Jazz, Dance Bands & Vocalists - Newsletter 142 - Bunk Johnson -> Various Artists

NEW BOOKS

HARLEM OF THE WEST The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era by Elizabeth Pepin & Lewis Watts

● BOOK $27.50

Paperback, 192 pages, highly recommended Counts as six CDs for shipping This book is essentially a great coffee table book with its 8" x 9 1/2" size and its abundance of fantastic sepia-toned photography that captures a much under appreciated era and location in American music history, full of fantastic photos from all of the great old Fillmore district jazz and blues clubs from the 1940s and 1950s. You get pictures and stories about luminaries like Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis, etc., but also and almost more importantly to the book, you get the stories and photos of the locals, the fans, the promoters and all those people that made it a special scene. In the case of the fabulous Sugar Pie Desanto, you get both. Great addition to any good music library. (JM)

THE PRODUCER John Hammond And The Soul Of American Music by Dunstan Prial

● BOOK $27.00

Hardcover, 328 pages, count as six CDs for shipping Author Dunstal Prial will probably be unfamiliar to most of you; his work for the Associated Press and Dow Jones are not that well known and this is his first foray into the music world. I guess that if you are gonna start somewhere in the music world, you might as well start with a giant of the industry. John Hammond (Jr.) was easily one of the most important men in the history of the 20th century music industry. Even if merely judged on his early work discovering, producing, and heralding such artists as Billy Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Charlie Christian, the man would still be a legend. But there is more: he was also a great early champion for civil rights and a force of nature in the Jazz world and beyond and if he dropped dead in 1950, his name would still be known and respected to this day. The great man would not go quietly into that good night, though, and in the second half of his career he was the responsible for launching the widespread success of Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and amazingly, this man (who's first favorite record in 1918 was Sir Henry Laudner's "Roamin' In The Gloamin'") had the vision and ear in 1982 to get behind an up-and-coming Texas blues guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughn, which was his last big production and clearly an exclamation point on a brilliant career. This is the first biography of John Hammond (apart from his autobiography of some 20 years ago), his career could and should have a lot more written about him. This book is a good start. Dunstal Prial provides us with a solid reconstruction of the legend's life and it is certainly well written. My only complaint is that so much of the content of this book comes across as cursory; the seasoned music reader will fly through this and possibly come away from it wanting a more complex and detailed account written in language that only comes from those immersed in the music field. All in all though, there is a lot of great material covered within and the subject is so worthy that I can still heartily recommend this. (JM)

NEW ORLEANS Playing A Jazz Chorus by Samuel Charters

● BOOK $17.95

Paperback, 227 pages, highly recommended, counts as three CDs for shipping The legendary Samuel Charters--Jazz and Blues music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet--goes back to the city that he has loved since his first visit back in 1950. What he finds might surprise you. There is tragedy, heartache and ruins, but this is far from just a damage report. Charters takes the pulse of New Orleans and it has skipped a few beats, but it still strong, still pounding away. The city has been through hell and the music scene (and the city) could have easily have just faded away, but the players are still there, still creating. Not just the old guard, either; there a lot of hot young players as well. The author takes you through it all, examines the ruins, tells the histories, his and others and embraces the future. It is said that 75% of the currently displaced New Orleans residents don't plan on coming back. There is a fear that the city will be saved as just a tourist attraction or a museum town, but if Sam Charters writing here is an indication, there might still be hope. (JM)