Will Friedwald is one opinionated fellow. His 811-page Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, ten years in the making, celebrates both the
famous and obscure pop singers of the past century, and every last one of its
essays is filled with passion, high praise, and occasionally, vitriol. The end
result is a highly personal guide likely to entertain, educate, and
occasionally infuriate—exactly the attributes one wants in a pop culture
encyclopedia.
Covering everyone from the
obscure (Nellie Lutcher, anyone?) to the revered (Tony Bennett), Friedwald
includes assessments ranging from Al Jolson to Michael Bublé, but his focus remains
squarely fixed on the post-World War II, pre-rock era, with his highest praise
justifiably reserved for the brilliant work of Frank Sinatra and Ella
Fitzgerald.
He is particularly
eloquent on Ella, nailing exactly why her recordings never date: "Fitzgerald
was always emotionally true to
whatever she was singing. She could make you walk on air with a happy song and
want to walk on razor blades on a downer."
His
research is prodigious and the breadth of his knowledge is matched only by the
depth of his passion. For all the doorstopper heft of the book, he is capable
of the pithy phrase that sums up an entire career: Jo Stafford's style, for
example, is pegged as "reserved optimism with a touch of melancholy,"
an assessment that precisely captures the sensibility behind such epic hits as "You
Belong to Me."
It's an idiosyncratic
guide, to be sure. Friedwald devotes just as much space to Audra McDonald's
meager four-CD discography as he does to the fifty-year legacy of Johnny
Mathis. Fortunately, the passion of his beliefs only occasionally gets the
better of him, as when an eight-page screed against Barbra Streisand runs so
over the top that one can only wonder what the heck La Streisand ever did to
him.
Friedwald refers to jazz
historian Dan Morgenstern as "that encyclopedia who walks like a man."
In paying tribute to the unquestioned giants of twentieth-century pop music,
walking encyclopedia Friedwald has done his idols proud.
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