Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s

This book is a mash of several of my interests: jazz, NYC history, urban planning, etc, so I did expect to at least find it interesting. But now that I've finished it, I can say it is one of the most interesting books on jazz I've read!First of all, it's about an era of jazz in New York City I knew nothing about. I've heard of artist lofts in SoHo in the 70s and 80s, but I never knew there was a community of jazz musicians who not only lived in them, but used them as performance spaces. It was a joy reading about places like Studio We and Studio Rivbea, but also about the musician collectives' counter-mainstream festivals meant to empower styles of jazz (mostly avant-garde) that commercial record companies and nightclubs gave less priority than fusion or acoustic jazz giants.The tone is academic (as Heller is an ethnomusicologist), but the research is amazingly original. Heller worked for over a decade with Juma Sultan, whose paper/recording archive provided much insight and basis for this book. But, Heller does not tell the story in a predictable fashion a la "Here's how it started, here were the greats, here's how it ended." It's a much deeper dive into the ideals that guided it and an analysis of the different subcultures (a mature move, rather than acting like all these musicians believed the exact same thing).It's not only inspired me to listen to some of these recordings (The "Wildflowers" set of live recordings of one of these festivals is out of this world), but also to be more aware of musician-run efforts that maybe aren't the big nightclubs in the Village. On the other side of COVID, I envision going to more concerts not just by groups like The Stone, but also house shows in people's homes whenever they're advertised. The environment is much different and a nice alternative to Two-Drink Minimum 45-minute set clubs in the city, not that those aren't great in their own way, too.I wish I could have been around during this era. Heller makes it sound inspiring, friendly, and inviting.

hello, first of all, a disclosure: i am friends with the author, but i want to give an unbiased, fair review here. so here goes: this is an easy-to-read, scholarly book, as well a superb reference source. i first read this as the author's doctoral thesis at harvard. it took me a bit to get into the flow of the narrative, since the author goes back-and-forth between his informative interchanges with jazz musician/historian, juma sultan, and his own insights. however, this is a must-read book for those who are interested in the origin of the free-jazz movement in the lower east side area of NYC. make no mistake, this is a superbly annotated book, if you buy it, you will learn so much from just seeing all of the references. that being said, this was both a fun and informative read. if you want to know how the free-jazz, loft movement evolved in NYC, this is a mandatory purchase. i bought the hard-cover version as a permanent addition to my library. (and, and btw, buy george lewis' book as well on the AACM, whose similarly creative music developed at the same time in chicago).

I just received the book today I've only been able to skim through the pages it looks like a very good read with a lot of new writings as I already have about 8 free jazz books. There seems to be not too much overlap which I'm starting to find out with so many with the same topic. The words are not large letters so the pages are full. Not too many pictures which dropped it a star (grade wise).

I'm enjoying this book very much. I just began reading while on the beach during Labor Day. The first chapter "could" have been substituted as the introduction, but this would be my ONLY "complaint".I would encourage (as I feel the author does as well) anyone else with access to other archives should carry this ball a bit further. I was spending my free time during those years in NYC, but sadly, I don't have the archive re: "Loft Jazz. The time is fleeting as we are all getting a bit older every day.

Incredible. Concise and informative. Very interesting. Every jazz lover should read it.

As a jazz fan, I was excited to see a new book about one of the great periods for the music, the 70s lofts. Unfortunately, it would be hard to imagine a more pretentious treatment of that topic than Heller's. Pages are taken up with the kind of academic drivel that feels like navel gazing. I ended up skimming through entire sections in search of actual information. The whole book felt like a lost opportunity.

What a disappointment! This promised to be a detailed review of the loft jazz period which has attracted scant coverage previously. However it turns out to be an expanded doctoral thesis that shoots off in various directions that appear to have little relevance to the subject in hand - the author even apologises for this at one point! I was left with little more actual knowledge of the music from the period than I started with. Worst of all the book did not inspire me to go out and listen to some of the music it was supposedly covering - surely a fatal flaw for a jazz book. Worth reading once but I won't be returning for a re-read.

good