What do you think?
Rate this book
DownBeat - The Great Jazz Interviews: A 75th Anniversary Anthology
(Book). Culled from the DownBeat archives includes in-depth interviews with literally every great jazz artist and personality that ever lived! Features classic photos and magazine covers from DownBeat 's vast archives. In honor of its 75th anniversary, DownBeat 's editors have brought together in this one volume the best interviews, insights, and photographs from the illustrious history of the world's top jazz magazine, DownBeat . This anthology includes the greatest of DownBeat 's Jazz Hall of Famers: from early legends like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman; to bebop heroes like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; to truly unique voices like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk; to the pioneers of the electric scene like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Joe Zawinul. The Great Jazz Interviews delivers the legends of jazz, talking about America's music and America itself, in their own words.
357 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
39 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 10, 2017
Want to get the insiders History of Jazz? Wow! Thanks Mary
March 17, 2012
Compiled from the vast archives at DownBeat, one of the most important jazz publications to have existed, is this huge collection of interviews. Organised and evenly distributed through the different decades, it provides plenty of anecdotes, stories, and most importantly, opinions. The most interesting parts, are when certain artists are asked their opinions on others, specifically through the 50's and 60's. Don't expect anybody but the stars here though, remember this was a publication for the masses.
August 12, 2010
This is a great collection of interviews for Jazz buffs.
October 12, 2020
This book is a real treasure -- a collection of artist interviews from Downbeat magazine, beginning in 1935 and ending in 2008. More often than not we get a very rich picture of their upbringings, personal lives, music and the business. They come across as real three-dimensional people, whom we quickly notice are very interconnected.
A few things struck me overall. In the swing days, it's remarkable how band members were often like players on sports teams, moving from one group to another. It's also amazing to find out who knew whom from swing bands, particularly those musicians who became huge influences in the Bop era and later. I shouldn't have been surprised at the depth of musical training and knowledge of many jazz musicians, but I often was. Nor should I have been surprised at how the history of jazz is so intertwined with the history of race relations in America. I was also struck that jazz seemed to become a niche style of music earlier than I thought, not long after the swing era. And a lot of interviewees really did refer to people as "cats" well into the '90s.
There are some interviews with people from the pop music world, usually innovators (Frank Zappa, Brian Eno and the like). Notwithstanding that, the boundaries of who's interviewed seemed somewhat restrictive (imho) as is often found on jazz radio shows and elsewhere. There isn't much reference to electric jazz or "fusion". In the course of interviews, some of Miles Davis' work gets mentioned, as do Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but they seem to be judged to be outside of the fold. Pat Metheny is interviewed, but notably it's along with Ornette Coleman. Weather Report merit an interview, but are nudged (pestered?) about whether they think they're a "fusion" band. But for those who hover around jazz, none of this is surprising. I may not agree, but it's de rigueur.
The arc of the interviews does seem to reflect changes in where jazz fits into our cultural world. In the last twenty years covered by the book in particular, there's a lot of looking backward. A lot of great music is still being created that's heavily influenced by jazz. But "jazz" as framed in this book seems to be presented as a musical style from yesteryear.
Regardless: it's a great book, and I'm going to keep enjoying more traditional jazz and new sounds inspired by jazz at festivals and elsewhere.
A few things struck me overall. In the swing days, it's remarkable how band members were often like players on sports teams, moving from one group to another. It's also amazing to find out who knew whom from swing bands, particularly those musicians who became huge influences in the Bop era and later. I shouldn't have been surprised at the depth of musical training and knowledge of many jazz musicians, but I often was. Nor should I have been surprised at how the history of jazz is so intertwined with the history of race relations in America. I was also struck that jazz seemed to become a niche style of music earlier than I thought, not long after the swing era. And a lot of interviewees really did refer to people as "cats" well into the '90s.
There are some interviews with people from the pop music world, usually innovators (Frank Zappa, Brian Eno and the like). Notwithstanding that, the boundaries of who's interviewed seemed somewhat restrictive (imho) as is often found on jazz radio shows and elsewhere. There isn't much reference to electric jazz or "fusion". In the course of interviews, some of Miles Davis' work gets mentioned, as do Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but they seem to be judged to be outside of the fold. Pat Metheny is interviewed, but notably it's along with Ornette Coleman. Weather Report merit an interview, but are nudged (pestered?) about whether they think they're a "fusion" band. But for those who hover around jazz, none of this is surprising. I may not agree, but it's de rigueur.
The arc of the interviews does seem to reflect changes in where jazz fits into our cultural world. In the last twenty years covered by the book in particular, there's a lot of looking backward. A lot of great music is still being created that's heavily influenced by jazz. But "jazz" as framed in this book seems to be presented as a musical style from yesteryear.
Regardless: it's a great book, and I'm going to keep enjoying more traditional jazz and new sounds inspired by jazz at festivals and elsewhere.
December 15, 2016
Some great pieces in here. Also some duds. I wish they would have limited it to only jazz musicians. The random others diluted the book
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews