Publication date:
17 October 2013Length of book:
502 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressISBN-13: 9780810882898
In Experiencing Jazz: A Listener’s Companion, writer, teacher, and renowned jazz drummer Michael Stephans offers a much-needed survey in the art of listening to and enjoying this dynamic, ever-changing art form. More than mere entertainment, jazz provides a pleasurable and sometimes dizzying listening experience with an extensive range in structure and form, from the syncopated swing of big bands to the musical experimentalism of small combos. As Stephans illustrates, listeners and jazz artists often experience the essence of the music together—an experience unique in the world of music.
Experiencing Jazz demonstrates how the act of listening to jazz takes place on a deeply personal level and takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the genre, instrument by instrument—offering not only brief portraits of key musicians like Joe Lovano and John Scofield, but also their own commentaries on how best to experience the music they create. Throughout, jazz takes center stage as a personal transaction that enriches the lives of both musician and listener. Written for anyone curious about the genre, this book encourages further reading, listening, and viewing, helping potential listeners cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the jazz art and how it can help—in drummer Art Blakey’s words—“wash away the dust of everyday life.”
Experiencing Jazz demonstrates how the act of listening to jazz takes place on a deeply personal level and takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the genre, instrument by instrument—offering not only brief portraits of key musicians like Joe Lovano and John Scofield, but also their own commentaries on how best to experience the music they create. Throughout, jazz takes center stage as a personal transaction that enriches the lives of both musician and listener. Written for anyone curious about the genre, this book encourages further reading, listening, and viewing, helping potential listeners cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the jazz art and how it can help—in drummer Art Blakey’s words—“wash away the dust of everyday life.”
Award-winning writer, teacher, and renowned jazz drummer Michael Stephans invites the reader on a guided tour of the jazz world in this essential survey of the genre’s history. This groundbreaking book reframes the ever-evolving, distinctly human, art of jazz and invites readers to relearn how to listen. Yes, listening, really listening to music is the lost art that Stephans works to preserve. He forgoes chronological order, instead approaching the subject from the standpoint of instruments and musical innovators while offering a comprehensive social, cultural, and musical history of jazz, from its birth to its present day. This survey of jazz is particular among jazz appreciation texts because it is written by a jazz musician who is currently active on the global jazz scene. With a forward by esteemed jazz writer Doug Ramsey, and preface by jazz master Dave Liebman, this text is a culmination of many prominent voices of the jazz world. At the heart of the book, readers are invited onto the bandstand to listen to personal accounts and legendary jazz stories. In an art form that enriches the lives of the listener and the musician, 'the more we listen, the more we hear.'