Fire Music: A Bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959-1990

(Hardback)

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Description

"Fire" music makes accessible the most extensive scholarship of the new jazz beginning in the 1950s. Included are materials on such topics as jazz collectives and the New York loft scene as well as jazz in specific countries and biographical and critical studies on over 400 artists and more than 7,100 sources are further divided by types of materials, including print and audio-visual sources. A new jazz chronology and a bibliography section on African cultural history and the arts provide background materials. Appendixes offer general reference sources, a directory of archives and classified lists of artists by country and instrument.

Reviews

"Gray (director of the Black Arts Research Center, Nyack, New York, and author of several other bibliographies, including Blacks in Classical Music (CH Dec '88), has provided superb coverage of the literature concerning the "new jazz" period. With more than 7,100 unannotated entries, he updates and surpasses both Eddie Meadows's Jazz Reference and Research Materials (CH Mar '82) and Bernhard Hefele's Jazz bibliography (1981). Meadows covers earlier periods well, and Hefele is good for European material, but Gray's work covers both American and European works on the period nearly comprehensively. Materials include books, dissertations, periodicals, newspapers, films, videos, audiotapes; most are in English or French but there are a number in other major Western languages. Concert and record reviews are included for major artists only. Six major sections include a detailed chronology, African American cultural history and the arts, general works and country and regional studies, jazz collectives and cooperative record labels, jazz lofts, and biographical and critical studies of more than 400 individual artists and ensembles (this last providing 80;pc of the bulk of the work). Appendixes cite reference works consulted, identify archives and research centers, and give country and instrument lists of "new jazz" artists. The cross-references and indexes (artist, subject, and author) provide detailed access, but do include many unsubdivided entries. No discographies are provided, but useful discographies are cited. A solid contribution to jazz research. Both public and academic libraries."-Choice
this informative work is an important addition to the jazz reference literature. There are very few bibliographies in jazz studies as well organized as Fire Music. Musicians, researchers, jazz fans, and libraries will find it an important addition to their collections.-ARBA Notes
Gray (director of the Black Arts Research Center, Nyack, New York, and author of several other bibliographies, including Blacks in Classical Music (CH Dec '88), has provided superb coverage of the literature concerning the "new jazz" period. With more than 7,100 unannotated entries, he updates and surpasses both Eddie Meadows's Jazz Reference and Research Materials (CH Mar '82) and Bernhard Hefele's Jazz bibliography (1981). Meadows covers earlier periods well, and Hefele is good for European material, but Gray's work covers both American and European works on the period nearly comprehensively. Materials include books, dissertations, periodicals, newspapers, films, videos, audiotapes; most are in English or French but there are a number in other major Western languages. Concert and record reviews are included for major artists only. Six major sections include a detailed chronology, African American cultural history and the arts, general works and country and regional studies, jazz collectives and cooperative record labels, jazz lofts, and biographical and critical studies of more than 400 individual artists and ensembles (this last providing 80; pc of the bulk of the work). Appendixes cite reference works consulted, identify archives and research centers, and give country and instrument lists of "new jazz" artists. The cross-references and indexes (artist, subject, and author) provide detailed access, but do include many unsubdivided entries. No discographies are provided, but useful discographies are cited. A solid contribution to jazz research. Both public and academic libraries.-Choice
Gray, who has also compiled Blacks in Film and Television (Greenwood, 1990) and Blacks in Classical Music (Greenwood, 1988), begins with a sketchy New Jazz Chronology' followed by a hearty classified bibliography that includes books, articles, dissertations and theses, and media materials. Sources in languages other than English are seperately listed within each category. The bulk of the book covers Biographical and Critical Studies' arranged alphabetically by artists or group name. The scope is international, and subjects are mostly American or British. Where there are many articles about a person, helpful subdivisions by broad topic (concert reviews, ' obituaries, ' discographies, ' etc.) are provided. Appendixes list reference works, research centers, artists by country, and artists by instrument. Author, title, and subject indexes are included.-Library Journal
"this informative work is an important addition to the jazz reference literature. There are very few bibliographies in jazz studies as well organized as Fire Music. Musicians, researchers, jazz fans, and libraries will find it an important addition to their collections."-ARBA Notes
"Gray, who has also compiled Blacks in Film and Television (Greenwood, 1990) and Blacks in Classical Music (Greenwood, 1988), begins with a sketchy New Jazz Chronology' followed by a hearty classified bibliography that includes books, articles, dissertations and theses, and media materials. Sources in languages other than English are seperately listed within each category. The bulk of the book covers Biographical and Critical Studies' arranged alphabetically by artists or group name. The scope is international, and subjects are mostly American or British. Where there are many articles about a person, helpful subdivisions by broad topic (concert reviews, ' obituaries, ' discographies, ' etc.) are provided. Appendixes list reference works, research centers, artists by country, and artists by instrument. Author, title, and subject indexes are included."-Library Journal

Author Bio

JOHN GRAY is currently Director of the Black Arts Research Center, an archival resource center dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of the African cultural legacy. His previous publications include African Music: A Bibliographical Guide to the Traditional, Popular, Art and Liturgical Musics of Sub-Saharan Africa (1991), Blacks in Film and Television: A Pan-African Bibliography of Films, Filmmakers, and Performers (1990), Black Theatre and Performance (1990) he, Traditional Religion and Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora (1989) and Blacks in Classical Music (1988), all published by Greenwood Press.