A beautifully written and illustrated volume highlighting the best performers of the 20th century.
The word “progressive” is certainly an interesting word to define. We can have progressive actors, politicians (which would make a nice change), writers and, of course, performers. To call someone “progressive” implies that they helped moved their particular field forward by pushing the boundaries and experimenting (sometimes at their personal or professional peril) with just how far they can push the accepted “norm”.
Writer Robert Dimery has written about music and performing arts for a long time. He has written or edited a number of important articles and books on the subject, so he is more than qualified to help us lesser people discover some performers who you might have heard of but not really known what they were famous for.
Dimery writes a beautiful introduction at the start of this immaculately presented hardback book which sets out his modus operandi for deciding who makes the cut in this volume. Many of the names will seem familiar (Syd Barrett, Björk, Brian Eno, Yoko Ono and Tom Waits amongst others), some will be familiar to particular fans of modern classical music (John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Delia Derbyshire) and others will be completely unknown to the reader. This is the book’s strength.
A good list book doesn’t “rank” the performers but merely offers a number of choices for the reader’s consideration. This book does exactly that and Dimery’s writing style never feels like he is talking down to you. It really feels like he is genuinely happy to expose anyone who reads the book to 50 amazing performers who have shaped the artistic landscape of several decades. He also refrains from waxing lyrical about the performers and showing his own personal biases, but rather letting their output speak for themselves.
Each entry is accompanied by a gorgeous illustration drawn by Kristelle Rodeia. She uses interesting colour pastels and gives the performers a very “united” look.
Readers can either read through from start to finish or pick and choose the chapters as they so desire. Neither path will ruin the enjoyment of this exquisite volume. The chapters are short (usually only two or three pages) and explain a little background of the person being discussed as well as why they are considered important in their field. Dimery’s research often involves quotes from his subjects to add weight to his articles.
The back of the book features an extensive list of works for each performer so that, if you are interested, you can see what to look for.
This is a wonderfully readable volume that you will find yourself coming back to time and time again.
Reviewed by Rodney Hrvatin
Twitter: @Wagnerfan74
Published by: Murdoch Books
Released: August 2020
RRP: $24.99
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