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But Beautiful
A Book About Jazz
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Check link for latest rating. ( 3,213 ratings, 371 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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But Beautiful
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Description
But Beautiful brings us Lester Young fading away in a hotel room, Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle, and Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on the piano.
In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skilfully evokes the embattled lives of the players who shaped modern jazz. He draws on photos and anecdotes, but music is the driving force of But Beautiful and Dyer brings it to life in luminescent and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity, and brilliance of each musician's style.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
But Beautiful is praised for its tender and careful exploration of jazz, with a blend of biographical sketches and imaginative storytelling. It is described as a moving and original tribute to Black American music, with intricate essays showcasing both the art and struggles of jazz musicians. The book is highly recommended by aficionados, with one reviewer calling it a "little gem."
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780857864024
Publisher: Canongate Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 May 2012
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Canongate Books
Edition: Main
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 15.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 164g
Pages: 240
Collections
About the Author
Geoff Dyer is the author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and three previous novels, as well as nine non-fiction books. Dyer has won the Somerset Maugham Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, a Lannan Literary Award, the International Center of Photography's 2006 Infinity Award for writing on photography and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' E.M. Forster Award. In 2009 he was named GQ's Writer of the Year. He won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012 and was a finalist in 1998. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in London.
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