Fun Question Of The Month--November

MikeK

This month's question will require some thought from the forum and I'm excited to see how folks respond:

What's your favorite jazz-themed book? Please limit your answer to 2. They don't have to be about Django or even gypsy jazz (I'm assuming most, if not all, of us are fans of other styles of jazz as well). I'll get it started:

Nica's Dream by David Kastin. An excellent biography of a fascinating & important patron of jazz artists in the early days. She was Pannonica de Koenisswarter but they called her Nica. Horace Silver wrote the song Nica's Dream for her and several of the other greats composed tributes to her as well. She was a wealthy baroness, having married into the Rothschild family. And she went through great strides to support & even protect many of the giants of early bebop (particularly Monk & Charlie Parker) at a time when they really needed it. In fact, Monk lived with her for quite some time & Bird famously died in her apartment.

The Making of Kind Of Blue by Eric Nisenson. A well-written analysis of what's regarded as one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. And one of my favorites. Miles, Cannonball, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Coltrane, PC and Jimmy Cobb all coming together to make music? I want to know all about that!

voutoreenie

I can't limit it to 2 but everyone should read Miles Davis's autobiography, if only for the entertainment factor.

Another one I'll throw out is Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell - not a "happy" read, at all...but very informative, intimate and quite atypical for a jazz biography due to the author's relationship with Bud Powell.

And since I'm a no good rule breaker, I will at least do it more inline with the forum and say that anyone on here who hasn't read the Dregni book about Django by now needs to do so ASAP or else self-ban themselves. I have no idea how accurate it is but lord knows it's a really great read and an essential one at that for GJ players.