Riding on a Blue Note

Riding on a Blue Note is comprised of a number of reviews and essays on several major or lesser known figures in the worlds of jazz and popular music. Giddins writes with wit and a sense of humor to discuss the merits and problems facing artists as diverse as Sinatra, Irving Berlin, Ellington and Ethel Waters to Bobby Blue Bland, Wes Montgomery, and Cecil Taylor. Giddins also approaches the question of race, culture, and identity in a more nuanced way than many other (white) critics of jazz, from what I've encountered so far. The essay on George Benson may come off as too dismissive of jazz fusion, but I cannot help but (mostly) concur with Giddins on the fusion question during 1970s jazz. This is an indispensable collection of essays from the 1970s that will add much needed nuance to the state of the music during those times.