Really just one guy talking about his record collection
Baron asserts that jazz rock is different from jazz fusion, and on that I do agree. He spells out three criteria for a band to qualify as jazz rock: 1) instrumental virtuosity, 2) improvisation, and 3) must have vocals. Without vocals, in Baron’s opinion, it’s not jazz rock; it’s just jazz. One could quibble with the details, but Baron’s definition is not bad. He doesn’t always stick to his own rules, however. There are a few bands discussed in the book that he states are not really jazz rock, but he devotes a chapter to them anyway, simply because he likes them. There is an entire chapter on Dexys Midnight Runners, for example, highlighting their album with “Come On, Eileen.”
A music critic should not just write about what he likes; sometimes he has to write about music he doesn’t like, especially in any book purporting to be a “History.” Baron’s preferences encompass a rather narrow range of jazz rock, in fact it could perhaps be called horn rock or brass rock: Chicago, Tower of Power, Sons of Champlin, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears are among his favorites. No problem there. When I think of jazz rock, however, the first group that comes to mind is Steely Dan. Baron only spends two pages on Steely Dan, and only quotes someone else’s opinion. Baron doesn’t have to like Steely Dan, but how can you write a history of the jazz rock genre without having listened to their albums? Santana also gets the short shrift, perhaps because they do too many instrumentals? What about Traffic, War, the Keef Hartley Band, Jeff Beck’s jazz years, Ginger Baker’s Air Force? Some are mentioned once, in reference to some other artist, but none are discussed.
Baron writes like he might be a music critic for an alternative weekly newspaper. He’s better at writing about music than the average person, but his writing comes across as not quite professional. His tone is a bit too casual, and he talks about himself too much: e.g. “I saw so-and-so in concert once, and they were great,” “This is what my friend thinks of such-and-such a band.” There is a two-page chapter entitled “How to Clap,” in which Baron, I kid you not, instructs the reader in how to applaud. This book has the feel of something self-published. That is, it reads as if it were self-edited, or rather, not edited at all. Baron really could have used a good editor to tell him, “That’s not relevant,” or, “Elaborate on that,” or how to cite a source.
What Baron clearly enjoys is describing songs, which gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his facility with adjectives and metaphors. He truly does have a way with words, but such descriptions are not really helpful to anyone who hasn’t heard these songs. What’s more valuable is the biographical or historical content on the bands and their careers, but the quantity of such information is far exceeded by the song reviews. I was already a fan of some of these bands before I read this book. When it came up as a Kindle Daily Deal, I bought it hoping to be introduced to some artists with which I was unfamiliar. I came away from reading this book with a list of six or eight bands to investigate, so in that sense I got my money’s worth, but I could have gotten the same from a Google search or a list on somebody’s blog.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon and leave me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment