The History of Jazz, Second Edition

By: Ted Gioia

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history - Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's advocacy of modern jazz in the 1940s, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the current day. Gioia provides the listener with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. He also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the listener to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after-hours spots of corrupt Kansas City, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made. And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born.

©2011 Ted Gioia (P)2014 Audible Inc.

An Exciting Opportunity Missed

This book contained a tremendous amount of information about the jazz genre and its artists. As an Audible Book however, it missed the opportunity to provide audio snippets as the author would mention the impacts of a jazz innovator and mentioned specific recordings where the unique rhythms or innovative dynamics or outstanding technical mastery of an instrument was demonstrated, yet there was no example shared with the listener. This Audiobook failed to meet my expectations as there was not a single example of jazz included. The narrator presented the work in a dry monotone with very little change in delivery or dynamics. Audiobooks offers a special feature to use one's auditory facilities to experience the music as well as text.

Music should accompany text

The book is fantastic but it would have been bolstered by having examples of the described music played in the proximity of the comments about the music.

As I am already familiar with the music, the authors descriptions added meaning. If I did not already know the music I don't think that the descriptions would have been meaningful to me.

There was one mispronunciation which was repeated several times.. Camarillo was pronounced Camarillo and not Cama-rio.

Does exactly what it says on the cover.

As a long time student of jazz, I've seen many works attempt to make sense of the long and varied history of the music. This audiobook, which was an impulse purchase, comes about the closest I've experienced to covering everything in one,tidy, work. What really impressed me was that Gioia accomplished this without leaving many, if any, notables out and with as close to a complete absence of personal bias you are likely to find in jazz writing. Even styles on the farthest edge of jazz such as acid jazz and smooth jazz are given respectful consideration, rather than outright dismissal, to say nothing of the serious treatment of fusion and avant garde, both of which are too often ignored or treated with distain bordering on disgust by many of the modern day jazz archivists.

My only complaint is a slight one. I found the language to be a little too flowery at time. Not unbearably so, but there's too much French sprinkled in and it sounds a little pretentious in places. (I think I've heard the word "oeuvre" enough to last a lifetime.) Bob Souer's narration is unobtrusive mostly, which I mean as a good thing, though I question his pronunciation for some of the names, but it could also be I've been doing it wrong all these years.

Regardless if you're a neophyte or long time fan, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better, more complete, single history of jazz.

Not perfect, but the best available

Not perfect, but the best available on the subject and impressive in its own right. Sometimes repetitive in many ways, but absolutely worth it.

Great place to start in exploration of jazz

Great book lots of info and insight into the how and why. The narrator wasn't quite my cup of tea, a little too monotone. If I didn't come in to this book with a great deal of interest it might have turned me off. As I got deeper in it mattered less and less though.

A Dense Yet Engaging Experience

"The History of Jazz" is often lauded as an essential primer into the story of jazz, and rightly so. Ted Gioia's 10-chapter book takes a respectable dive into the backgrounds of the various movements of jazz, giving a great introduction to the major players and foundational works of each movement. As an added bonus, the book sprinkles bits of the life stories of some of these major players (I especially enjoyed hearing about Louis Armstrong). The information packed into each chapter can be dense, but the prose and narrative were engaging enough to keep me engaged throughout the book, and there was always enough information to paint a vivid picture of each scene and movement. As a jazz fan and as someone who has taken courses on music theory, I found it easy and engaging to follow along with the many names mentioned in the book and the musical descriptions of the major foundational jazz works. However, those who are unfamiliar with the jazz scene or music theory may be overwhelmed by the musical descriptions.

Ultimately, the vivid pictures of the history of jazz that this book painted deepened my appreciation of jazz and introduced me to many jazz gems that I would have never learned of otherwise. If you have any interest in jazz at all, you owe it to yourself to give this book a shot.

As for the audio performance, I found the audio quality to be perfectly acceptable. The narrator can be a bit monotone, but I felt that he was very articulate and did the job well overall. I do feel that this audio version of the book could be made more accessible by playing samples of the various works covered in the book, but I don't think they would be strictly necessary for enjoying the book.

