Visions of jazz, soul, and blues
Aaron Cohen, writer, jazz enthusiast, and most recently, co-author of Gentleman Of Jazz: A Life In Music shares some of his favourite books about jazz, blues, and soul.
As I grew up infatuated with music—especially jazz, blues and soul—I drifted toward writers who illuminated these sounds. Gradually, I learned about how the sounds on my favorite records connected with the wider world. I also admired writers who could channel the lives of great musicians with sensitivity, insights and humor, sometimes when these musicians told their own stories. These are some of the authors who informed me early on in my journey.
Jazz And Its Discontents
I remember coming across Francis Davis’ essay collection Outcats in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Memorial Library when I was a student. Intrigued, I picked it up and could not put it down. He covered the traditional jazz musicians I had been listening to, as well as the more experimental artists I started hearing with the kind of open-minded attitude I felt I should emulate. More importantly, he combined his musical knowledge with a wit that was inviting, never snarky. Since Davis never used technical or academic jargon, reading him back then made it seem to me that this kind of writing is easy to do—it wasn’t until I tried doing it myself I found out how hard this storytelling actually is. This collection of his works is mostly centered on jazz but also includes his fine pieces on movies, television and comedy.
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Visions of Jazz: The First Century
While I never lived in New York City, I read the Village Voice frequently in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially for its weekly arts coverage. Gary Giddins’ was the music section’s staunchest jazz advocate and his passion and knowledge still amazes. In rereading this compendium of his pieces about a century’s range of artists, it’s mind boggling how much music he has absorbed to make his strong statements. He also does not just accept the pantheon at face value as he makes diligently researched and direct arguments and counter-arguments about such familiar names as Benny Goodman. His overarching optimism also handily defeats any cynicism about the music’s future.
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Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom
I started heavily listening to classic R&B around the time I started delving into reading fiction (I was an English Literature major back in my undergrad days). Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music showed me that the music and the people who made it could be described as if they were all situations and characters in an epic novel. He brings together the rise of Stax Records and such artists as Isaac Hayes with the saga of the Civil Rights Movement. Guralnick also deftly describes the beauty and tragedy in the lives of such singers as James Carr. After reading Guralnick’s take on Southern soul, I wanted to investigate writing something similar about what was happening in my own city of Chicago, and that idea resulted in my 2019 book, Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power.
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Lush Life
A great biography should deeply chronicle the life and work of a worthy artist and shed light into their environment and milieu. David Hajdu’s biography of composer Billy Strayhorn accomplished all of that. Hajdu’s perceptive musical descriptions show why Strayhorn’s work was not only so important to Duke Ellington but also his accomplishments and struggles as he worked within and outside this momentous organization. At the same time, the book presents an evocative picture of the challenges and opportunities of a brilliant African American gay artist decades ago. Interviews with numerous friends and colleagues, especially Lena Horne, are especially enlightening.
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Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It
Even though I grew up in Chicago—home of the legendary oral historian Studs Terkel—I never attempted his kind of writing. But there are elements of this kind of storytelling in the books I have written, moments when conflicting or cohesive narratives are best just presented as they’re told. Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya set the template for that kind of musical book (I also enjoyed the punk rock oral history Please Kill Me). As this book presents the voices of some of the founding figures of jazz and blues—Earl Hines, Alberta Hunter, Louis Armstrong—I realized the importance of preserving and presenting the voices of elders while they are still with us. I went on to follow Nat Hentoff’s passionate writing on both music and civil liberties and also recommend his collection, At The Jazz Band Ball.
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Blues People: Negro Music in White America
Blues People was one of the first books I read that presented the creation and endurance of blues and jazz in a deeper sociological and historical context. LeRoi Jones (who became Amiri Baraka) looked at a wide range of music—from songs that originated during slavery times to the free jazz of Ornette Coleman—and described how all of it correlated to changes within America itself. Originally published in 1963, Blues People also provides a vibrant example of how the country appeared to a prominent Black poet and outspoken activist as the Civil Rights movement accelerated across the nation.
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Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton
Pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton loomed larger than life, and not just in the way he described himself. But Howard Reich and William Gaines’ book goes deeper than the legend and describes what made his music so influential. Reich and Gaines also diligently track down the paper trail and describe how Morton got robbed by so many unscrupulous businessmen—sadly, that situation would recur time and again to the musicians who emerged in the decades since. Reich, who served as a longtime arts critic at the Chicago Tribune, was a mentor to me when I began writing about jazz for the newspaper in the mid 1990s.
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Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe
As I delved deeper into studying all idioms of modern American music, gospel’s foundational role in all of it became undeniable. That is especially clear in Chicago which is filled with incredible church musicians, choirs and soloists. In this biography of gospel guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Gayle Wald writes enthusiastically on how all of those forces shaped this incredible musician. Wald also digs deeply to include numerous voices who testify on Tharpe’s lively spirit and trailblazing sound. Nowadays, Tharpe is hailed as one of the pioneers of rock ’n’ roll. But her music and musical tradition are essential on their own terms.
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Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm And Blues, Black Consciousness And Race Relations
Brian Ward’s book takes a broad look at the social and historical changes surrounding soul music as it moved from the Civil Rights era of the early and mid 1960s and into the Black Power movement later in that decade and into the 1970s. But unlike Guralnick, who focused on telling a Southern story, Just My Soul Responding details these developments on a national level. Along with examining the work of numerous musicians, he also provides copious details of how such institutions as Black churches, radio stations and entrepreneurs shaped these changes. Ward, a British professor of American studies, draws on his discipline’s focus on deep research but he also writes with clarity that’s free from academic jargon. This is a book for all serious soul fans.
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Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman
Trombonist Fred Wesley was a valuable sideman and all-around-musical idea man for James Brown, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. That he is able to vividly describe what made their artistry so influential is just one reason to read his memoir. The other is that Wesley is an incredible storyteller with impeccable comic timing. But he also provides a sharp view of his own dark periods before music itself saves him as the book ends on a note of triumph. ◼︎
View eBookAARON COHEN teaches humanities at City Colleges of Chicago and writes for numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune, DownBeat and The Chicago Reader. He is the author of Move on Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power and most recently he co-authored the late Ramsey Lewis’ memoir, Gentleman of Jazz: A Life In Music.
Gentleman of Jazz: A Life in Music
This immersive new autobiography provides insight into the early life and illustrious career of the late great Ramsey Lewis, one of the most popular jazz pianists of all time. Sure to appeal to longtime fans as well as those new to the jazz scene, Gentleman of Jazz: A Life in Music is an inspiration to young musicians eager to follow in his footsteps and a tribute to the legacy of Ramsey Lewis.
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