There are loads of great books on music. Perhaps members could post short- or even long- reviews of books on music they have enjoyed reading over the years. It neednt be a professional review. It could be an opinionated , quirky piece on something that fired their imagination , opened up newer vistas of enjoying music or enabled them to collect some trivia to fire up dinner table conversation with friends.
But Beautiful - A book about Jazz by Geoff Dyer
But Beautiful tries to recreate in a rambling, at times stream of conscious kind of narrative the imagined biographInes of jazz greats like Monk, Mingus, Ben Webster. For example everyone knows how Monk took the hit for Bud Powell when cops discovered the latter's heroin. The story is that Monk was arrested instead of Powell and had his cabaret card confiscated so that he could not perform his jazz publicly. This lead to other consequences that Monk fans know about. This episode is re-imagined in this fashion.
Note the syncopated prose, the brilliant angularity of the images..almost like chops from Monk's piano.
Cops approach the cats in the car. Monk snatches Powell's heroin and throws it out.
"Monk snatched it from him and sent it butterflying out of the window, landing in a puddle and floating there like a little origami yatch"
The cops approach...
"Monk and Bud sat and watched the red and blue lights from the prowl car helicoptering around them, rain sweating down the white glare of the windshield, the metronome flop of the wipers. Bud rigid, holding himself barbed-wire tight."
Monk is interrogated.
"- What's your name?"
-Monk
-You got ID?
Monk's hand moved towards his pocket-"
The cop sees the ID
"Thelonious Sphere Monk. That you?
-Yeah. The word came clear of his mouth like a tooth.
-Big name.
Rain falling into pools of blood neon"
Cops seize Monk's card, 'toss it like a cigarette into a puddle'.
The episode ends..
"Monk looked down at the rain pattering his photo, a raft in a crimson lake."
Willim Claxton the renowned jazz photographer once in an interview said, "I was up all night developing when the face appeared in the developing tray. A tough demeanour and a good physique but an angelic face with pale white skin and, the craziest thing, one tooth missing -- he'd been in a fight. I thought, my God, that's Chet Baker." There is an account of the fight (or rather the beating) which lead to that Chet Bakers's famously photogenic dental deficit.
But Beautiful - A book about Jazz by Geoff Dyer
But Beautiful tries to recreate in a rambling, at times stream of conscious kind of narrative the imagined biographInes of jazz greats like Monk, Mingus, Ben Webster. For example everyone knows how Monk took the hit for Bud Powell when cops discovered the latter's heroin. The story is that Monk was arrested instead of Powell and had his cabaret card confiscated so that he could not perform his jazz publicly. This lead to other consequences that Monk fans know about. This episode is re-imagined in this fashion.
Note the syncopated prose, the brilliant angularity of the images..almost like chops from Monk's piano.
Cops approach the cats in the car. Monk snatches Powell's heroin and throws it out.
"Monk snatched it from him and sent it butterflying out of the window, landing in a puddle and floating there like a little origami yatch"
The cops approach...
"Monk and Bud sat and watched the red and blue lights from the prowl car helicoptering around them, rain sweating down the white glare of the windshield, the metronome flop of the wipers. Bud rigid, holding himself barbed-wire tight."
Monk is interrogated.
"- What's your name?"
-Monk
-You got ID?
Monk's hand moved towards his pocket-"
The cop sees the ID
"Thelonious Sphere Monk. That you?
-Yeah. The word came clear of his mouth like a tooth.
-Big name.
Rain falling into pools of blood neon"
Cops seize Monk's card, 'toss it like a cigarette into a puddle'.
The episode ends..
"Monk looked down at the rain pattering his photo, a raft in a crimson lake."
Willim Claxton the renowned jazz photographer once in an interview said, "I was up all night developing when the face appeared in the developing tray. A tough demeanour and a good physique but an angelic face with pale white skin and, the craziest thing, one tooth missing -- he'd been in a fight. I thought, my God, that's Chet Baker." There is an account of the fight (or rather the beating) which lead to that Chet Bakers's famously photogenic dental deficit.
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