Art of Jazz: A Visual History
£22.80£26.10 (-13%)
Everyone knows jazz is on the cutting edge of music, but how much do you know about its influence in the visual arts? With album covers that took inspiration from the avant-garde, jazz’s primarily African American musicians and their producers sought to challenge and inspire listeners both musically and visually.
Arranged chronologically, each chapter covers a key period in jazz history, from the earliest days of the twentieth century to today’s postmodern jazz. Chapters begin with substantive introductions and present the evolution of jazz imagery in all its forms, mirroring the shifting nature of the music itself. With two authoritative features per chapter and over 300 images, The Art of Jazz is a significant contribution to the literature of this intrepid art form.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Imagine Publishing, Inc, 1st edition (20 Oct. 2020) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 256 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1623545048 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1623545048 |
| Dimensions | 25.55 x 2.36 x 28.58 cm |
by Jazzrook
A great big book for the lounge Coffee Table
Top drawer illustrations from the early Jazz period, then on up to 2020.
Terrific cover art & an interesting read. Most enjoyable.
by W. Duddy
This is a magnificent book giving a chronological account of the connections between jazz & art written by broadcaster, author and musician, Alyn Shipton.
After an illuminating introduction, ‘Before Jazz’, there are eleven engrossing chapters titled ‘Jazz Begins’; ‘The Jazz Age’; ‘The Swing Era’; ‘World War II’; ‘Bebop and Modern Jazz Versus the New Orleans Revival’; ‘Birth of the Cool and West Coast Jazz’; ‘The New Mainstream’; ‘Changing Landscape – Mingus, Coltrane and Coleman’; ‘Jazz Fusions’; ‘Postmodern Jazz’ & ‘Twenty-First-Century Jazz’.
Every page is a visual delight with informative text by Shipton.
The beautifully illustrated ‘The Art of Jazz’ should be seen and read by all jazz fans as well as lovers of graphic art.
by Robin
An impressive coffee table book, packed with history and pics.
Bought as a present.
by Mrs. G. Beale
A beautiful book, a lot of jazz history tied in with the art of the time. I paint to the sound of jazz. But in particular the book confirms my theory that Art Deco and jazz belong together .
This is a superb “coffee table book” and will entertain you and your guests well.
by DaveAb
History of jazz rather than a concentration on the art aspects. Nevertheless it is a well produced book which is worth the price I paid on Amazon.
by Robin
A disappointing book. First off, I thought the title was rather misleading, implying that somehow jazz had influenced lots of fine art folk. The better title (though unwieldy) would have been ‘The commercial art of jazz’. There are a few examples of fine art though really only included because of the jazz genre in the title. Page thirty-three has Mondrian’s stunning ‘Broadway boogie woogie’ painting, if he had called it ‘Broadway grid’ it probably wouldn’t have been included. Likewise Van Doesburg’s ‘Composition in gray (ragtime)’, is a very unjazz-like picture. Page thirty-one has a book cover with an illustration by Picasso titled ‘Igor Stravinsky, ragtime’, delete ragtime and it would have no connection to jazz.
Most of the images in the book are record covers and PR shots of musicians and some photos are no better than snaps. Regarding the photos, I really would have expected a few portfolio spreads of the leading jazz photographers, like William Claxton, Herman Leonard, Francis Wolff, showing their work minus the design aspect of a cover. Claxton had a fine portfolio of his work in the Japanese published ‘Jazz West Coast: artwork of Pacific Jazz records’ published in 1992. I found the most interesting part of the book the first few chapters that reveal a collection of historical sheet music covers and film posters, these are now so old that they are fascinating to look at.
The author has written a comprehensive history of jazz with some unusual detours on some spreads, like jazz in Germany in the thirties, all-black movies, zoot suits, bebop fashion, Andy Warhol (he illustrated a few LP covers) South Africa, the art of ECM. All of them get plenty of images. There are several pages devoted to individual musicians like Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet, Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers, Ornette Coleman, John McLaughlin, Wynton Marsalis.
As the book is probably sixty percent visual I thought the material could have been better displayed, there is plenty of empty page space where photos and record covers could easily have been bigger without making the spreads look too cramped. Maybe a drop shadow on all the covers would have given them a dimensional feel on the pages. The design overall is very bland and lacks any visual sparkle.
Finally, for a book full of record covers the back page bibliography only lists Graham Marsh’s cover art of Blue Note records, missing is Blue Note covers volume two (1997) and his other two books on cover art: ‘California cool’ (1992) and ‘East coasting’ (1993). Richard Havers book (2015) on Norman Grantz labels likewise is full of covers, especially the wonderful art of David Stone Martin. You can look inside the book at Westread Book Reviews then click 2022 and May.
by John Jazz
Thoroughly researched, and richly illustrated with historic paintings, drawings, photographs and album covers. A unique work covering every era of jazz – and must-have book for every lover of jazz.
by john l whitaker
It is a book of the chronological history of Jazz.
It is balanced half text, half images…a mixture of photos an record sleeves.
It is a coffee table book for images, yet with a healthy amount of text that can be read too.
Useful as an introduction to the history of Jazz for a beginner student, or as a book of images in it’s own right for a more advanced student or simply to be enjoyed.
High quality reproductions and easy on the eye.