The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums

Very fun and engaging book. Enjoy reading about some of my favorite albums. Too bad not all available on cd, such as the Annie Get Your Gun with Doris Day and Robert Goulet. But thrilled to see Dick Haymes included. Now, as to the bad, this collectible book arrived in very poor condition. That is all I will say about that.

I have been in the music business working with talented Vocalists and Recording Artists most of my life. Will Friewald's book "The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal albums" is a must read if you want to understand the famous and often overlooked best Vocalists and albums. The writing style is fair and even handed and while you may not agree with all of Will's opinions you will not be able to fault his scholarship and research. You will also get a window on the complicated world of recording and the interpersonal issues that shaped many off the finest records.

It's about pop,not really jazz. Mainly what's known as "the great American song book."A real fun read. Recommended. Inclusion of Tiny Tim still a head scracher.

This book is a masterclass on critique, an incredible recipient of information and knowledge, all of it written as if he and I were just holding an amenable conversation. What an incredible intelectual this man is, with no poses of pseudo-artistry, with no baroque pseudo-insights as you find in most of art critiques nowadays, always so, so subjective try9ing to pass as the only truth. Kudos, applauses, honors, my hat off to Friedwald.

Got this as a gift for a music teacher, and needed to get a copy of my own after looking at it.It's introduced me to so much great music.

Will Friedwald is the acknowledged master of jazz and pop music. He not only tells the history of the performers, albums, and songs but has wonderful and informed insights. The book is a pleasure to read especially if you can follow along by listening to the music. Certainly a must-have for all fans of classic American Popular Song.

Fascinating book. Be prepared to spend beaucoup dollars on CDs or downloads trying to get all the albums which Friedwald praises

The essays on the albums (57 of them) are informative, but run a little long. One wants to stop reading and just listen to the record. Perhaps the best idea was suggested by another reviewer: read the essay while listening to the album. What’s missing from the essays is a simple list of the songs on the album and their composers, like on the back of the cover of an actual album. You shouldn’t have to read the whole essay to find out whether the album has Nice Work If You Can Get It.When Friedwald says “jazz and pop” he means people whom Tower Records put in the room it called “vocal”, like Sinatra, Mel, Ella, Sarah, and Billie. Michael Jackson was “the king of pop” but that’s not the kind of pop that Friedwald is writing about.Lists like this offer the possibility of finding out about something new. I didn’t know about Barb Jungr or Marilyn Maye. I knew of Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup as songwriters, but not as singers. I was only dimly aware that Annie Ross made albums apart from Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. The Carmen McRae album he selects is a new one on me, As Time Goes By: Live at the Dug, the Dug being an oddly named club in Tokyo. When I checked the album wasn’t available on amazon, but a list like this should contain some rarities.To be any fun a list has to have some unexpected choices, or choices that the reader disagrees with, but Friedwald takes this to the extreme by including Tiny Tim’s God Bless Tiny Tim. Friedwald is the one who put in the time and effort to write the book, so he gets to indulge one or two of his quirks, but this is a real stretch. God Bless Tiny Tim but not The Genius of Ray Charles? Other disagreements are less drastic. Doris Day and Jo Stafford were very good singers but three albums each are too many if Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan each get only two..Two Peggy Lee albums are too many, considering there’s only one each for Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Anita O’Day, Mel Tormê, Bobby Short, Dinah Washington and Blossom Dearie. No doubt each reader will have his/her own differences of opinion with Friedwald as well as points of agreement.

This invaluable book is a veritable treasure trove of scholarship, criticism and insight for any fans of the American Songbook and its finest interpreters. Will Friedwald is an entertaining, affectionate and frighteningly well-informed guide to 57 classic albums which represent some of the best singing of this classic music. I am a huge fan of this music and have listened to many of the albums he discusses, yet I have to say a number of these recordings were new to me. There were also several others I’d forgotten about and it was a pleasure to put them on once more. Like all good music writers Mr Friedwald educates you in “how” to listen as much as “what” to listen to, and he opens your ears to all the beauty to be found in these wonderful albums. As you begin to read each entry you can’t help but want to listen to the album, such is the author’s enthusiasm.The selection is drawn mainly from a period around 1950-1965, give or take. Frank, Ella, Billie, Sarah are all here, but you’ll also rediscover the greatness of Lee Wiley, Steve and Eydie, Matt Dennis, and many others.Certainly a book for connoisseurs, and a brilliant, mature collection from a true master of his field.

Cannot fault any of Will Friedwald's writings , but the inclusion of Tiny Tim baffles me .I am the proud owner of all of the other CDs.

This is an impressive and very attractively produced book. The author's knowledge is clearly vast, but he writes very accessibly. Sometimes it can seem more information than one really needs to make up one's mind about a featured album and singer, but the writing is always entertaining and informative. The book is for someone who wants to go that bit deeper into the subject, having already formed an enthusiasm for the topic.

the book is in good condition and a fantastic read.prime delivery was as ever what was promised-next day-even be it easter sundaywell done