Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It

My headline quotes trombonist Jim Robinson: "When I play sweet music, I try to give my feelings to the other fellow. That's always in my mind. Everyone should know this" (410).Compare Hoagy Carmichael's reaction to first hearing Bix Beiderbeck in 1923: "'Why,' I moaned, 'why isn't everybody in the world here to hear that?' I meant it. Something as unutterably stirring as that deserves to be heard by the world" (142).That's just a sample of the feast awaiting you in "Hear Me Talkin' To Ya," first published in 1955 and still in print. Editors Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff built this book with a very canny structure: instead of dedicating a chapter to each of the jazz greats, they combed through articles, essays, books, letters, and personal interviews of somewhere between sixty and a hundred different musicians and jazz promoters. Then, following a rough chronology from 1900 to 1955, they blended excerpts from all of the greats into an impressionistic conversation among them about all facets of jazz: its origins, its developments, the different cities—sometimes, different streets within cities—in which different styles incubated, the personalities of the founding fathers and mothers, the models, the rivalries, endless days of jamming and practice, nights on the road, poverty, racism, drugs, unions: everything you could imagine and much that you couldn't. And by "the greats" I'm not exaggerating: here, in their own words, are (among too many others to name) Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Lil Armstrong, Kid Ory, Clarence Williams, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Mary Lou Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, W, C. Handy, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Jack Teagarden, Jo Jones, Lester Young, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lena Horne, Charlie Parker, and Dave Brubeck. Although it's print on a page, each speaker expresses him- or herself in a style as distinctive as their playing.The unsurpassable joy of this book is its history of the subject by the men and women who made that history. Hear from Bill Basie himself the tales of who dubbed him "Count" and why his band's signature song, a nameless head arrangement, acquired the name "One O'Clock Jump." Learn where the term "woodshedding" came from. And listen to Brubeck tell a wondrous story of how jazz was able to reach the unreachable: catatonic patients in an army mental institution. "[They were] the best audience we ever had. … "[The] recorded music meant nothing to them. They needed the human warmth of the musicians in the room with them" (409).That just may be the defining characteristic of this chronicle: human warmth. If "Hear Me Talking' To Ya" isn't an essential book on the music aficionado's shelf, then I can't imagine what else would qualify.

This is the definitive book for anyone who wants to learn about the origins of jazz, not filtered through the lens of some academic with an agenda. It's the story told by the men and women who made the music.The poignant letters from Joseph "King" Oliver during his hard times are memorable show what a noble soul he was.,

This is not great literature but it is a wonderful book of jazz musicians talking about their experiences from the past. Lots of comments by musicians about the great days of New Orleans, Basie, Ellington and Bop. As I love Jazz this was for me a delight because it gave me so much background to the music.In my opinion a necessity for any person who wants to know and understand the history of Jazz

This classic volume should be in the collection and the heart of any jazz fan or music history buff. These are the words of the players themselves, not an essay by a musicologist. First hand accounts of the art, the lives, the labors of famous and not-so-famous jazzmen (mostly men) creating more than they knew.

If you love jazz you will love reading about its history in this down to earth way listening to all the old timers tell about where, when, how they created their genre'. Each one has his say as he perceived the drama and excitement. This book will cause you to widen what you listen to in music today by wanting to go back to the beginning.

At last, writing about music that ISN'T like dancing about architecture. This captures the poetry of the music and its musicians and runs with it.

I first read this wonderful book in the 1960's. It was an orange Penguin classic edition and I loved the format and the atmosphere each vignette provoked. So much so that I lent it to several people over the years until the inevitable happened and it was not returned, and as time passed I forgot the name of the errant borrower. I was forever on the look out for this little orange book. Then I saw it offered on Amazon - and now I have a copy again -it's not orange but it's just as wonderful. If you love the old New Orleans buzz of the first notes of jazz and wonder how this music evolved and why and by whom, then you will truly appreciate this amazing book. Read it and glow!

This is a great book. It is edited with and amazing single voice eventhough it uses the words of the people who made the music.

Hentoff and Shapiro's (mostly) oral history of jazz used to be widely recognised as the classic it still is, but it does seem to have faded from view lately. Perhaps this is because a lot of people these days appear to think jazz appeared from nowhere in 1959 when "Kind of Blue" was released, four years after this book was first published. Whatever the reasons for its relative obscurity, it's worthy of much wider attention.Hentoff and Shapiro's approach to the history of jazz from the earliest days in New Orleans through to the Cool and West Coast scenes of the early fifties somewhat resembles Studs Terkel's oral histories: primary interviews with key participants and witnesses, supplemented by quotes from earlier published interviews and the odd written memoir. There's no narrative or interpretative commentary from the editors (though if you're the kind of person who likes to start a fight in an empty room, you could ride the old high horse that their choice of material is itself ideologically determined, yadda yadda yadda). Thus, the musicians are allowed to speak for themselves, in their own voices.And what tales they have to tell. You'll never find a better means of getting a feeling for what it must have been like to have heard Buddy Bolden in New Orleans, or to share a room with Bix Beiderbecke in the 1920s or to make the scene on 52nd Street in New York in the 1940s. The contributors to this book were there, had vivid recall, and bring it all to astonishingly clear life. In the cases of the older, New Orleans musicians in particular, this is of real historical importance: some of those guys were elderly even when the book was new, and without Hentoff and Shapiro's invaluable work, we might never have gained their vital information on the music's earliest days, making it a unique and essential historical document. Historical importance is, of course, no guarantee of lively reading material, but this stuff bursts with life.The contributors include a number of very big names, but the most fascinating characters are from the second or third tiers of fame ("fame" by the standards of the jazz world, of course). The thoughtful, articulate likes of Jo Jones, Kenny Clarke, Milt Hinton, Danny Barker and Jimmy McPartland emerge as the heroes of this book, and Leora Henderson, Fletcher Henderson's wife, adds some small but delightfully engaging comments. Anyone still harbouring delusions that jazz musicians - especially those from the music's earliest days - were primitive beings is in for a rude awakening.It should be noted that unless you already have a basic outline of jazz history in your head, and some awareness of the key players throughout, you might find the book confusing. But there are plenty of conventional sources on jazz history, both in print and online, if you need to do the groundwork. Unlike standard narrative histories, this one doesn't offer much by way of digressions on race and society, aesthetic judgements and authorial axe-grinding. And most conventional histories try to start with a precise definition of what jazz is: this one, by contrast, ends with some, and they're all delightfully vague. So if you're looking for academic rigour, this isn't the place to turn to: but for colour, flavour and emotional resonance, it's unrivalled. A brilliant book.

A great book, a marvellous insight to the many musicians mentioned. Buy it !!

good

Bought to replace a previous volume mistakenly given away. Maeprvellous stories

Just an amazingly well put together book!