Product Description

This work celebrates jazz with passion and conviction, evoking a revolutionary era that inspired generations of music. Tracing the roots of "new jazz" from 1960-1972 Wilmer dissects the musical careers of the famous names - John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler et al - and the less well-known artists to describe its development into a crucial component of musical history. This work places new jazz in its political and social context.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496834 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Customer Reviews

great book, great price!
This book is great! And you can't beat the price! I was able to order mine for around $12 bucks, and with Amazon's super saver shipping, I was able to have it shipped for that price too! Which is great compared to the $16.00 plus tax plus gas it would take to buy one in a store. Great condition, the pictures inside are invaluable to the information in the book.

Missing The Point
I think that the previous reviewers have really missed the point of Wilmer's book. The fact that Wilmer is criticized by the reviewers for heralding free jazz above all other types of jazz seems ludicrous to me. After all, she did write an entire book on the subject because of her love for the music. She's not writing a book on ALL jazz, just one particular type. One should not expect her to be completely objective to the subject. To say that other music journalists write/wrote objectively about the music that they love is a completely silly notion. Did Lester Bangs write objectively about rock n' roll? NO! And there is really no reason that he should have. However, that being said, there is plenty of criticism of the music that Wilmer points out in "As Serious As Your Life." Criticism such as the weakness of later Albert Ayler recordings or the derivative style of Frank Lowe's tenor playing, etc. is pointed out throughout the book. Every writer has a slant and Wilmer definitely has one when it comes to "the great Black music." But this should not be held against her.
I think that what these other reviewers also have failed to understand, is that "As Serious As Your Life," is not just about the music, about free jazz...it is about the politics behind the music, hence the focus on black musicians playing "The Great Black Music." The focus here really is on the black musicians that played free jazz in the mid-60's through the late 70's. In Wilmer's eyes, this music corresponded directly with the Civil Rights movement of the time and was born out of black musician's search for "freedom" even if it was only through music. Wilmer paints a vivid picture of most of the major musician's ideals and philosophies and her words will have you wanting to run to the record store to hear the musical manifestations of these thoughts and feelings. Really, no stone is left unturned when dealing with The Great Black Music and that is one reason why this book is indispensable for fans of the avant-garde as it pertains to jazz music.
Finally, the reader must understand that this is NOT a definitive history of jazz, or even free jazz, for that matter. It is but one person's interpretation of the music. There are plenty of other sources on the subject and in order to fully understand the music these should also be consulted. But all in all "As Serious As Your Life" is a great read and very much worth your time. Just remember, it's not the ONLY thing out there.

Arrogant and self-righteous
Look, don't get me wrong. I love the music Wilmer talks about in this book as much as she does. My gripe is NOT with the music, nor with the love of it. My gripe is with her writing style.

To say that she is a self-righteous suck-up is probably understating the situation. For example, she lambasts Tony Williams for "playing in time" - apparently a sin of all sins as it does not correspond to her definition of free jazz (which in this book is synonymous with "worthwhile music").

Her rants about more traditional styles, about fusion, about...well...every other style of music becomes very tedious. Her inability to objectively discuss free jazz becomes frustrating. I really wanted to like this book, having heard great things about it, but I just found myself hating fans of the avant-garde (which meant self-loathing, oddly enough).

The book presents what I view to be the biggest problem in music - the ferocious desire of the mainstream to quarantine avant-garde music from everything else, and the equally ferocious desire of avant-garde music to maintain the quarantine (lest they sell out) whilst whining about being separate. Give me a break.

Good music is good music - it can be found anywhere, in spite of what Wilmer might say.