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Description
In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music, Dyer imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the embattled lives of some of the greats: Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on the piano. However, music is the driving force of But Beautiful, and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity, and brilliance of each musician's style.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Polaris-
So difficult to review this book - the likes of which I've never read before. I shan't attempt to in all honesty. Suffice to say, Geoff Dyer's writing is gripping, heartfelt, and all too believable. Which is pretty much all that matters given the subject matter - imagined portraits of the equally
It matters not if you do or don't know the music of each artist covered, though you may want to refer to the select discography at the back. Dyer bases each vignette on known histories, conversations, photographs, newspaper clippings, all of which he references in the appendix. Interweaved between each story is the very appealing construction of an imagined Duke Ellington on the road between gigs, alone with his driver Harry, as he crosses the American night.
Following the main part of the book is an extended essay on the artistic course and ongoing direction of jazz music which I found a satisfying accompaniment to the earlier chapters. Recommended for all, and a must for anybody with a love of Jazz.
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troubled and gifted musicians he portrays - Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, and Art Pepper. I finished each chapter with an indelible impression of the soul of each of these men. It matters not if you do or don't know the music of each artist covered, though you may want to refer to the select discography at the back. Dyer bases each vignette on known histories, conversations, photographs, newspaper clippings, all of which he references in the appendix. Interweaved between each story is the very appealing construction of an imagined Duke Ellington on the road between gigs, alone with his driver Harry, as he crosses the American night.
Following the main part of the book is an extended essay on the artistic course and ongoing direction of jazz music which I found a satisfying accompaniment to the earlier chapters. Recommended for all, and a must for anybody with a love of Jazz.
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LibraryThing member pengvini
Beautiful writing. Jazz lovers would probably like this book a lot.
LibraryThing member berthirsch
A very special book about jazz.
Geoff Dyer has done extensive research of the be-bop giants: Ellington, Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, Bird, Lester Young, Bud Powell, Chet Baker and Art Pepper.
Each giant went through his own mania and the often gypsy life they lived is depicted in novelistic
Following these snapshots there is an extended essay about the music they played.
If you like jazz you will love this special book.
Geoff Dyer has done extensive research of the be-bop giants: Ellington, Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, Bird, Lester Young, Bud Powell, Chet Baker and Art Pepper.
Each giant went through his own mania and the often gypsy life they lived is depicted in novelistic
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fashion.Following these snapshots there is an extended essay about the music they played.
If you like jazz you will love this special book.
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LibraryThing member MSarki
Well-written, and most likely, an important book on jazz. Just not my cup of tea. I prefer my Geoff Dyer books to have at the forefront his personality. I also desire his wanton perversions and idiosyncrasies to be involved with the text, even as painful and disgusting as they sometimes are. This
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book was more a clean, academic study of an art form that I would much rather listen to than read about. Show Less
LibraryThing member catnips13
Reading this book is like listening to music playing the players. It's seeing a world full of colour, sharp and hazy, constrained and limitless at the same time. It's languid and drawling and bruising and brimming of pain, but beautiful. Quite beautifully.
LibraryThing member jimnicol
This book is one long fictionalized riff on a selection of jazz giants: Thelonius Monk, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Lester Young and Bud Powell. Each musician/composer has his own chapter, with the chapters separated by imagined portions of the legendary road trips of Duke
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Ellington and Harry Carney. Very lyrical and musical prose, great subjects. Dyer says he used photographs, new reports and interviews to conjure his somewhat stream-0f-consciousness takes on the melancholy and sometimes tragic lives of these great artists. My hat's off to him, however he did it. Loved this book and felt I learned things I needed to know. Show Less
LibraryThing member jasoncomely
Dyer knows how to turn a phrase - his writing in But Beautiful makes Kerouac's prose seem plain jane - but about two thirds in and the poetic language became a distraction for me. Not as good as I hoped.
LibraryThing member markm2315
Sort of an imagined biography of several great jazz musicians of the 40s and 50s. The author uses the quality of each artist's music to model the imagery with which he describes them. The stories are similar with racism, mental illness and drug addiction playing important roles in almost every
There is a danger of romanticizing all of this with the usual comments that boil down to great artists must suffer.
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I think it is helpful to recall that before the discovery of Koch's bacillus (and for some time afterwards!), Tuberculosis was linked in literature and common thought with the artistic, the hyper sexual, and so forth. It does seem that depression, suicide and drug addiction are more common in creative people, but once a clear genetic linkage is found (if it is), the more artistic comments may seem silly - i.e. it may not be that great artists must suffer, just that they do.
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case.There is a danger of romanticizing all of this with the usual comments that boil down to great artists must suffer.
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I think it is helpful to recall that before the discovery of Koch's bacillus (and for some time afterwards!), Tuberculosis was linked in literature and common thought with the artistic, the hyper sexual, and so forth. It does seem that depression, suicide and drug addiction are more common in creative people, but once a clear genetic linkage is found (if it is), the more artistic comments may seem silly - i.e. it may not be that great artists must suffer, just that they do.
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Awards
Somerset Maugham Award (1992)
Original publication date
1991