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player ready...It’s been a good year for local music releases.
I’m not just talking about albums — that’s been rich, too — but books. Chicago presses and luminaries have churned out an unusual number of music books this year, with a little something for everyone. On this list you’ll find anthologies, no-stone-unturned histories and biographies, glossy and gorgeous coffee table books, and even a surprise debut novel — plus some releases that aren’t Chicago-specific, but will surely speak to the music buffs among us.
“Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions”
Late Chicago photographer Steve Schapiro captured landmark moments of the civil rights movement for Life, Time and Look magazines. “Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions” (ACC Art Books), ushered across the finish line by Schapiro’s widow and son, anthologizes his little-known jazz photography from the early 1960s when he was a young unknown in New York. This volume captures now-legendary stands by the likes of Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Elvin Jones and Bill Evans. Veteran jazz journalist Richard Scheinin accompanies the photos with vivid, detailed prose. Sonny Rollins, who died the month before the volume came out, and Kurt Elling contribute forewords and afterwords.
“Can I Get a Witness!: Faith, Family, and Chicago Gospel Music”
The story of the Gay Sisters, who performed and recorded over three decades, reads like a who’s-who of gospel music. Despite that, Evelyn, Geraldine and Mildred Gay never achieved the same renown as peers like Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. The recollections of their baby brother, Chicago pastor and musician Gregory Donald Gay, inspire this book-length corrective, as told to record executive Steven B. Dolins. As it happens, “Can I Get a Witness!: Faith, Family, and Chicago Gospel Music” (University of Chicago Press) also boasts a Sonny Rollins foreword: The Gay family took Rollins in while he was recovering from drug addiction in the 1950s, and he never forgot their kindness.
“Passing the Baton: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Music Directors Who Shaped Its Greatness”
Few have had a front-row seat to the history of the CSO quite like program note annotator Phillip Huscher. Rather than attempt an exhaustive history, “Passing the Baton: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Music Directors Who Shaped Its Greatness” (University of Chicago Press) uses conductors as a prism through which to make sense of the storied ensemble, relayed with equipoise and disarming candor. Music director Riccardo Muti’s bristly attitude towards his youthful successor, Klaus Mäkelä, makes it into the book, as does the revelation that Orchestra Hall has never been an acoustic success story: Founding director Theodore Thomas went to his grave thinking the hall was a failure.
“Music and Architecture in Harmony: Opera Houses and Concert Halls of Europe, 1672–2022”
“Music and Architecture in Harmony: Opera Houses and Concert Halls of Europe, 1672–2022” (Oro Editions) is co-written by English architect Michael Webb and music journalist-turned-politician Thomas Aujero Small. This handsome volume runs through 90 European venues, breaking down their unique features, acoustic qualities and performance histories (recent and not so). Architect Renzo Piano contributes a foreword, as does conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, who worked closely with Frank Gehry on the design of Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
“The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City’s Sound”
Who’s on your musical Mount Rushmore? Sourced from three decades of columns, former baiduhai jazz critic Howard Reich carves his own in this anthology, “The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City’s Sound” (University of Chicago Press). Along with Louis Armstrong and Dee Alexander, undersung figures — like the dizzyingly talented pianist Dorothy Donegan — also get their due.
“Chicago Music, Seen: 100 Portraits” (University of Illinois Press)
Jim Newberry was born to be a photographer: His father, James Newberry, founded Columbia College’s photo department. From the 1980s through the beginning of this decade, Newberry documented Chicago’s music scene, primarily for the Chicago Reader. Represented in “Chicago Music, Seen: 100 Portraits” (University of Illinois Press) alone are Mavis Staples, house music pioneer Frankie Knuckles, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, legendary producer Steve Albini, “Exile in Guyville”-era Liz Phair, inimitable bluesman Buddy Guy, singer-songwriter and violinist Andrew Bird, and several pillars of the free-jazz scene, including the late Mars Williams. So is Fred Armisen, once a drummer for Chicago punk band Trenchmouth. Photos of artists are often accompanied by their own commentary.
“Madame Composer: The Virtuosic Genius of Clara Schumann”
For a glimpse into rising talent in the city, Wicker Park cocktail bar Clara — which hosts live music nightly — is a good place to start. Its namesake? Composer and piano virtuoso Clara Schumann, whose influence on 19th-century classical music is impossible to quantify. The wife of Robert Schumann and a confidante of Brahms, she changed the course of both those famous men’s music, but she rarely gets her due as a creative titan in her own right. Historian Sarah Fritz sets the record straight in an authoritative new biography, “Madame Composer: The Virtuosic Genius of Clara Schumann” (Pegasus Books).
“Want List”
Chicago’s creative music scene intersects through six degrees of John Corbett, but it usually doesn’t require nearly so many. A music journalist, archivist, curator, producer and avid record collector, Corbett now adds “novelist” to his CV. Equal parts love letter and absurdist sendup, this whodunnit follows two music obsessives as they track down a stolen Don Cherry trio acetate. The music references come fast and furious, so I recommend listening along with the companion double LP, or attending the Dec. 12 show at Corbett’s West Loop gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey. There, a bloc of esteemed Chicago improvisers will perform selections from “Want List” (coming Nov. 20 on Soberscove Press/Pre-Echo Press) live.
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.