Book Marks: Jazz up your musical savvy

24 May 2016 - 09:42 By Andrew Donaldson

Echoes of war correspondents Martha Gellhorn and Lee Miller in this sweeping panorama of early 20th-century Europe as witnessed by fiercely independent maverick photographer Amory Clay. PAPERBACK OF THE WEEKSweet Caress by William Boyd (Bloomsbury) R250Echoes of war correspondents Martha Gellhorn and Lee Miller in this sweeping panorama of early 20th-century Europe as witnessed by fiercely independent maverick photographer Amory Clay. Boyd's selection of real frontline dispatches and evocative photographs give the novel a gripping authenticity.THE ISSUEWhat's the more idiotic - SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng's 90% local content ruling, or the howls of approval from South African musicians? Quite how this intervention serves listeners - surely the public broadcaster's mandate - has yet to be explained. It's interesting that, in terms of Hlaudi's decree, jazz is one of the genres singled out for special attention - because not only is it the great American art form, but because it remains inscrutable to most music fans. Help is, however, at hand in the form of critic, musician and historian Ted Gioia's new work, How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books)."I've offered both praise and putdowns to make an artist over the years," he writes, "but I've never actually outlined in detail the standards I apply in making these evaluations." Until now. As part of his instruction, he points readers to the rubbish stuff, too. "You can perhaps learn more about swing from listening to the bands that fail to achieve it."Gioia's The History of Jazz and The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire are also recommended.CRASH COURSESome of the insights in BBC presenter Claudia Hammond's new book, Mind Over Money: The Psychology of Money and How to Use it Better (Canongate), may be obvious, like the cash versus card debate. We tend to spend more with the card - if only because we don't walk around with wads of cash. But, she argues, the propensity to splurge does increase significantly when we don't have to hand over "real" money.More irrational, I thought, was our spending "old" money faster than the "new". It seems that we hang on to crisp, fresh banknotes longer than the tatty, grubby ones. So we're more eager to get rid of older R100 notes than the new ones - despite the fact that they're worth exactly the same.The book concludes with a chapter on money tips out of left field - such as never, ever go on a wine course. "If you learn too much about expensive wines," Hammond writes, "you will start caring about what you're drinking. If you don't, cheap wine will carry on tasting good, especially if your friends lie to you about the price."THE BOTTOM LINE"Rather than despair when the electricity goes down and the air chokes up, we dance, sing, beat the drum and the gods wake us from the nightmare. And then, if only for a few hours, everything seems possible again, and we're devilishly happy." - Rio de Janeiro: Extreme City by Luiz Eduardo Soares (Allen Lane)..

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