Book 14 : Jazz : A History of America’s Music
Summer has finally arrived and with summer, for me at least, that means road trips and long stretches in the car. Despite all my past trips, I am just recently discovering the joy of the audiobook. And as many discoveries are, this one was made by accident. This cd set was mistakenly put in the music cd section at the library instead of with the audiobooks. I checked it out expecting that I was going to listen to the music that had been featured in Ken Burns’ 12 hour documentary on the history of Jazz, but instead I got the text (there is no music except for a few brief interludes) of the documentary’s companion book; Jazz : A History of America’s Music by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, read by LeVar Burton. I watched the documentary when it was on originally and found it very engaging, but it had been awhile and was nice to revist the history again. Despite being an abridged version, the audiobook still stretches to nearly nine hours. After the first listen on my own driving back and forth to my mom’s house over a couple of weekends, I then purchased the audiobook from the iTunes Music Store to have when my mom and I randomly went to Denver this past weekend. Its a well-crafted telling of the whole history of jazz, deftly weaving in American history and the social and political effects of the moment on the music. It has moments of humor and moments of sadness. Burton was a great choice to do the reading as he is able to read quotes from Louis Armstrong with a good… I hate to say “impression” because its not hokey, he is able to capture the vocal essence of Armstrong to make the listening come alive. The beginning focuses on New Orleans in the 1800’s and the amazing circumstances in that city that would give rise to jazz. The end focuses on the state of jazz today. But the bulk of the story, in a way, is the story of Louis Armstrong, there from the very beginning, through the height of jazz’s popularity, and then its gradual decline through the later years of his life. However, it doesn’t end on a sad note, there is focus on Wynton Marsalis and the rebirth of jazz in the last two decades.
I recommend this audiobook for anyone who has even a passing interest in jazz or american history and I highly recommend it for anyone about to embark on a long road trip to see their favorite jazz musicians.
If any of my friends out there would like to borrow my copy, just let me know.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
