Overview
(Book). This engaging book unveils the personal and musical lives of 479 brilliant jazz trumpeters, past and present, through intimate biographical profiles that describe each artist's unique traits, intriguing life experiences, relationships with other influential players, career milestones and key recordings. Artist covered include: Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Arturo Sandoval, Red Allen, Chet Baker, Bunny Berrigan, Roy Eldridge, Freddie Hubbard, Freddie Keppard, Lee Morgan, Fats Navarro, King Oliver and hundreds of others plus jazz figures who seem unlikely to have recorded on trumpet but did, such as Benny Goodman and Mose Allison. A fascinating read!
Synopsis
Yanow (jazz writer and editor) reveals the personal and musical lives of 479 outstanding trumpeters in the jazz world, both past and present. The biographical profiles trace the artist's life (unique traits, interesting life experiences, relationships with other players, career milestones, and key recordings) and explore why they have had such impact on the development of jazz. The book contains several b&w photographs of the musicians.
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Library Journal
Yanow wants his most recent work (after Afro-Cuban Jazz, LJ 3/15/01) to read like "a series of short stories," and readers will indeed often forget that they are perusing what boils down to an encyclopedia. A prolific and respected jazz writer, Yanow manages to cover the gamut of styles from Dixieland to avant-garde in 479 short biographies, which are accurate (if sometimes opinionated) as well as refreshingly entertaining. Featured are Red Allen, Chet Baker, Fats Navarro, and King Oliver. Also included are an essay on the history of the jazz trumpet, a bibliography of other important reference works, and 29 additional short biographies of other famous musicians/composers who recorded with the trumpet (e.g., Benny Goodman). Some of the entries may be found in more general references like The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (St. Martin's, 1994. reprint) or Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler's The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (Oxford Univ., 2001. 2d ed.), but neither of these works contains all the entries found here. Recommended for large public and academic libraries as well as libraries with a jazz focus. Ronald S. Russ, Arkansas State Univ., Beebe Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.