Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now

1281 Pages·1999·5.67 MB·English

by  Robert Gottlieb

Acclaim for ROBERT GOTTLIEB’s
READING JAZZ
“Fascinating, heroic.… [Reading Jazz is] a valuable introduction to the
practice and history of jazz.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“It’s the passion—the passion of and for the music—that matters. No
other book on jazz catches that magnificent obsession the way Reading
Jazz does.… [It is] simply a delight.”
—Commonweal
“An instant classic.… If an anthology can be a work of art, Reading Jazz
is a masterpiece.… This terrific book is as vital, surprising, raunchy,
beautiful and transcendent as the music it celebrates.”
—Daily News
“By far the best thing of its kind ever published.… If the reportage
included in Reading Jazz is uniformly excellent, the autobiography is
arguably even better.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“The finest, most informative and colorful writing about jazz … probably
the most comprehensive one-volume chronicle of jazz ever assembled.…
Poring through the book, one is struck both by the warmth and depth of
the musicians who pioneered the art form and by the caliber of those
who chose to write about it.”
—The Denver Post
“Impressive.… [Reading Jazz] will provide the jazz-lover not only hours
of reading enjoyment but a lasting reference book as well.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A feast.”
—The Times-Picayune
“The last word on jazz as well as jazz writing.”
—Interview
ROBERT GOTTLIEB
READING JAZZ
Robert Gottlieb has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A.
Knopf, and The New Yorker. He has previously edited the Everyman’s
edition of The Collected Stories of Rudyard Kipling and The Journals of
John Cheever.
ALSO BY ROBERT GOTTLIEB
A Certain Style: The Art of the Plastic Handbag 1949–1959
The Journals of John Cheever (Editor)
The Collected Stories of Rudyard Kipling (Everyman’s Library, Editor)

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, NOVEMBER 1999
Compilation copyright © 1996 by Robert Gottlieb
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in
the United States of America by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in
hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York,
in 1996.
Permissions Acknowledgments appear on this page.
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon edition as follows: Reading jazz : a gathering
of autobiography, reportage, and criticism from 1919 to now / edited by Robert Gottlieb.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-30779727-8
1. Jazz—History and criticism. 2. Jazz musicians—Biography.
1. Gottlieb, Robert, 1931–.
ML3507.R44 1996
781.65’09—dc 2069–14219
Author photograph © Anne Hall
www.vintagebooks.com
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Author
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
PART 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Jelly Roll Morton
Sidney Bechet
Louis Armstrong
Willie “The Lion” Smith
Duke Ellington
Sonny Greer
Leora Henderson
Art Hodes
Buck Clayton
Hoagy Carmichael
Eddie Condon
Mary Lou Williams
Cab Calloway
Lionel Hampton
John Hammond
Count Basie
Billie Holiday
Mezz Mezzrow
Artie Shaw
Charlie Barnet
Max Gordon
Anita O’Day
Milt Hinton
Art Blakey
Milt Gabler
Miles Davis
Willie Ruff
Art Pepper
Charles Mingus
Hampton Hawes
Paul Desmond
Cecil Taylor
Anthony Braxton
PART 2: REPORTAGE
King Oliver: A Very Personal Memoir by Edmond Souchon,
M.D.
A Music of the Streets by Frederick Turner
The Blues for Jimmy by Vincent McHugh
Jack Teagarden by Charles Edward Smith
Even His Feet Look Sad by Whitney Balliett
The Cutting Sessions by Rex Stewart
Thomas “Fats” Waller by John S. Wilson
Sunshine Always Opens Out by Whitney Balliett
The Poet: Bill Evans by Gene Lees
Black Like Him by Francis Davis
The House in the Heart by Bobby Scott
The Big Bands by George T. Simon
Homage to Bunny by George Frazier
The Spirit of Jazz by Otis Ferguson
The Mirror of Swing by Gary Giddins
Jimmie Lunceford by Ralph J. Gleason
Two Rounds of the Battling Dorseys by Tommy Dorsey and
Jimmy Dorsey
Jazz Orchestra in Residence, 1971 by Carol Easton
Flying Home by Rudi Blesh
The Fabulous Gypsy by Gilbert S. McKean
Minton’s by Ralph Ellison
Minton’s Playhouse by Dizzy Gillespie
At the Hi-De-Ho by Hampton Hawes
Bird by Miles Davis
Waiting for Dizzy by Gene Lees
An Evening with Monk by Dan Morgenstern
Thelonious and Me by Orrin Keepnews
John Coltrane by Nat Hentoff
Bessie Smith: Poet by Murray Kempton
Mahalia Jackson by George T. Simon
Lady Day Has Her Say by Billie Holiday
The Untold Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
by Marian McPartland
A Starr Is Reborn by Gary Giddins
Moonbean Moscowitz: Sylvia Syms by Whitney Balliett
The Lindy by Marshall and Jean Stearns
A Night at the Five Spot by Martin Williams
You Dig It, Sir? by Lillian Ross