Review by Choice Review
DeVeaux (Univ. of Virginia) presents a detailed, fascinating historical overview and musical analysis mostly covering the period from the late 1930s through WW II. Beginning with a theoretical discussion of various interpretations of jazz, the author introduces saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, his touchstone for capturing bebop's convoluted musical, personal, and racial development. "The fault lines of racial caste that ran deep through the US of the pre-civil rights era divided the music world into two distinct and unequal spheres," DeVeaux notes, capturing the book's overall theme. Still, talented African American musicians continued to attract attention, particularly Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, as the music scene moved from Harlem to 52nd Street. Bebop emerged before the war ended as an expression of black musical sensibilities, although a few white bandleaders, particularly Woody Herman, were also involved. DeVeaux's masterful narrative and musical analysis, supported by photos, detailed notes, and list of recordings, complements and extends Thomas Owens's Bebop (1995), and David Stowe's Swing Changes (CH, Dec'94), as well as all older studies. Highly recommended for all libraries. R. D. Cohen Indiana University Northwest
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
During the 1940s, bebop shook the foundations of jazz, but until now, few histories have captured the era's multifaceted excitement. DeVeaux makes a vital contribution to the field of jazz studies by providing not just insightful explanation of the music but also perceptive commentary on the social and political shifts that helped shape it. He knowledgeably uses musical notation and testimony from the musicians to build his narrative. He concentrates on key bebop players Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, succinctly describing their lives and work in a manner that appeals to general readers as well as to longtime listeners. Elsewhere, he focuses on earlier jazz legend Coleman Hawkins and traces the fate of his long-standing progressive musical ideas through the middle of the century. Equally important are DeVeaux's challenges to many of the conventional ideas about bebop and its cultural meaning, which he answers with his own fascinating, highly informed views about the music business, the postwar civil rights movement, and America's changing racial climate. --Aaron Cohen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
DeVeaux (music, Univ. of Virginia) provides a fresh look at the social forces that helped foster bebop jazz. Concentrating on the years from the late 1930s through 1945, he first examines the growth of a national music market, which helped generate mass hysteria over big bands and their leaders. The second section describes such societal factors as the postwar economic slump, ongoing racism, the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, and the rise of small venues for performance as reasons for the shift from an interest in big bands toward more specialized music, including small combo jazz. The last section discusses the popularity among jazz aficionados of virtuosos such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, who deserted big bands for small combo bop improvisation. Despite some unnecessary music theory, the author has successfully presented a compelling rationale for bop as both an evolution and a revolutionary break from the musical past. Recommended for anyone interested in jazz or America during the war.David P. Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
DeVeaux (Music/Univ. of Virginia) puts bop into a historical, social, and economic context, using oral histories and musical analyses as well as period materials to examine an epochal shift in the jazz paradigm. Bebop, DeVeaux argues, is the the fulcrum on which jazz history turns. More than that, he adds, it is the ""shadowy juncture at which the lived experience of music becomes transformed into cultural memory,"" as the last witnesses to the changes in the music die off. Did bebop represent an evolutionary stage in jazz history or a revolutionary rupture? For the author the answer is not so clear-cut as the question implies. He constructs a richly researched and densely constructed history that tries to understand the development of bebop as the result of musical decisions, economic pressures, and the uniquely American nexus of cash and race. He begins by tracing the career of Coleman Hawkins, an astute choice, because Hawkins was one of the first jazz musicians to expatriate himself to Europe for a significant period, the first great tenor sax soloist jazz produced--an innovator and one of the first to embrace the new sounds. Equally important, at the height of the big-band period, Hawkins thrived as a freelancer, thereby pointing the way for the young rebels to come. Of course, it is Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie who are most closely identified with the rise of bop, and DeVeaux gives them full treatment, but one of the strengths of this excellent book is the attention it devotes to the life of the working musician, to the exigencies of the road and the economics of making music as they impacted the less-fabled players. At a time when shrill controversy is raging throughout jazz criticism and historiography, this measured, thoughtful, and exceptionally well-documented volume is a welcome antidote. Although there are extensive and highly technical musical analyses, the less sophisticated jazz fan will find much here to prize as well. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
