I guess my last few posts are kind of holiday recommendations. I'm not down with the all-pervasive commerciality of the holiday season, but nonetheless I find myself recommending ways to spend money (at the movie theater, buying a TV show on DVD, buying books). Oh well, here's another one. What can I say.
Noted scholar and jazz critic John Szwed recently sent me a copy of his book, So What. I had heard about when it came out in 2003 and just hadn't been reading much in the way of music biography at the time, so it slipped through the net. His engrossing "meditation" on Miles is balanced and myth-debunking, equal parts celebratory and thoughtfully critical. Highly recommended.
