‘Jazz for Dummies’ is part of the widely popular ‘… for Dummies’ series and bills itself as “Your swingin’ guide to America’s greatest music”. Like most of the Dummies canon, it is written in a friendly ‘conversational’ style with asides and anecdotes sprinkled throughout.
The author, music journalist Dirk Sutro, takes the reader on a chronological journey through the development of jazz but also covers the theoretical side of the music and offers advice on jazz appreciation and forming your own jazz combo.
Sutro guides the reader through the development of jazz from traditional and Dixieland styles to swing, bebop, soul jazz and more recent developments like free and electric jazz. His anecdotal writing here is particularly compelling, full of quirky stories of eccentric bandleaders and tragic lives. He also devotes a chapter to the technical side of jazz which requires a basic knowledge of music theory but is easy to understand. Continue reading
Bop Hard 