The Majesty of Chicago Jazz
Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
Publishing:6th Oct '26
£22.00
This title is due to be published on 6th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The first book to trace the vast influence of Chicago jazz from its origins to today—from Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton to Anita O’Day, Herbie Hancock, and the AACM.
Author and Chicago native Howard Reich gives readers a front-row seat to the history of Chicago jazz as it roared forth in jazz clubs, concert halls, and festivals. Reich covered Chicago jazz for more than thirty years as the Chicago Tribune’s staff critic, and in this collection, he argues that jazz as an art form is inconceivable without Chicago. Carefully choosing from among his thousands of articles on jazz, Reich highlights twenty-five of the most important Chicago jazz artists who pushed the art form forward.
The Majesty of Chicago Jazz begins with two New Orleans visionaries who achieved their artistic pinnacles in Chicago in the Roaring Twenties: Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. In the decades that followed, Chicago produced an uninterrupted line of innovators: revolutionaries Ahmad Jamal and Sun Ra, iconoclasts Von Freeman and Fred Anderson, populists Herbie Hancock and Ramsey Lewis, chameleons Patricia Barber and Kurt Elling, and the breakthrough band of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), among others. Reich offers two pieces on each of the book’s twenty-five visionaries, including profiles, reviews, appreciations, and obituaries. The book concludes with a beginner-friendly discography, perfect for those looking to listen along.
The Majesty of Chicago Jazz is captivating for jazz newcomers and aficionados alike—all are guaranteed to learn something surprising here. With a musician’s ear and a journalist’s expertise, Reich offers listeners a valuable guide to the groundbreaking jazz that has come out of Chicago, a city that remains a fertile breeding ground for musical experimentation.
“Music lovers will find, then follow, a great music critic. Howard Reich, writing for the Chicago Tribune, put Chicago on the map.”
-- Patricia Barber, musician and composer“This is a ‘when, where, who, and how’ depiction of some of Chicago’s jazz influencers. Part history, part performance and recording reviews, and part instructional manual, Howard Reich’s The Majesty of Chicago Jazz is sprinkled with sage advice and insight from the book’s magical subjects. The decades-old critiques are another reason jazz students, performers, and aficionados will enjoy this read.”
-- Bobbi Wilsyn, jazz singer and educator"This extraordinary collection of essays is indelibly imbued with Howard Reich’s deep and abiding connection with Chicago and so many of the musicians he writes about. This book moves past an invocation of musical genre to create a celebratory chronicle affirming the centrality of the ‘City of the Big Shoulders’ to the global phenomenon of jazz, ancient to the future."
-- George E. Lewis, author of A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music."Once again, Howard Reich has provided a valuable account of some of the most important and unique contributors to America’s art form—Jazz. Here, he shares some of the wealth of his experiences from a lifetime of listening and talking with many of the greats, from Jelly Roll to Muhal Richard Abrams, painting the scene and giving us a recounting, often in the artist’s own words, of their experiences. Reich reminds us that Chicago has been the birthplace of, destination for, and place of refuge for many artists, including some of the most iconic, unique, and undefinable voices to have shaped the music. This book is a must for anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with the richness of Chicago’s jazz legacy."
-- Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean, Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University“Chicago has given America some of its finest writers and critics. Howard Reich is both—and, rare among jazz writers, a trained musician as well. He brings keen musical insight, a critic's judgment, and a playwright's gift for storytelling to the artists who made Chicago essential to the music's story. If you don't know Chicago jazz, you don't really know jazz. Start here.”
-- John Edward Hasse, curator emeritus of American music, Smithsonian InstituISBN: 9780226846446
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
288 pages