Like most ground-breaking art forms, contemporary creative music is rarely understood or accepted in its own time, and for those reasons, can largely go unheard. Music and the Creative Spirit: Innovators in Jazz, Improvisation, and the Avant Garde aims to give today's brightest music innovators due recognition and respect, celebrating their work and creativity. Through personal interviews, artists such as Pat Metheny, Regina Carter, Joshua Redman, Fred Anderson, Dave Holland, Bill Frisell, David Murray, and John Zornâ"to name just a fewâ"offer clear, frank discussions about music, creativity, work, society, culture, current events, and more.
Author Lloyd Peterson has hand picked these artists specifically for their ability to express themselves through their own creative voices and transcend their art form through the strength of their own ingenious spirit. Their music eschews categorization, genre, or style, and the book necessarily takes a broader view of jazz, tapping into the inventive aspect that is difficult to describe or teach, and is rarely discussed. By allowing the innovators an opportunity to speak for themselves, readers are afforded a clearer sense of their attitudes and approaches, their ways of working, and their views of contemporary music and society.
Industry Reviews
Lloyd Peterson brought a lifetime of loving jazz-its offshoots, and music of all sorts-to bear on his Music And The Creative Spirit. His earnest desire to understand its motivating spirit radiates from the questions he poses to the 41 musicians interviewed in the book like a neon sign on a dark night....invaluable. * DownBeat Magazine, February 2007 *
A fascinating book. * Earshot Jazz, July 2006 *
I found all of the interviews to be illuminating and incisive...Bravo to Lloyd Peterson for his hard work and the great outcome....Highly Recommended! * Downtown Music Gallery *
[A] wonderfully rich collection of interviews...Highly recommended for any students of the relationship between creativity and society. * Reclaim The Media *
This book goes a long way to opening up the door for people to better understand the artists, and therefore, to hopefully better understand the music and develop a deeper appreciation from some of the most brilliant musicians creating today. * Jazzto.Ca *
Adds insight to a musical activity that is many times overlooked, but arguably crucial to all music regardless of style, genre, or era. It captures moments in time that, like an improvisation, are lost once they are played. * CAML Review, vol 35, no 1 *
Focusing on music innovators, this book contains interviews with 41 jazz artists who discuss their ideas about music, gender, audiences, composition and inspiration, musical and social influences, philosophy, teaching students, improvisation, and other subjects. Artists interviewed include Regina Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Bill Frisell, Christian McBride, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman, Maria Schneider, and Derek Bailey. Some b&w photos are incorporated. There is no bibliography. Peterson is a contributor to Downbeat and Earshot magazines. * Reference and Research Book News, November 2006 *
What makes the book work is that the different answers to the same question often add up to an understanding that transcends any individual response and, consequently, succeeds at getting closer to the heart of the matter....Peterson has created a wonderfully unbiased exploration of what it is to make music. Because it's a series of interviews it's a book that you can read in dribs and drabs; but by the time you've read the last interview...you'll have a greater insight into what the process is. And, perhaps, a more open mind to check out areas to which you've yet to be exposed. For that alone Music and the Creative Spirit is a resounding success. * All About Jazz *
It provides important material...Thanks to Lloyd Peterson, these particular artists got the opportunity to define their music, so it was all worth it. * Jazz Notes, Vol. 18, No. 2 *
An interesting study... * Music Works *
Elicits frank, fascinating answers. Music and the Creative Spirit is unfiltered, gut-level jazz oral history....penetrating... * JazzTimes Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 6 (July/August 2007) *
One of the best and most complete portraits on the state of jazz as it really is right now that has come along in, well....ever. -- Pat Metheny, PatMetheny.com - "Pat Recommends"
At Peterson's urging, the musicians tackle all the favourite esthetic questions. Peterson is certainly steeped in the issues and his interviewees respond with great candor. -- Peter Hum * Jazzblog.Ca On The Ottawa Citizen Website, April 18 2009 *
