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Robert Iannapollo
JIM FARRINGTON(EDITOR)
Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia
By Todd S. Jenkins. Greenwood Press, 2004. 2 volumes, 466pp. Introductory essay, Event chronology, Selected bibliography, Index. Set ISBN 0-313-29881-5. $175
Encyclopedia of World Pop Music 1980-2001
By Stan Jeffries. Greenwood Press, 2003. 277pp. 3 Appendices, Bibliography, Index. ISBN 0-313-31547-7. $55
Free jazz, that ''difficult'' music, which sought new ways of approaching all of the basic tenets held in jazz since the 1920s, is a movement well over 40-years-old. Yet it still struggles to maintain a critical par in the mainstream press, let alone commercial acceptance. As recently as last year, saxophonist Paul Flaherty entitled his recording of freely improvised duets with drummer Chris Corsaro The Hated Music , a wry, if apt and discouraging title.
While there are several excellent individual books dealing with the topic, there has never been an encyclopedic reference volume pertaining to it specifically. It was with enthusiasm that I approached Jenkins' tome. Jenkins is a writer who has been a contributor to Down Beat and Signal To Noise , among other magazines. It seems as if he should be qualified to tackle the task, but I wonder whether it was a task that should have been left to one person. Regrettably, Free Jazz And Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia fails on several key points where it should have been the strongest.
Where does it fall apart? In the details. Many errors point to a sloppy editor at Greenwood Press. There is error after error involving various label issues for records cited. In the introductory essay, for one example, Coltrane's album Ascension is cited as being on the Atlantic label. However, in the Coltrane entry proper, it is correctly cited as an Impulse release. In trumpeter Paul Smoker's entry, his first recording is cited as 1984's Mississippi River Rat , clearly unaware of the earlier QB (with no less a personage than saxophonist Anthony Braxton in his quartet). These errors continue up to contemporary releases. AALY Trio's Stumble is said to have been issued on the Okkadisk label when it is a Wobbly Rail release. These are minor quibbles but in a volume that bills itself...