The best book on jazz (or any other topic!) I've read in the past few years. The author manages to sustain a wonderful balance among scholarship, human interest, and serious criticism. I thought I knew something about this topic -- found out I knew very little. The section on Brubeck's early years is, by itself, well worth the price of the book.

I have a rather large selection of albums from this era and this book covered many of them. I could seem to hear them in my mind as I read the book. This book not only explores the music well, but the people who played it. Would like another copy for a friend.

Ted Gioia, for me, managed to walk the fine line between hyperbole and inauthentic iconoclasm, purple prose and impotent erudition, racist apologia and racial pandering (on both/all sides), and the sleeping pill effect of both blanket chronological overview and meticulous historical data, regardless of perspective to give us a full meal and gift of a history of jazz that reads with the ease and enjoyment of a novel. I would have loved if he added another hundred pages to it all, allowing him to speak more about three topics in particular: 1) the socio-political implications of the culture of drugs among the musicians, 2) the transformation of jazz's link with debauchery through be-bop to that of spirituality and freedom in the American mind, epitomized via Coltrane in the 60's, and 3) the musical/theatrical/Griot/Delphic roles of the jazz singer in perpetuating the music and magic of the art form, from Armstrong to Bobby McFerrin. But with the kind of work Gioia has given us with this, I'll just have to shut up and write my own, and hope it holds up.

I highly recommend this book if you are a musician of any style (I am a jazz and opera singer). If you know someone who loves jazz, or has even a passing interest in its icons (the even handedness with which he explains Wynton alone makes the book worth having), the book is a great gift- you don't need a Doctorate in Music theory or semiotics to enjoy it. And if you are a jazz musician, you should own it. Period.

A fine book; a fine contribution.

Not a bad place to start for the newcomer to jazz. Any single volume work encompassing the entire history of so rich a musical tradition is open to questions on both additions and omissions and this book is no exception. However, for those fans who seem to be stuck in gravitational pull of 50's and 60's bop/hard bop era and want to learn more about the other ends of the historical spectrum, from ragtime to free jazz, Gioia's book has plenty to offer. If nothing else, let this book serve as a springboard to futher investigations of particular genres or artists. Rarely did a page go by where I didn't learn something.

Is there any other book that is as true as this book, when recalling the intricate history of jazz? If there is, it has escaped my eyes and i invite the opurtunity to read it. Ted Gioia is not only articulate in his representation of jazz history, but his facts are documented well above reproach. He even includes a suggested listening section at the back of the book. Incredible book! I am using it as an aid in teaching my highschool class the history of jazz. This book is a necessary investment for any jazz afficianado.