans, Williams writes, have labored under the sense that the art forms created on our shores are less valid than the traditional art forms of Europe. In these lucid essays, he shows how certain American artists have achieved a range and power of their own. Specifically, rejecting such terms as "popular culture," Williams looks at such great, innovative artists as D.W. Griffith and Fred Astaire and shows how they virtually created their own genrers of art with a uniquely American outlook and temperament. He offers a brilliant look at Duke Ellington, exploring the range and enormous volume of his work and describing how he worked with his orchestra in the same way great dramatists (Shakespeare among them) have worked with the specific talents of their actors. Williams looks at comic strips and finds in E.C. Segar's original "Popeye" a perceptive and prophetic comic comment on dictatorship done in 1936. He sees Walt Kelly as a kind of American Father Goose. He discusses the aesthetics of TV by looking at "Bullwinkle and Rocky." He provides freshly revealing accounts of the detective story, the gangster thriller, and the radio satire of Fred Allen, and more. On the other hand, Williams seriously questions whether the United States has a folk music in the traditional sense. In 1924, Gilbert Seldes published The Seven Lively Arts, a landmark account of the originality and value of American culture. Hidden in Plain Sight will be considered a Seldes for the 1990s--and yet it goes further, offering a celebratory critique by the writer Gary Giddins of the Village Voice called "one of the most distinguished critics (of anything) this country has produced."

Hidden in Plain Sight: An Examination of the American Arts

History & Criticism

The Jazz Tradition

When it was first published in 1970, this lively and fascinating book was greeted with almost universal acclaim.The American Record Guide called it "the best one-volume of jazz we have," and theJazz Journal praised it as "a brilliant study of the whole of jazz." Perhaps the greatest tribute was paid by Louis Armstrong himself who raved: "it held Ol' Satch spellbound." Now thoroughly revised and expanded, the new edition ofThe Jazz Tradition offers readers a unique history of jazz, as seen through its greatest practitioners.An original blend of history and criticism, this book explores the work of nearly two dozen leading musicians and ensembles that have shaped the course of jazz, from King Oliver's Creole Jazz band to the present day. Couched in the same readable, non-technical language that made earlier editions so popular, The Jazz Tradition adds new chapters on some of the more recent giants of jazz, performers like pianist Bill Evans, versatile horn player and saxophonist Eric Dolphy, and the World Saxophone Quartet, and considerably expands the chapter devoted to Count Basie. In addition, a foreword by Richard Crawford introduces the new edition, and the discographies on each performer have been fully brought up to date. Written by an authorThe Washington Post lauded as "the most knowledgeable, open-minded, and perceptive American jazz critic today,"The Jazz Tradition belongs in the library of all lovers of this distinctly American sound.

When it was first published in 1970, this lively and fascinating book was greeted with almost universal acclaim. The American Record Guide called it "the best one-volume of jazz we have," and the Jazz Journal praised it as "a brilliant study of the whole of jazz." Perhaps the greatest tribute was paid by Louis Armstrong himself who raved: "it held Ol' Satch spellbound." Now thoroughly revised and expanded, the new edition of The Jazz Tradition offers readers a unique history of jazz, as seen through its greatest practitioners. An original blend of history and criticism, this book explores the work of nearly two dozen leading musicians and ensembles that have shaped the course of jazz, from King Oliver's Creole Jazz band to the present day. Couched in the same readable, non-technical language that made earlier editions so popular, The Jazz Tradition adds new chapters on some of the more recent giants of jazz, performers like pianist Bill Evans, versatile horn player and saxophonist Eric Dolphy, and the World Saxophone Quartet, and considerably expands the chapter devoted to Count Basie. In addition, a foreword by Richard Crawford introduces the new edition, and the discographies on each performer have been fully brought up to date. Written by an author The Washington Post lauded as "the most knowledgeable, open-minded, and perceptive American jazz critic today," The Jazz Tradition belongs in the library of all lovers of this distinctly American sound.

Jazz Changes is the late Martin Williams's third and perhaps best collection of jazz portraits, interviews, narrative accounts of recording sessions, rehearsals, and performances, important liner notes, and far reaching discussions of musicians and their music. The collection includes thirty years of Williams's finest pieces taking readers on an engaging tour of the changing jazz world. There are appreciation-profiles and comments on such performers as Ross Russell--about the noted Dial Record sessions with Charlie Parker--and greats like John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Jelly Roll Morton, Ornette Coleman, Dinah Washington, and Thelonious Monk. Williams also offers parodies of how jazz critics in 1965 might have assessed the Beatles, and reflections on the Ellington era. He concludes with an elegant plea for critics to pay attention to jazz history, always exhibiting his keen mind and gifted pen.

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Mathematics

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See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Williams, Martin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Williams, Martin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Williams, Martin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Jazz Masters in Transition, 1957-69,

Jazz in Its Time

Jazz Changes

Jazz in Its Time

Hidden in Plain Sight: An Examination of the American Arts

The Jazz Tradition

The Jazz Tradition

Jazz Changes

MyMaths for Key Stage 3: Student Book 2A

MyMaths for Key Stage 3: Student Book 3A