How to Listen to Jazz

By: Ted Gioia

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

A "radiantly accomplished" music scholar presents an accessible introduction to the art of listening to jazz (Wall Street Journal).

In How to Listen to Jazz, award-winning music scholar Ted Gioia presents a lively introduction to one of America's premier art forms. He tells us what to listen for in a performance and includes a guide to today's leading jazz musicians. From Louis Armstrong's innovative sounds to the jazz-rock fusion of Miles Davis, Gioia covers the music's history and reveals the building blocks of improvisation. A true love letter to jazz by a foremost expert, How to Listen to Jazz is a must-listen for anyone who's ever wanted to understand and better appreciate America's greatest contribution to music.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2017 Ted Gioia (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A radiantly accomplished writer.... Gioia conveys his passion for the music with vivid description and shrewd judgements." ( Wall Street Journal)

"Mr. Gioia could not have done a better job. Through him, jazz might even find new devotees." (Economist)

A great book

A great review of the genre, including a discussion of form and major innovators and deviants. Useful even to an intermediate musician just getting into playing jazz. It's easy to get lost, but this book serves as a simple and effective anchor.

Not really a "how to"

This is more of a history than a guide to listening. Goia's histories are good.

Excellent work

An important book that actually teaches listening strategies. passionately read. a must read for anyone who is interested in getting into jazz.

Loved everything about the material in this book!

The history, advice, and interpretations were all expertly helpful. I did wish there was access to the Pdf of present and future jazz greats.

Informative but Not Effective

This book provides valuable insights into jazz and is quite informative. The author correctly emphasizes the importance of listening in learning to appreciate music, including jazz. However, the book is largely descriptive and conceptual, lacking any music samples that could help listeners better understand what the author is trying to convey. After all, music is about experience—the experience of listening. Learning to enjoy music can't be achieved solely through understanding concepts or reading descriptions of musicians' practices.

In this regard, I gained far more understanding of the concepts by watching a 23-minute YouTube video ("Jazz Rhythm - Beginners Guide: Swing 8ths, Syncopation, and Rhythmic Phrasing" by Kent Hewitt—whom I have no affiliation with other than being a viewer) than by listening to this book for several hours. This limitation is clearly due to the format of this audiobook, which is a reading of a paper book. Unfortunately, it fails to leverage the potential of the audiobook format by incorporating actual music samples into the content.

If someone wants to learn to enjoy jazz without formal music training, I would recommend watching a few good YouTube videos first.

My hope in providing this review is to encourage the author to enhance this audiobook by addressing the lack of live music samples.

Solid Introduction

This book is a solid introduction to listening to Jazz. I know a little music theory and can play a couple of instruments badly. I wish there was something that had just a little more of a technical aspect to it, which I believe Mr. Gioia could easily provide. His book about Jazz Standards is also good as a reference when listening or playing.

Love Jazz, now I understand why!

I have been listening to jazz for many years now. I even write about local jazz musicians to promote their performances. I loved the way Ted Gioia treated his presentation. His vocabulary is rich and evocative. His enthusiasm infectious. His rich knowledge enviable. Listen. You will be happy you did.

Excellent!

Great reading from a very informed author and critic with an excellent attitude and approach towards important about music. Thank you very much.!

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It is a good book. Great. I recommend it. The narrator was great. Yeah mon!

Perfect for a jazz newbie

I know next to nothing about jazz, so picked up this book after a recommendation from someone else. I found it to be an excellent overview of jazz with great narration by a jazz cat. I would highly recommend this book to provide some basics concerning the different varieties and history of jazz music.