Review by Choice Review
Similar to an autobiography, this book is organized in a somewhat chronological order. The author uses the events of his life as a springboard to describe aspects of both music and science, with more frequent "digressions" as the book continues. Readers with a suitable grounding in both topics will find much information to ponder as the author constructs his thesis--the idea that improvisation applies in equal parts to jazz and physics; improvisation is far more structured in both situations than most realize. Unfortunately, unless readers' subject knowledge is strong, various editing errors will make particular understanding more elusive. Examples include typewriter-era conventions creeping in (using S_i instead of a subscript or Bb instead of a flat symbol), wholly unrelated numbered figures that are never referenced in the text, and footnotes that lead to nowhere. These instances all suggest this book could benefit from additional editing by an individual familiar with the conventions of both musical and scientific writing. Nonetheless, this work is a useful examination of the interplay between organization and inspiration in the creation of new ideas, and therefore worth the effort of reading. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners. --David John Van Domelen, Amarillo College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Using his own life as the baseline, Alexander, a professor of physics at Brown University, sweetly riffs on deep connections between music and cosmology. Alexander begins with his childhood and youth, during which he discovered his own passions for both physics and jazz. His life story is filled with physics mentors with serious jazz chops as well as encounters with "physics-enthusiast musicians" such as Yusef Lateef, Ornette Coleman, and Brian Eno. Alexander likens theoretical physics to jazz improvisation and discusses the ways that being a jazz musician has benefited his own theories. Those without a background in musicology and cosmology may have difficulty following some of Alexander's lines of thought, but most of his conclusions are readily grasped. In a key example, he lays out how the structure of the universe arises from a "pattern of vibration," much like a musical composition. Alexander, the son of a New York cab driver from Trinidad, concludes by sharing his dream that the work of physics, like jazz improvisation, will be enriched by practitioners from many backgrounds. Alexander's account of his own rise from humble beginnings to produce contributions to both cosmology and jazz is as interesting as the marvelous connections he posits between jazz and physics. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and jazz musician Alexander (physics, Brown Univ.) melds the seemingly incongruent fields of physics and jazz in this dynamic exploration of how jazz can help with understanding astrophysics. Polymath Alexander's passion for both fields influenced his ultimate sensing of connections between theoretical astrophysics and the endless creativity of improvisational jazz. The author shares his knowledge of the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres, Albert Einstein's love of music, and John Coltrane's love of Einstein to make conceptual links between the two areas, and he reveals his own unique, dynamic ideas as both a theoretical physicist and a jazz saxophonist. Alexander's lofty aim is to understand physics by showing how musical sound and theory can reveal insights into quantum theory. Also explored are the links between music and physics explored by Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and rapper Rakim's ingenious improvisations and polyrhythmic cadence. His concepts revealed that the fundamental waves that make up sound are the same as the waves that make up energy, thus forming the core of this exciting analogy. Unfortunately, examples from the cutting-edge jazz recordings referenced are not included on the audio version. VERDICT Narrator Don Hagen's steady, melodic reading helps guide listeners through this fascinating but challenging semi-autobiographical work that will be most relevant to those with advanced knowledge of physics and music.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Look to jazz greats like John Coltrane for insights into subatomic particles and the history of the cosmos. In this loosely autobiographical meditation, Alexander (Physics/Brown Univ.) explores resonances between music and physics in Pythagoras' "music of the spheres," Albert Einstein's love of music, Coltrane's love of Einstein, and his own ideas as a theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist. It's a vast, cosmic theme that includes quantum mechanics, superstring theory, the Big Bang, the evolution of galaxies, and the process of scientific theorizing itself. Alexander mines music for analogies to physical reality and credits jam sessions as a method of opening his mind to scientific insights. The comparison between music and physics rests on the fact that sound is a wave with similarities to the wave phenomena that underlie modern physics. That observation sometimes yields illuminating resultse.g., the notion that the early universe contained tiny density fluctuations that looked like 300,000-light-year-long sound waves and eventually clumped into stars and galaxies. Unfortunately, Alexander rarely finds a satisfying middle ground between facile metaphor"in jazz combos, the gravitational' pull comes from the bass and drums"and obscure arcana. Most of the discussions (and the accompanying diagrams and math equations) are rapturous but murky. Many are too difficult and sketchily explained for laypeople to grasp, whether they are about physics"D-branes were the objects that carried the Ramond-Ramond charge the same way a point particle (0-brane) carries electric charge"music theory ("in the key of C, the V is a G-dominant chord and its mirror image/tritone for G is D-flat dominant"), or the effusions of jazzman Sonny Rollins ("I don't want to play the music; I want the music to play me"). Alexander's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, but that won't help readers fully understand it. A physics-for-poets guide that's more exuberant than enlightening. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
