Reviews for Negro musicians and their music

The average rating for Negro musicians and their music based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-08-08 00:00:00 Paul Hasselberg I gave up on this one halfway through - it was just too boring and poorly written to finish. I had been interested in reading Trotter's book for years, since the meat of the 1878 book is a series of sketches of 19th-century African-American musicians, making it one of the first books about black music in America. But the writing is so florid and non-specific that it's meaningless, and most of the biographical sketches are filled with endless quotes from newspaper articles praising the subjects. I wanted to learn something and to enjoy myself in the process; I did learn a little bit, but it was just too painful to continue. I can only rate this book one star for the writing and content, but I'll add a star for its historic importance.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-11-15 00:00:00 Edgar Lavoie OK, so there was some useful information in this book. It was just hard to get at. The issue with the book, for me, is that the title is misleading. This book is not primarily about John Coltrane. Rather, it is primarily about Kofsky's thesis that what happened to jazz in the 60s, with the "New Thing", and "Free Jazz", was a direct result of the African American community's struggle for justice, and that jazz in general was a music that grew out of oppression. Not that there is not truth in this statement. However, Kofsky takes it too far. While reading the music, jazz as pure creativity starts to recede into the background, and jazz as socio-revolutionary tool ascends to a point that is probably not warranted. That said, there are some great interviews with Trane, Elvin Jones, and McCoy Tyner. That, alone, makes it worth cracking the book open. If you have an intrepid streak, you can also pick up interesting and useful nuggets nested deeply here and there in Kofsky's continual drone of Marxist ideals that filters all the jazz he hears.