October 18, 2004
Former editor of Metronome
, Jazz
and Downbeat
, Morgenstern has been one of jazz's most passionate observers and chroniclers, particularly during its last major flowerings in the '60s and '70s. Longtime Oxford University Press editor Meyer gathers nearly half a century of Morgenstern's profiles, liner notes, record and show reviews and other musings in this definitive compilation. Morgenstern reminisces about his introduction to jazz in a brief opening memoir, then segues into lengthy sections on his greatest heroes, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Liner notes introduce records by everyone from Ma Rainey to Joe Lovano; essays include a survey of the history of recorded jazz and considerations of jazz's relationship to theater, dance, film and television. Morgenstern has known most of the musicians he discusses, and he depicts them all with insight and affection, from his rollicking account of the career of lovable "Hot Lips" Page to his sensitive portraits of self-effacing Pee Wee Russell and eccentric Lester Young. Often he lets the artists speak for themselves, as when Bill Evans articulates his thoughts on the "intellectual" qualities of his music. Now the director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, Morgenstern is generous in his assessments of performers and performances, and his exuberant characterizations make this monumental volume a stimulating guide to jazz in the second half of the 20th century.
Starred review from October 15, 2004
Morgenstern, editor of Down Beat during the 1960s and 1970s and currently the director of the prestigious Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, has written about jazz for decades. Here, with the help of legendary jazz editor Meyer, he has assembled the largest compilation of his work, 35 pieces from the 1960s through 2000. The selections are arranged thematically, e.g., "Armstrong and Ellington," whom Morgenstern considers the central figures of jazz; "Profiles and Portraits," covering artists from Eddie Condon to Charles Mingus and commendably based on first-person interviews; "Liner Notes," which earned Morgenstern six Grammys; and "Record Reviews." Articles, perhaps unfortunately, are limited to positive takes, but though Morgenstern tends to wax rapturous, his enthusiasm is sincere and winning. Although overwhelmingly limited to swing and bop, this is nonetheless an important, engaging work that belongs in most music collections next to Leonard Feather's The Pleasures of Jazz.-Bill Piekarski, Lackawanna, NY
Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2004
Besides writing for and editing jazz journals, Morgenstern has promoted concerts, worked at record companies, and taught and managed jazz education. Rather than a critic--though he is certainly evocative and convincing in his evaluation of music and musicians--he is a contemporary chronicler, a Boswell of jazz. He discovered jazz in his native Austria, and he says in the autobiographical introduction to his massive gathering of articles, reviews, album-liner notes, and other fugitive writings that jazz helped sustain him when, as a child and teenager, he and his mother fled the Nazi " Anschluss" and spent the war in Scandinavia before reunification with his father in the U.S. Sincerity and generosity of spirit illuminate his personal remarks and carry through to his description of and reflections on the great musicians he has known, worked with, and loved. While there is something good on every page, the pieces on jazz recording and discography constitute an especially valuable part of this lovable book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)