Valerie Wilmer:
As Serious As Your Life

 

Quartet Books,
London 1977

296 pages

ISBN: 978-1852427306

 

As essential now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Life celebrates jazz with passion and conviction. Covering the dynamic period 1960-1976, Valerie Wilmer powerfully evokes a remarkable revolutionary musical era that continues to inspire generations of musicians.
Valerie Wilmer evaluates the musical careers of both the famous names of the time – Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor – and those of less well-known artists. It is her unique approach – placing the ‘new jazz’ in its political and social context – that makes As Serious As Your Life a classic of jazz criticism.

Source:

http://www.jazzscript.co.uk/books/freewilmer.htm
(Reprinted with kind permission)