BOOK REviewS
This section includes reviews of books on jazz subjects by a number of writers. Reviewers interested in contributing are welcome to contact the editor by filling out the form in the CONTACT tab. When contributing please include the title of the book and its author, the name of the publisher, the date of publication, the book’s ISBN number, and the number of pages in the book. Please also provide, if possible, a high resolution scan of the book’s cover. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of reviews in this folder.
GRAEME BELL AUSTRALIAN JAZZMAN: HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Graeme Bell
Reviewed by Gail Brennan/John Clare
Sydney Morning Herald, July 9, 1988
Graeme Bell, often called the father of Australian jazz, does not need a ghost writer — his prose has the cumulative strength of even cadences and transparent simplicity — but he might have benefited from an interrogator. Fear of pretension has actually robbed his autobiography of an important dimension…
JOTTINGS OF A JAZZMAN: SELECTED WRITINGS OF LEN BARNARD
Edited by Loretta Barnard
Reviewed by Michael Steinman
Jazz Lives website, September 10, 2010
The best biographical or autobiographical writings make a person the reader has never encountered come to life on the page. Jottings Of A Jazzman: Selected Writings Of Len Barnard, edited by his niece Loretta Barnard, has just that magic. When I was a few pages into it, I felt as if I had met and heard Len…
BOB BARNARD’S JAZZ SCRAPBOOK: A PICTORIAL MEMOIR
by Bob Barnard with Loretta Barnard
Reviewed by John Shand
Australianjazz.net, January 30, 2013
It turns out that a picture is actually worth about 300 words rather than a thousand. The proof is in this book assembled by Bob Barnard and his daughter Loretta Barnard. Rather than undertake the arduous task of penning a 90,000-word biography they have assembled a ‘scrapbook’ of over 300 photographs and pieces of memorabilia covering his life, with explanatory captions and an occasional slab of text. The tone of the writing is conversational, which suits the easy informality of the whole project...