The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records


Ashley Kahn - 2006
    The House That Trane Built tells the story of the label, balancing tales of individual passion, artistic vision, and commercial motivation. Weaving together research, dynamic album covers, session photographs, and nearly one hundred interviews with executives, journalists, producers, and musicians from Ray Charles and Alice Coltrane to Quincy Jones, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, and others--this is the riveting tale of an era-shaping jazz label in the age of rock. The thirty-eight Album Profiles--a veritable book within a book--offer a consumer's guide to the best and most timeless titles on Impulse.

You're Living All Over Me


Nick Attfield - 2011
    An in-depth study of the visceral slacker classic from 1987, an album that influenced enormously the nascent alternative scene.

On Roads That Echo: A bicycle journey through Asia and Africa


Charlie Walker - 2019
    The two-and-a-half-year journey spanned the mountains and deserts of former Soviet Republics, Afghanistan on the fearful brink of foreign withdrawal, and remote corners of the Congolese jungle. From hiking through sandstorms in the Gobi desert to barrelling down rapids in a dugout canoe, this perilous adventure, and Charlie’s many encounters along the way, gives insight into the past, present, and future of often-overlooked places during periods of great change. 'A first class adventure by a first class adventurer - packed with compelling incident and insight.' - BENEDICT ALLEN ‘An epic adventure, told candidly and vividly. Charlie’s words make me want to go back and experience these places with the same depth.’ - MARK BEAUMONT. ‘A mammoth journey that makes me yearn for the formative freedom of the open road.’ - ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS

Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones


Quincy Jones - 2001
    Q is his glittering and moving life story, told with the style, passion, and no-holds-barred honesty that are his trademarks.Quincy Jones grew up poor on the mean streets of Chicago’s South Side, brushing against the law and feeling the pain of his mother’s descent into madness. But when his father moved the family west to Seattle, he took up the trumpet and was literally saved by music. A prodigy, he played backup for Billie Holiday and toured the world with the Lionel Hampton Band before leaving his teens. Soon, though, he found his true calling, inaugurating a career whose highlights have included arranging albums for Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Count Basie; composing the scores of such films as The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, and The Color Purple, and the theme songs for the television shows Ironside, Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show; producing the bestselling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and the bestselling single “We Are the World”; and producing and arranging his own highly praised albums, including the Grammy Award—winning Back on the Block, a striking blend of jazz, African, urban, gospel, and hip-hop. His musical achievements, in a career that spans every style of American popular music, have yielded an incredible seventy-seven Grammy nominations, and are matched by his record as a pioneering music executive, film and television producer, tireless social activist, and business entrepreneur–one of the most successful black business figures in America. This string of unbroken triumphs in the entertainment industry has been shadowed by a turbulent personal life, a story he shares with eloquence and candor.Q is an impressive self-portrait by one of the master makers of American culture, a complex, many-faceted man with far more than his share of talents and an unparalleled vision, as well as some entirely human flaws. It also features vivid testimony from key witnesses to his journey–family, friends, and musical and business associates. His life encompasses an astonishing cast of show business giants, and provides the raw material for one of the great African American success stories of this century.From the Hardcover edition.

Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music


Mark Katz - 2004
    Far from being simply a tool for the preservation of music, the technology is a catalyst. This is the clear message of Capturing Sound, a wide-ranging, deeply informative, consistently entertaining history of recording's profound impact on the musical life of the past century, from Edison to the Internet.In a series of case studies, Mark Katz explores how recording technology has encouraged new ways of listening to music, led performers to change their practices, and allowed entirely new musical genres to come into existence. An accompanying CD, featuring thirteen tracks from Chopin to Public Enemy, allows readers to hear what Katz means when he discusses music as varied as King Oliver's "Dippermouth Blues," a Jascha Heifetz recording of a Brahms Hungarian Dance, and Fatboy Slim's "Praise You."

Hip Hop America


Nelson George - 1998
    Now with a new introduction by the author, Hip Hop America is the definitive account of the society-altering collision between black youth culture and the mass media.

Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm


Percy Carey - 2007
    M.F. Grimm, tells the true story of his life in the game, from dizzying heights to heartbreaking losses, in this raw, brutally honest graphic novel memoir. In SENTENCES, Carey chronicles his life in the sometimes glamorous, often violent world of hip-hop, from the first time he picked up a microphone a ta block party to the day he lost the use of his legs to gang violence, from his incarceration to his rise to the top of his game as a hip-hop grandmaster. No questions are left unanswered and no apologies are made, resulting in a truly groundbreaking graphic novel.

The Web of Karma


Anurag Shrivastava - 2019
    Control over law and order has long since passed from the hands of the administration to caste-based gangs and organized crime syndicates enjoying political patronage. Kidnapping has become one of the flourishing businesses of the state, while every other industry has dwindled down and the development plank has gone on a pause mode, on account of Rangdari, which is yet another booming business apart from contract killing, smuggling, illegal tree cutting, and vehicle snatching. Migration to other states is at peak: not only of big businessmen, but also of lowly laborers. And those who can’t leave the state are either sucked into the crime world or are forced to live under fear. Albeit the local newspapers everyday sketch the sordid saga of the state, the execrable condition is not likely to improve by any means in the near future. Digambar Babu, a middle-aged man of a small town Motihari (the place of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah), is dejected and dismayed for his family falling apart, and so sets himself on a mission to make amends for the mistakes he has done in the past. Shakuntala Devi, his wife, infuriated at herself for having devoted her whole life selflessly and arduously for her ungrateful family, wants to make up for the injustice she has done to herself, by living the rest of her life selfishly. Sarvesh, their asthmatic son, whose first marriage perished about a decade ago, is still struggling with both his career and his married life, and Nisha, their daughter, is married to someone whom she thinks she will never be able to love. The biggest threat to the already troubled family is Nisha’s ex-lover Kanhaiya Tiwari, who is the youngest corporator of the town, and has sworn to ruin the family. Shyam, Nisha’s husband, who is ‘the absorber of the emotions’, in keeping with his fluidity, writhes in pain but transforms time and again, in order to win his wife’s heart, while Savita, Sarvesh’s current wife, colludes with Kanhaiya Tiwari in his evil intent, in order to have all the strings of the family in her hands. Benighted in Sodom, they weave their web of Karma, and fabricate their fates, but the biggest sufferer in the ruthless game of dominance and survival are the innocent children of the family.The story tries to draw parallels between Digambar Babu’s disarrayed family and the disordered town. The novel is inspired from the real events happened in the town during 90’s era of jungle-raaj.

Aura Balancing: 13 Ways to Balance your Aura & Live Satisfying Lives


Anama Miller - 2013
    We are imprisoned within our materialist maze, believing in and reckoning only with what we see or touch and whatever is beyond that, does not really exist. This disconnection is the cause of much suffering, misery, and even sickness. When we change that perception and realize that there are many things beyond what we see and feel, and that there is a whole energetic world, to which we are connected, only then our lives begin to change. This book was conceived in order to broaden our perception This book will teach you about the aura, the energetic body, and all about our energetic parts. It will teach you simple skills, with which you will be able to balance yourself and live a healthier, happier, more serene and fulfilled life.

A Crafty Cigarette – Tales of a Teenager Mod: Foreword by John Cooper Clarke


Matteo Sedazzari - 2016
    Want to remember what it was like to be young and angry? Buy this book. A great read.’ - Phil Davis (Actor Chalky in Quadrophenia)‘Written in first person narrative, in a style and delivery reminiscent of Hunter S Thompson.’ - Scootering Magazine‘It’s a good book and an easy read. That’s pretty much what most pulp fiction needs to be.’ - Mod Culture‘A coming of age story, ‘A Crafty Cigarette’ maybe Matteo Sedazzari’s debut novel but it’s an impressive story.’ - Vive Le Rock‘Like a good Paul Weller concert the novel leaves you wanting more. I’ll be very interested in reading whatever Matteo Sedazzari writes next.’ - Louder Than WarA Crafty Cigarette is the powerful story of a teenager coming of age in the 70s as seen through his eyes, who on the cusp of adulthood, discovers a band that is new to him, which leads him into becoming a Mod. A mischievous youth prone to naughtiness, he takes to mod like a moth to a flame, which in turn gives him a voice, confidence and a fresh new outlook towards life, his family, his school friends, girls and the world in general. Growing up in Sunbury –on-Thames where he finds life rather dull and hard to make friends, he moves across the river with his family to Walton –on –Thames in 1979, the year of the Mod Revival, where to his delight he finds many other Mods his age and older, and slowly but surely he starts to become accepted....