Good book, but a bit dated

Ted Gioia’s The History of Jazz is a fine, detailed survey of mostly American jazz through the years. As expected perhaps, the highly talented and insightful Gioia focuses on popular and more traditional jazz, although he does leave some space for an abbreviated discussion of free jazz, though mostly from a historical perspective. As a consequence, the book contains a gaping hole that misses the latest trends in the music. He also sometimes highlights certain players who, in retrospect, did not quite fulfill their initial promise. The ending seems rushed, as some outstanding and innovative players are merely mentioned as part of a list, or worse, not even spoken about at all.

The Audible selection is the 2nd edition of the book. Presumably the more recent 3rd edition addresses at least some of these deficiencies. Considering the changes in the genre over time, it would have been nice if the Audible recording reflected the latest version of the book.
Finally, while the reading is clear and pleasant to the ear, there is no excuse for the speaker not to have learned how to properly pronounce the names of the musicians. While he gets it right most of the time (it is not easy to mispronounce Armstrong, Ellington, or Coleman), he is clueless with names such as trombonist Steve Turre, for example, whose name comes out as”Turrie” instead of “Turay.” The mispronunciations are unfortunate and distracting, and could have been avoided easily by at least looking up the pronunciations on the Internet.
Nonetheless, despite its flaws, Gioia has done a goodd job of taking a difficult subject and making it understandable to a general audience.

Jazz 101 and 102 and........

Excellent history chock full of technical information; construction, techniques, mechanics as well as the founders, inovators. Dixieland, swing, bebop, fusion, improvizational and all points in between and beyond
Listeners should have seperate pc, epad, etc. to look up artist listen to u-tube to keep up with narrative.

Excellent

The book is very good but I wish it had musical clips. I suppose the royalty payments make that too expensive.

Great book

I really love this. book has a lot of good stores and history of the best music America has developed. There are a few things I didn't like was it was a little difficult to follow would go for. The 60's to the 40's to the 80's then back to the 30 or 40's then to the 50's the dates were all over the place. But other then that a great book. Very well worth reading

Excellently written, read by a robot

Would you try another book written by Ted Gioia or narrated by Bob Souer?

I would avoid all books read by Bob Souer, is he even real? It sounds like this is read by an automated computer program. Shame, as the book is very good.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Bob Souer?

Anyone!

Good introduction

I was interested in Jazz but after this book I am enthusiastic! Good introduction .
It is a pity that the potential of an audiobook is not fully embraced. If it contained clips of the music discussed it would be better to understand.

Thorough, Thought provoking and clear

Ted Gioia has been writing about jazz for many years now. He is clear and informative and his style is easy but authoritative. I have been listening to jazz and playing it for decades and I always learn new things from his writing. If you want an overview of Jazz this is the book for you!

Extremely interesting but horribly narrated

This book is great, full of interesting facts and very well constructed. However, Bob Souer's monotone narration style takes you completely out of the story. I would never get another audiobook narrated by him.
Also, the book mentions tons of songs and jazz recordings that could've been included in the audio version of this book. A big missed opportunity.

Needs illustration

Interesting facts but could have been illustrated with some of the actual jazz music referred to,

Detailed but skewed

There is a lot of information here, that's the best I can say about it. Information about American jazz only that is, and it is clear which kinds of jazz the author likes. There is more here about Winton Marsalis than there is about every non-US jazz artist put together. Norah Jones and Eva Cassidy get more coverage than Django Reinhardt or "In A Silent Way." It is obvious that the author has little time for free jazz or fusion, though he lays out "both sides" (something he fails to do with subgenres he likes) the lack of detail gives the the game away, and when we get to hip hop and sampling, the contempt becomes open. Elsewhere we have endless lists of names instead of any detail about the way this music works or the stories behind it. Some parts I nevertheless enjoyed, but those I know a lot about (early jazz and blues) I found factually incorrect and skewed towards a particular (old fashioned) POV. Can't understand why this is the best-rated jazz history on Audible, it has very little to recommend about it I'm afraid.

Very good reference - but did they miss a trick?

very comprehensive, but given the audio book format it would have been great if the publishers could have included exerpts from the music discussed.

Worth of Effort?

Definitely. You will learn an enormous amount of information about the people and forms of Jazz. But it is a huge effort. 23 hours!

Time well spent

This was time well spent. Great detail on a subject that requires good research. Recommend that this bought and used as a reference.