Monday, February 25, 2013

Jonathan Rosenbaum: An Index

Jonathan Rosenbaum (image courtesy of TimeOut)

This post indexes those articles by Jonathan Rosenbaum that are related to jazz, whether in form of "film and jazz," or few cases of pure jazz writing.

Last update: July 22, 2014


Film Criticism                                        

"[The] difference between Claire Denis's early work and Beau travail is quite simply the difference between making movies and making cinema. By analogy, Charlie Parker went from playing jazz with Jay McShann to making music with his own groups, and that quantum leap included content and substance as well as technique — matter and manner became indistinguishable. Denis too has developed a new kind of mastery while tackling a new kind of material." -- JR




Just Jazz                                               

"It’s a matter of personal preference rather than any sort of objective judgment that I’m especially interested in piano players, that my taste mainly runs to post-swing, and that I’m generally more partial to Ahmad Jamal and Keith Jarrett playing standards than to these gifted pianists playing their own tunes." -- JR




General Essays and Lists             

"It's difficult to speak of any consistent evolution or devolution in jazz films, because each one is the product of a particular taste and sensibility. One rule I use when evaluating these films is how much we're allowed to follow the music. Another rule, less obvious and more purist, is how important the on-screen listeners are — which matters a good deal, because jazz at its most exciting is a collective experience involving the audience as well as the interacting musicians. If the people on-screen aren't seen listening when music is being played, we're discouraged from listening intently." -- JR

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