BOOKS
The worst thing about this basically decent book is that it could easily have been a whole lot better. Biographies of jazz musicians are almost nonexistent (well, there are a couple on Satchmo) and the few that have appeared so far suffer from either over-intellectualization (the recent Miles Davis book, which eschewed biographical detail completely for turgid musicology) or superficiality.
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BOOKS
CHASIN" THE TRANE
BY
J.C. Thomas
(Doubleday)
The worst thing about this basically decent book is that it could easily have been a whole lot better. Biographies of jazz musicians are almost nonexistent (well, there are a couple on Satchmo) and the few that have appeared so far suffer from either overintellectualization (the recent Miles Davis book, which eschewed biographical detail completely for turgid musicology) or superficiality. Chasin' The Trane falls into the latter category.
Was John Coltrane the blazing genius people now make him out to be, or was he just one of a number of people who were changing the face of jazz at 6 the time? Thomas" reverential attitude towards the man makes it hard to tell. Still, in between the filler, we catch glimpses of a man thoroughly dedicated to his art, human enough to be terrified of dentists (which, according to Thomas, got him drinking and later taking heroin—any reedman whose teeth are in bad shape is going to be in some serious pain), and deeply interested in a multiplicity of ideas and ways of life.
Thomas relies heavily on quotations from people Who knew Trane, interspersing them with expository paragraphs. The Rouble with this is that he didn't bother to check their accuracy, and jazz critic Gary Giddins, for one, told me he is quite Upset over the book's accuracy, or lack of it. I have no way of knowing whether Bob Thiele was at a session or not, but enough people are outraged about
Chasin" The Trane for me to advise you to read it* but with an eye for the Big Picture, not details.
. EdWard
AMERICAN FRIED
By
Calvin Trillin (Penguin)
This book is to dieters what pornography is to guys in prison—cruel andyunusual punishment. Unusual in that this is not your run of the mill celebration of French haute cuisine or memories of the cordon bleu meal one ate years ago at the Count's chateau with that fascinating varietal. No, Trillin has a respect for that—what good eater doesn't—but he is an American from " Kansas City, and thus is dedicated to our very own kind of gourmet fare—hamburgers, ribs, chili...
How do you find these delicacies when you blow into a strange town that has potential? Trillin shares some of his secrets (never eat in a barbeque place that has plates; when searching the phone book don't go for the places listed in bold face type) and even tells you where sbme of the bests are: Winstead's Tor hamburgers (in Kansas City), Arthur Bryant's for barbeque (also in K.C.), Skyline for Cincinnati Chili (unsurpassed , I'll vouch for that!), and the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival for crawfish.
He also, I hasten to add, discusses the psychology of obesity with his friend Fats Goldberg, owner of New York's top-rated pizzeria. It's something you're going to need to understand if you read American Fried.
EdWard
STREET ART by Robert Sommer (Links):: Well, some of it is the regular detritus you find around art colleges, but some of it really is People's Art, drawn on ghetto walls or by mad genius recluses out in public. Some of it is ridiculously preachy, some of it is charmingly naive. Anyway, it's good to see somebody's documenting it. E.W.
