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.

THE AUSTRALIAN JAZZ EXPLOSION

by Mike Williams

Reviewed by Dick Scott

Jazz Magazine, May/June, 1981

Too many jazz books over the years have sought to ‘dignify’ the music with wordy dissertation and pontification or have become glorified discographies. They have missed the joy, intimacy and essential spontaneity of jazz. Not so Mike Williams in his The Australian Jazz Explosion. He has not so much written a book as acted as compere, to 31 musicians…

BODGIE DADA AND THE CULT OF COOL

by John Clare/Gail Brennan

Reviewed by Norm Dixon

Green Left Weekly, February 28, 1996

Gail Brennan — as writer John Clare is best-known these days — writes regularly in one of Sydney's give-away music newspapers. His column, "Ad Lib", is compelling. On the surface it reviews the latest in the jazz scene but inevitably Brennan veers off on always fascinating, often eccentric, sometimes infuriating tangents that touch on Australian society, cultural tolerance, a hatred of ignorance (for which he regularly and entertainingly vilifies the jazz critic of The Australian), and many other subjects…

A JAZZ ODYSSEY: MY LIFE IN JAZZ

by Oscar Peterson

Reviewed by John Clare

Sydney Morning Herald, August 30, 2003

Oscar Peterson could make the piano ring with brilliant clarity in all its registers. His command of the jazz vocabulary was magisterial, his swing and inventive flow almost frightening at times. He has suffered a stroke, but still plays beautifully. His fans are legion. He has been invited into the homes of European nobility to play a treasured instrument after dinner. The head of Steinway sent a piano of his own choosing for Peterson to try when he heard the musician was looking for a new instrument…