Re: Jerry Coker's Improvising Jazz

CLAY MOORE ( cmoore4@ix.netcom.com )
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:17:45 -0600

Michael J. Crutcher wrote:
>
> I seem to remember some talk about this book, either here or on RMB. What's
> the consensus on this book? I like it, but I haven't put it to practice as
> of yet.
>
> Mike "No, sir. I wasn't playing the guitar at 4 A.M." Crutcher

Coker's books were how I learned the basics of jazz theory back in the
mid '70s. Where I think he goes astray is emphasizing patterns and such,
but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't learn a lot of information from
him. I think that his next two books, "Listening to Jazz" and "The Jazz
Idiom" are both good as well. "Practicing Jazz" and "The Jazz Language"
I wouldn't recommend at all; that to me is where his pedantry really
starts to come out.

Clay