[Scott Yanow author of The Jazz Singer and Bebop] ✓ Bebop : Third EarThe Essential Listening Companion [ Book] PDF ↠ Read Online eBook or Kindle ePUB

On the heels of swing, bebop lifted jazz from the dance floor into an art form powered by virtuoso players. This engaging collection of essays, biographies and reviews by veteran jazz journalist Scott Yanow probes the lives and revolutionary works of more than 500 great beboppers, including the giants: Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach and Thelonious Monk. The guide also explores key artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Christian and the young Miles Davis, plus such later figures as Joe Pass and Barry Harris. Bebop : Third EarThe Essential Listening Companion

When I started reading this book, I liked it but didn't love it. It was organized a little weirdly. The author seemed to make odd and seemingly arbitrary distinctions between different periods and styles, often indicating that he was cutting off his review to save it for his next book covering the next style, which I don't think was ever written.

But once I got used to it, the book was enormously helpful to me in sorting out where I wanted to go with my jazz listening. The coverage of different artists and albums is INCREDIBLE (Yanow has seemingly listened to every jazz album ever made), and I found his rating system to be 80% or 90% accurate, which is amazingly high given that music evaluation is something that is very subjective and dependent on each person's background, orientation and tastes. Anyway, I used this 17-year-old book to create my to acquire list of jazz albums, along with www.allmusic.com (to which Yanow contributes). I've already acquired a bunch - my wife thinks I've gone overboard, but I'm simply confident that Yanow's book will not lead me astray.