Gil Goldstein will be familiar to readers of a contemporary disposition as both a keyboard player (accordion included, on his recent Zebracoast album) and arranger, the latter often in the style of his half-namesake Gil Evans. Here, for the pioneering German publisher Advance, he has produced a wide-ranging handbook which should interest all composers, regardless of experience.
Gil divides his book into the traditional departments – melody, harmony and rhythm – but in relating these elements to the work of such composers as Carla Bley, Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Ralph Towner, Randy Brecker, Michael Gibbs, Steve Swallow, and, of course, himself, his approach is modern. His main sub-headings are intervallic composition, scales and modes, 12-tone technique, diatonic harmony, voicing, pedal point, slash chords, rhythmic composition, form, time signatures and tone colour. Such theory is well established now, but Goldstein’s exposition of it, and Advance’s clear layout (shame, though, about the literals that bug most Advance books) make it easily accessible. However, perhaps the best part of the book is the final third, where people who actually get their hands dirty with ink and manuscript – among them Bley, Beirach, Brecker, Corea, Bill Evans, Gibbs, Metheny, George Russell, Silver, Swallow and Hancock – talk explicitly about their methods of composition.
Jazz Composer’s Companion, by Gil Goldstein. Published by Advance Music, D-7407 Rottenburg N., Germany. Pb, ppl 16, illus. Available in the UK from Jazzwise, 2b Gleneagle Mews, Ambleside Avenue, London SW16. Tel: 0181 769 7725.