Big Book of Beginner's Piano Classics: 83 Favorite Pieces in Easy Piano Arrangements with Downloadable MP3s


Bergerac - 2008
    Each piece has been carefully selected and simplified to help students develop their skills. The special arrangements also offer novices the pleasure and satisfaction of playing music that's usually beyond their grasp — and free MP3 downloads of each tune make mastering the music even easier.Some of the master composers are represented by several pieces each: nine works by Bach include Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring; Mozart's Rondo alla Turca appears along with eight other selections from his oeuvre; seven by Chopin include Funeral March; the "Emperor" Concerto, Ode to Joy, and "Für Elise" are among the eight Beethoven features; and eight by Tchaikovsky include Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker. Other well-known pieces include Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Liszt, Brahms' "Lullaby," Morning Mood by Grieg, Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony, plus compositions by Schubert, Verdi, Debussy, Handel, Mendelssohn, and others.

Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World


John Szwed - 2010
    Weekly").One of the most remarkable figures of the twentieth century, Alan Lomax was best known for bringing legendary musicians like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, and Burl Ives to the radio and introducing folk music to a mass audience. Now John Szwed, the acclaimed biographer of Miles Davis and Sun Ra, presents the first biography of Lomax, a man who was as influential as he was controversial-trailed for years by the FBI, criticized for his folk- song-collecting practices, denounced by some as a purist and by others as a popularizer. This authoritative work reveals how Lomax changed not only the way everyone in the country heard music but also the way they viewed America itself.

Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement


S. Craig Watkins - 2005
    At stake, Watkins argues, is the impact hip hop has on the lives of the young people who live and breathe the culture. He presents incisive analysis of the corporate takeover of hip hop and the rampant misogyny that undermines the movement's progressive claims. Ultimately, we see how hip hop struggles reverberate in the larger world: global media consolidation; racial and demographic flux; generational cleavages; the reinvention of the pop music industry; and the ongoing struggle to enrich the lives of ordinary youth.

The Life and Death of Classical Music


Norman Lebrecht - 2007
    Lebrecht compellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached its end point, but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. It is, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form, analyzing the cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini, Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is the story of how stars were made and broken by the record business; how a war criminal conspired with a concentration-camp victim to create a record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars, public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musical backdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrine to classical recording: the author's critical selection of the 100 most important recordings, and the 20 most appalling.Filled with memorable incidents and unforgettable personalities, from Goddard Lieberson, legendary head of CBS Masterworks who signed his letters as God; to Georg Solti, who turned the Chicago Symphony into the loudest symphony on earth - this is at once the captivating story of the life and death of classical recording and an opinionated, insider's guide to appreciating the genre, now and for years to come.

The Strangest Tribe: How a Group of Seattle Rock Bands Invented Grunge


Stephen Tow - 2011
    Stephen Tow takes a second look at the music and community that vaulted the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden to international fame. Chock-full of interviews with the starring characters, Tow extensively chronicles the rise of rock 'n' roll s last great statement and contextualizes what the music really meant to the key players. Delving deep into the archives, Tow paints a vivid picture of the underground rock circuit of tattered warehouses and community centers. Seattle s heady punk scene of the late '80s gave birth to a rowdy and raucous movement, influenced by metal, but wholly its own. Seattle made its own sound, a sound that came to be known internationally as grunge. Tow walks the reader through this sonic evolution, interviewing members of every band along the way. In 1991, Seattle s sound took the world by storm--but this same storm had been brewing in the Pacific Northwest for a decade before it hit MTV.The Strangest Tribeis a reframing of this last transformative era in music. Not just plaid shirts, bleached hair, and angst, grunge is a word used to describe a rich community of artists and jokers."