Jazz Saxophone A Reader Volume I by Steven A. Cerra
In his August 23-24, 2005 review of Matisse in Morocco for The Wall Street Journal, Dan Hofstadter comments that “[its author Jeff Koehler] is not a scholar but an enthusiast, a celebrant in the cult of Matisse. He tells us about Tangier’s customs house, the vessels arriving at quayside each day, the fruits and sweets to be had in the shops, the various painters and illustrators at work in the souks and alleys. He describes the hotel, a church to be glimpsed from Matisse’s window, a European-owned garden where the Frenchman often painted, the mistral, the rain, the sunlight.
During the winter, Mr. Koehler writes, “the sky often clears in the late afternoon, the clouds lift, and the low sun saturates the colors. In radiant pinks and lavenders, as the foliage shifted from emeralds to blues, Matisse captured that elusive moment when everything pauses.” Clearly the author is following literally in Matisse’s footsteps; his aim is to weave an impression of what it was like to be there with this bearded foreigner, watching him paint, meeting his wife and his friends and models, tagging along on his jaunts to the garden or the local “Moorish café,” joining him on his horseback outings into the meadows outside the city. Every detail counts; vivification is the aim; analytical musings would be otiose [serving no practical purpose.]. Mr. Koehler refrains from criticism or interpretation: He is a pilgrim exploring a shrine, and nothing escapes his benignant gaze.”
In preparing this compilation, the focus of my goodhearted and kind “gaze” are the early masters of the Jazz Saxophone and I, too, am a “pilgrim exploring a shrine.”
It can also be said that I am “not a scholar but an enthusiast; a celebrant in the cult of” – in this case – Jazz Saxophone.
And, to the best of my ability, “vivification is the aim.” Imparting knowledge and information about these iconic Jazz saxophonists that helps provide a greater understanding of what made their art so distinctive.
What I have attempted here is a celebration of the masters of the Jazz saxophone as well as the superb Jazz authors and critics from whom we learn so much about them.
Taken collectively, the annotations and the writings contained in this volume are but a series of views on the subject of the art of the Jazz saxophone and the musicians who shaped it.
There is nothing definitive, nor exhaustive about it.
It is loosely chronological although its primary emphasis are the years 1925-1945 when the instrument first came into prominence in a Jazz setting. Hopefully a second volume will follow.
Forty-five chapters made up of articles and interviews, each one annotated with an introduction, and featuring the writings of:
George Hoefer
Martin Williams
Whitney Balliett
Dan Morgenstern
Richard Sudhalter
Don Heckman
Con Chapman
John Bainbridge
Helen Oakley (Dance)
Don DeMicheal
Leonard Feather
Bill Coss
Stanley Dance
Gene Lees
Jerry Kline
Loren Schoenberg
Otis Ferguson
John Chilton
Jack Tracy
Dom Cerulli
Gunther Schuller
John Lissner
Art Taylor
Richard Cook
Bobby Scott
Luc Delannoy
John Edward Hasse
Mike Hennessey
Ira Gitler
Nat Hentoff
Miles Davis
Gary Giddins
Available exclusively at Amazon.com the paperback will be priced at $24.99 and the eBook will sell for $9.99.
Half of all royalties are donated to the local school district to help purchase musical instruments for students.
Thank you for your continuing support of these anthologies.
You can find a full listing of these Readers by searching my name on the Amazon site.