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How to Listen to Jazz

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How to Listen to Jazz

By: Ted Gioia
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
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About this listen

A "radiantly accomplished" music scholar presents an accessible introduction to the art of listening to jazz (Wall Street Journal).

In How to Listen to Jazz, award-winning music scholar Ted Gioia presents a lively introduction to one of America's premier art forms. He tells us what to listen for in a performance and includes a guide to today's leading jazz musicians. From Louis Armstrong's innovative sounds to the jazz-rock fusion of Miles Davis, Gioia covers the music's history and reveals the building blocks of improvisation. A true love letter to jazz by a foremost expert, How to Listen to Jazz is a must-listen for anyone who's ever wanted to understand and better appreciate America's greatest contribution to music.

©2017 Ted Gioia (P)2017 Hachette Audio Americas Instruction & Technique Music United States Celebrity

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Critic reviews

"A radiantly accomplished writer.... Gioia conveys his passion for the music with vivid description and shrewd judgements." ( Wall Street Journal)

"Mr. Gioia could not have done a better job. Through him, jazz might even find new devotees." (Economist)
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A great introduction to the world of Jazz, this audiobook covers all of the main players and history. I would've liked some music excerpts but understand that licensing issues would've made the cost prohibitive.

There is a list of performances provided at the end of each chapter and/or musician that you can then look up on your streaming provider of choice.

The only negative I have is that the delivery was a little slow for my liking and for the first time ever I felt the need to adjust the speed to x1.25 which sorted out the issue.

I would recommend for anyone who wishes to learn about, and enjoy, the world of Jazz music.

Essential listening

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Jazz…. If you know absolutely nothing, but love most genres of music and stand at the bottom of the big mountain of jazz - this is the perfect kit for the expedition.

Such a blissful and calm way to introduce without being a long list of things to do and listen to. Not all of it is chronological too, which is even better!

I wanted to get my head around the ideas, and the spirit of the genre and this has really helped me do that. History, individuals, stories, anecdotes all helped me discover and explore over 2/3 months a really good base for the genre.

Narration is soooooo ‘jazz voice’ too, but not in an annoying way, in a really good and welcoming, endearing manner, like a good friend.

Highly recommend! I hope Peter does the two longer, more in-depth books by Ted!

Amazing just what I needed

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Covering the history of the musc and milestone recordings of jazz. A virtual directory of the best available examples around today.

Must read for jazz lovers.

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I came to this book with a small amount of Jazz knowledge, but I wanted to expand my understanding of the styles and find a way in to pieces that I found difficult to appreciate.

This book does just that. It gives you and good oversight of all the main sub-genres, players and the history of the music. But most importantly for this sort of book, it gave me the enthusiasm to seek out the suggestions and go deeper than I had before. I would recommend this to anyone that is on the begining of their Jazz journey.

The narrator has a smooth but slow delivery, and I was quite happy to turn him up to 1.5x speed.

Ps. He still hasn't sold me on Ornette Coleman!

Did exactly what I wanted it to do

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I am definitely a jazz fan but I also am very aware of my limited knowledge of repertoire and jazz music. I, therefore, chose this audio book to broaden my musical horizons, and to learn of different artists and recordings in the jazz genre that I hadn't experienced previously. I also hoped the book might give my "music theory trained" brain a different approach to experiencing jazz music. Mr Gioia's book was a success on both accounts. Although at times I felt his defence of jazz a little demeaning to other genres, overall the book has a balanced approach and is very clear that these recommendations are Mr Gioia's own, and may not reflect everyone's preferences.

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who is beginning their journey in listening to jazz, or to anyone with a limited knowledge of the music and legends of jazz.

Highly recommended

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Extremely informative and entertaining. As someone who has been around music for many years and knew little about jazz, this was perfect

Excellent piece of work

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A brilliant introduction to Jazz. A mysterious type of music, brilliantly explained. From its genesis to its structure to the great heros and recommendations as to the best music to begin educating oneself, this audio book is riveting listen. The narrator manages to convey the passion of the author and ends the book with the upbeat prediction that whatever the future holds for this constantly evolving music you wont be bored. I wasn't bored by this audiobook!

Fantastic introduction

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If you are at all interested in the development of jazz singing and want to know who to listen to and how you might not find this very inspiring

What about the great jazz vocalists?

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