NOW JAZZ NOW - BYRON COLEY, MATS GUSTAFSSON, THURSTON MOORE, NENEH CHERRY, JOE MCPHEE

This is a book I had to request that the library purchase. It’s big and glossy and expensive, and about a pretty obscure topic so I didn’t expect it to be around for long, I can see it being a real collectors item in a few years. How does one review a book of reviews? This book is just that, it’s a list of 100 Free Jazz records, arranged chronologically, with only one entry per bandleader (some people show up in multiple entries, as side players), that the authors think are the most important or interesting entries into the genre. I’m not sure I could be called a big Free Jazz guy, but I do love a couple of records in the genre and when you get that itch to listen to that type of music, nothing else will do. It’s fantastic energy music, it can be good driving music when you’re super locked in, it’s very good stoned with headphones music. However, it is difficult music to review, especially in short blurbs where you can’t get deep into the music theory stuff that’s going on with some of these records. That means the most of the “reviews” in this book are more about the personalities and biographies and/or are little scene reports than focused directly on the music. It’s hard to describe how this stuff sounds. Skronky, wild, frantic, noise-y, far-out, you can only use these words so often. Since you can imagine the type of record nerd who’s into this type of music (one of them is a guy from Sonic Youth) there are a lot of ultra obscure picks. Records that have like 5 copies that no one has ever heard. There’s lots of talk of alternate covers and defunct record labels. I do admire that they chose a lot of non-American records. There’s lots of Japanese stuff, and I can attest that this style of music is quite present in Japan, and lots of European stuff listed here. Sadly, they did not choose my personal favorite Free Jazz record, Interstellar Space, but went with a different Coletrane. Nor did they highlight The Creator Has a Masterplan, one of the great Free Jazz songs. But that being said, it’s super fun to read through this stuff and try to look up the records. Many of them are on streaming or Youtube, but a lot of them aren’t. I'll have to come across them honestly, by finding them in an old record store. This is a great book for giving one a list of records to look for.