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Customer Review
- Reviewed in Canada on November 6, 2016The author is a professional jazz musician and "cosmic" physicist. By way of introduction, I am also a jazz musician and teach concepts of medical physics with the musical basis of sound waves, sometimes bringing a guitar into the classroom. However, I must confess to knowing little about the formation of the universe. I was obviously drawn to the book title!
This is a tantalizing topic that explores the rhythmic, symmetric, and cyclic nature of our universe. There are numerous fun anecdotes from musical heroes including the author's "Eureka moment" when the approach to creative improvisation gave him new insights on deeper understanding of the physical universe and underlying equations of space-time, warped by a gravitational field.
One area of the book was, however, especially confusing and frustrating. Figures are parachuted in with limited captioning that does not guide the reader's eyes to the salient features of the figure. The accompanying text does not offer much further guidance (at least where the Figures first appear).
The Final Chapter is really the "climax" of the book but it is "crammed" with key concepts in an attempt to wrap up. It reminds me of the Loud Bb13th chord played by the entire jazz orchestra at the end of a Big Band tune! The text appears to be less polished and organized - presenting a stew of ideas. The chart produced by master saxophonist John Coltrane (who had a deep appreciation of Einstein and cosmology) is presented a second time but appears to be a "forced analogy" with cosmology. Perhaps a specialist can appreciate the cosmic connections in this Finale, but other readers will simply be left dazed by some of the cosmic 'jargon'.
Overall this is a good book with a very interesting perspective. However, the author's love of jazz may have blinded him to the limits of the musical analogy?
