Nineteen + Conversations with Jazz Musicians NYC 1964-65

Nineteen + Conversations with Jazz Musicians: New York City 1964 1965 by Garth W. Caylor Jr. arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. The author shopped the manuscript to publishers in the 60s to no avail and it wan't until late last year that these interviews saw the light of day.

Nineteen + covers a nice mix of musicians from both the mainstream and the 60s avant-garde: Jaki Byard, Roger Kellaway, Jerome Richardson, Zoot Sims & Al Cohn, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, Steve Swallow, Milford Graves, Bill Evans, Frank Foster, John Tchicai, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp, Paul & Carla Bley, and Steve Lacy (I believe this is only interview to have been previously published - see Jason Weiss' Steve Lacy: Conversations - an excellent read).

The interviews took place in the artists' homes and there is a casual intimacy that I find very appealing. While none of the interviews are particularly in depth, each touches on different subjects and provide insights to their day-to-day lives, aesthetics, politics, art and the jazz scene and U.S. during the mid-sixties.

Several chapters end with a "+" - excerpts from the writings of Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Ralph Ellison, Maurice Ravel, D.T. Suzuki, Hermann Scherchen and Bruno Munari (among others) and photos from the author as well as prints of artworks from the likes of Georges Braque, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning and Jasper Johns appear throughout.

A nice compact book (4x7 inches - 248 pages), easy reading and informative. I will be giving this repeated reads - highly recommended.