The Jazz Tradition: Second Revised Edition

A more detailed look at jazz's most important recordings of the 20th century would be hard to find. From the earliest sides of Jelly Roll Morton forward, the phonograph record documented the rise of jazz as America's art form, and Williams's work is a painstaking look (sometimes chorus-by-chorus) at how jazz grew in structure and complexity. Although the book is written for the reader who wants to discover what makes jazz great, his descriptions are entertaining enough for the casual listener who wants to know, for example, what sets Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk apart. This book belongs on every jazz lover's bookshelf.

A reader's unfamiliarity with jazz does not detract from the value of this book. As a neophyte jazz listener I was introduced to Morton, Coltrane, Monk and Coleman from reading Williams' descriptions of their work and wondering "what does that SOUND like," then buying the records to hear (and decide) for myself. This is one of the most focused introductions to pre-1965 jazz you will find, because it is about the music, not sociology, biographical trivia, or amusing anecdotes. Williams' preoccupation is with form, both in composition and improvisation. He shows how great jazz musicians demonstrate a strong sense of structure, (whether consciously or unconsciously), in their work, and how later musicians have built on the work of earlier players. In other words, these guys aren't just up there blowing a bunch of notes, they are creating art based on form and tradition in a similar and equal way to "classical" music.

Published in book form in 1970, Williams's study now seems critically unfashionable by arguing that jazz develops through the work of its composers (eg. Morton, Ellington, Monk) and its improvisers (Armstrong, Young. Parker, Coltrane, Coleman); it also concentrates on formal changes in the music rather than offering cultural, sociological or biographical analysis. But this is still the most intelligent, instructive, readable and stimulating book on jazz from New Orleans to free jazz to date. If you want to read superb, no-nonsense descriptions of individual jazz sides and get a meaningful sense of how musicians, individual tracks and the main movements of jazz inter-relate, this is the book for you.

I have found Williams to be a very perceptive guide to a wide range of composers and musicians. His judgments usually seem to be right on the money and his writing is quite clear and not at all aimed at some elite of jazz initiates (not that there's anything wrong with assuming your audience knows something - there's no imperative for authors to pitch every book at tyros, as much as certain readers seem to think that it's an outrage when they don't understand something they've read).

This is one of the great books on Jazz (and there are not very many). Williams has 23 (short) chapters on great Jazz musicians framed by 2 more general statements. I don't think any writer has been a more penetrating critic of Jazz and I find myself returning to this book year after year. Perhaps you won't understand it all at one go (I didn't) but, as Nat Hentoff put it, "Martin Williams persistently gets at essences". He has his faults:- he didn't really like Coltrane, maybe he overates the MJQ, post 60's jazz is covered only by the World Saxophone Quartet. But don't be put off, no current writer (Williams died in the 90s) matches him.