Search - Various Artists :: Visions of Jazz: Musical Journey

Outstanding overview of the music.

11/23/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a stand-alone of as a companion to Giddins' excellent book (of the same title), this compilation offers a terrific overview of the history of Jazz for either the neophyte or the veteran. The collector will want it for the many rare recordings contained within. The spectrum of music is truely astounding -- where else could you hear Jelly Roll Morton, Sinatra, and Cecil Taylor on the same record? Well worth getting."

Not just another compilation

01/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jazz has about 1,000 compilations per square foot, so it's understandable how this one has gone relatively unheralded. Yet it's one of the finest collections I've seen in years -- it has personality and coherence, and Giddins' choices are never faulty. Most of the major figures are represented, sometimes by obvious choices ("a night in tunisia" for parker/gillespie), sometimes by esoteric ones (billie holiday's "detour ahead", a previously unreleased Basie tune that just smokes). Underrated musicians -- Randy Weston, Don Pullen, Kay Starr -- take their places among the canonized, while avant-garde masters like Coleman and Taylor are given a good deal of room.It's ultimately a tribute to Giddins' wonderful, catholic tastes. If only he had had more influence on Ken Burns (I think we owe "Jazz's" relatively positive portrait of Ornette entirely to Giddins) than the neocon Marsalis, what a wonder Burns series could have been."