Book Review The Jazz Bug

Who doesn't enjoy twilight excursions to jazz clubs First, there&rsquos the soft lighting. Mellow strains of the saxophone, cut with the energy of trumpets. Impromptu scatting as the band feeds off each others&rsquo energy. And unless you&rsquore a modern-day Hemingway, an ever-flowing arrangement of cocktails sans the discord of drunken brawls. Despite the many positives, I do find myself missing a piece of the puzzle with every visit. But after leafing through the hundred odd pages of The Jazz Bug, I&rsquove figured out what it is&mdashcontext.

Jazz emerged as a musical revolution that allowed the African-American community to have a popular voice amid oppression. Dissociating from this long and turbulent history can make for tepid listening, and Mookerjee&rsquos book has helped underline the social and politicial shades that vastly improve the jazz experience.

The Jazz Bug is split into chronological sections about the genre&rsquos evolution, structural elements, as well as brief notes on sub-genres like bebop and bossa nova. Though I can&rsquot speak for all the factual information within, it holds promise as a teaching aid for introductory music courses.There&rsquos also a &lsquosuggested listening&rsquo section that you could plug into for a lyrical revision. What I enjoyed most, though, was that the author avoided elitist jargon. Instead, there&rsquos insightful quotes by greats like Eddie Condon and Duke Ellington, historical anecdotes about patronage by mafiosos like Al Capone, and lesser-known explanations on the drastic circumstances that musicians would have to battle for survival. Case in point Billie Holiday&rsquos struggle against racist peers, or Louis Armstrong&rsquos journey to Los Angeles during The Great Depression.

While the book is an informational bounty, it&rsquos always lovely to see youthful enthusiasm scattered through erudite prose. Mookerjee is self-taught about the nuances of Jazz, the genre persistently enamouring him decades after his first listen at 16. The Jazz Bug, thus, is a concise attempt to pass on the excitement, and acquaint millennials today with the jazz cats of yore.