AND DID THOSE FEET...: SIX BRITISH JAZZ COMPOSERS($18.99Value)

Description

And Did Those Feet… examines in depth the lives and work of six British jazz composers – Michael Garrick, Mike Gibbs, Barry Guy, John Mayer, Keith Tippett and Mike Westbrook. Each of these musicians began their careers in jazz in the 1960s, years of artistic and political ferment and upheaval. Music historian Duncan Heining locates those beginnings in the context of changing times and shows how these composers’ work continued to develop whilst remaining influenced by values that continued to be informed by social and cultural concerns. Duncan Heining began writing about jazz in the mid-nineties. He has written for a number of publications and websites. His other books include Stratusphunk – the Life and Works of George Russell (Jazzinternationale 2020) and Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers - British Jazz, 1960-1975 (Equinox 2012). And Did Those Feet… comprises six chapters, around 20,000 words each on six British jazz composers - Michael Garrick, Mike Gibbs, Barry Guy, John Mayer, Keith Tippett, Mike Westbrook. It is biographical but also concerned with what it is and what it means to be a jazz composer. These chapters are bookended by two short contextual essays. This book is our contribution to the British and European jazz world that these pioneers helped create. We hope you enjoy it. Contents i. Acknowledgements ii. Introduction Chapter 1 In My Father’s House There Are Many Mansions Chapter 2 Michael Garrick Chapter 3 Mike Gibbs Chapter 4 Barry Guy Chapter 5 John Mayer Chapter 6 Keith Tippett Chapter 7 Mike Westbrook Chapter 8 Coda Indexes Author’s Introduction: The idea for this collection of profiles of British jazz composers came about for two reasons. Firstly, several people involved in the British jazz scene had proposed separately that I might write biographies on three of the artists featured in And Did Those Feet…. Much though each one deserved their own full biography, I felt unable to oblige. Given the state of this small corner of the publishing industry, any such book would be unlikely to sell in sufficient quantities to warrant the outlay of money, time and resources that would be involved. That said, it occurred to me that a series of detailed career retrospectives on each of these subjects in a single volume might at least do some justice to their rich and varied careers in British jazz. Moreover, such a book would not preclude others picking up the mantle later and producing specific biographies on any of these major figures in the music. The second reason arose from my realisation that the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Ian Carr’s seminal Music Outside (Latimer 1973/Northway 2008) was drawing near. The composers, bandleaders and improvisers Ian discussed, in the main, went on to long and hugely productive careers and it seemed that it was high time to look again at the work of several of those artists in depth. Additionally, these musicians have had to chart very different waters from those described by Carr in 1973. One important criterion for inclusion was, therefore, that the artists discussed here had all had careers that stretched into, at least, the late part of the last millennium. The second criteria was that we would focus on musicians, who were both band-leaders and composers.