I applaud Ear of the Behearer for this initiative -- there was indeed a LOT of great music in the '70s, and it has gone under-recognized for a breadth of (bad) reasons.
I'd like to humbly suggest that my book Future Jazz (Oxford University Press, 1999) addresses jazz in many forms from roughly 1975 to the mid '90s -- including chapters with interviews on the Art Ensemble, Henry Threadgill, David Murray and World Saxophone Quartet,, Don Pullen, Butch Morris, George Benson, John McLaughin, John Scofield, Blood Ulmer, Cassandra Wilson, John Zorn, Eilliot Sharp, Joshua Redman, and oh yes Wynton Marsalis (in his first Down Beat face-to-face, 1984) among many others. Future Jazz was well-reviewed when it was published in 1999, but is currently out-of-print.
New hardbound and paperback editions are available from me directly and maybe from Amazon, used.
Of other books dealing with the music of the period: John Litweiler's The Freedom Principle. Bill Miilkowski's Jaco biography, in the expanded new edition last year.
Alyn Shipton's New History of Jazz, with a second expanded edition being released next month. Collections of articles by Gary Giddins, Gene Santoro, Francis Davis, Greg Tate, Stanley Crouch, Doug Ramsey and W.Royal Stokes are all valuable for reports on the scene (from diverse perspectives) at the time it was happening.
Most of these writers are still doing it, writing on jazz *now.*
These books and others available at the Bookstore of www.Jazzhouse.
org, website of the Jazz Journalists Assocation. May I also promote the next issue of Signal2Noise, featuring my article on Dewey Redman, with particular comment on Ear of the Behearer and Coincide.
Within Howard's great list, I wish to emphasize Gary Giddins' work in Visions of Jazz and Rhythm-A-Ning.
The latter is an especially good reflection of various scenes from 1980-84, from Frank Sinatra to the AACM. Howard's own book is a great one too. Graham Lock's Forces of Motion is a great bio of the 1980s Anthony Braxton quartet and a fascinating look into Braxton's universe as it stood, more generally.
-- 10:50, 6 December 2006 (EST)
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