Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65

by Kenny Mathieson

Overview

A music journalist offers a lively history of modern jazz through its formative and most vital decades—from Charlie Parker to John Coltrane.

In Giant Steps, Kenny Mathieson examines the most important figures in the creation of modern jazz, detailing the emergence and evolution of bebop through the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Using this as its starting point, Mathieson then delves into the developments of jazz composition, modal jazz and free jazz.

The music of the great masters is examined in detail and will provide both a fine introduction for the large audience newly attracted to the music but unsure of their direction through it, as well as an entertaining and informative read for those with a more substantial background.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857866172
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	01/16/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	339
Sales rank:	234,565
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kenny Mathieson is the author of Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-65, and the Creators of Modern Jazz 1945-1965. He was born near Glasgow, and now lives in the Highlands of Scotland. He studied American and English literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer since 1982, and writes on jazz, classical and folk music for several publications, as well as contributing to numerous reference books.

Editorial Reviews

Music lovers will enjoy this very readable introduction to the jazz masters of the post-War decades ... Free of music theory jargon, the book gives detailed information on the artists' styles, careers and often troubled lives.

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