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    They have become one of the most influential British rock bands of their generation, sharing with their fans a belief that music can inspire change. Dear Future Historians features front-man Rou Reynolds own song interpretations and social commentary alongside all of their lyrics to date.

    He knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts, wrote the finest of all jazz autobiographies--without a collaborator--and created collages that have been compared to the art of Romare Bearden. The ranks of his admirers included Johnny Cash, Jackson Pollock and Orson Welles. Offstage he was witty, introspective and unexpectedly complex, a beloved colleague with an explosive temper whose larger-than-life personality was tougher and more sharp-edged than his worshipping fans ever knew. Wall Street Journal arts columnist Terry Teachout has drawn on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous Armstrong biographers, including hundreds of private recordings of backstage and after-hours conversations that Armstrong made throughout the second half of his life, to craft a sweeping new narrative biography of this towering figure that shares full, accurate versions of such storied events as Armstrong's decision to break up his big band and his quarrel with President Eisenhower for the first time. Certain to be the definitive word on Armstrong for our generation, Pops paints a gripping portrait of the man, his world and his music that will stand alongside Gary Giddins' Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams and Peter Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley as a classic biography of a major American musician. Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Terry Teachout, Author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong[image] Dear Amazon Readers: Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, my new book, is the story of a great artist who was also a good man. A genius who was born in the gutter--and became a celebrity known in every corner of the world. A beloved entertainer who was more complex--and much tougher--than his fans ever imagined. It's not the first Armstrong biography, but it's the first one to tell Satchmo's story accurately. I based it in part on hundreds of private, after-hours recordings made by Armstrong himself, candid tapes in which he tells the amazing tale of his ascent to stardom in blunt, plainspoken language. I'm the first biographer to have had access to those tapes. Read Pops and you'll learn the facts about his 1930 marijuana arrest, his life-threatening run-in with the gangsters of Chicago, his triumphant Broadway and Hollywood debuts, his complicated love life, and much, much more. You'll also come away understanding exactly what it was that made him the most influential jazz musician of the twentieth century, an entertainer so irresistibly magnetic that he knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts four decades after he cut his first record. If you've ever thrilled to the sounds of "West End Blues," "Mack the Knife," "Hello, Dolly!" or "What a Wonderful World," this is the book for you and yours. Give Pops a read and find out all about the man from New Orleans who changed the face of American music. Sincerely yours, Terry Teachout (Photo © Ken Howard) Amazon Exclusive: Terry Teachout's Top 10 Louis Armstrong Recordings In Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, I tell the story of a beloved giant of jazz whose greathearted, larger-than-life personality shone through every record he made. Here are ten of my special favorites: 1. "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (1933). Of all Louis Armstrong's records, this is the one I love best. Listen to how he floats atop the beat in the last chorus--he sounds just like a tenor going for a high C. 2. "West End Blues" (1928). The most celebrated of all Armstrong recordings and the quintessence of swing." 3. "Hotter Than That" (1927). “I just played the way I sang," Pops said. His wordless vocal on this Hot Seven track proves it. 4. "Star Dust" (1931). Further proof: listen to how he rewrites the lyrics to this familiar Hoagy Carmichael ballad. 5. "Darling Nelly Gray" (1937). Satchmo transforms an old slave song, backed up by the suavely swinging Mills Brothers. 6. "Jeepers Creepers" (1939). A charming souvenir of Armstrong's film career--he introduced this Johnny Mercer song in "Going Places." 7. "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" (1938). A boiling-hot big-band remake of a classic 1927 Hot Five side in which the trumpeter improves on perfection. 8. "You Rascal, You" (1950). Louis meets Louis in this raucous romp through an Armstrong standard, accompanied to high-spirited effect by Louis Jordan's Tympany Five. 9. "New Orleans Function" (1950). An old-time New Orleans jazz funeral recreated by the All Stars, with Earl Hines on piano and Jack Teagarden on trombone. 10. "Sleepy Time Down South" (1941). Armstrong's theme song, an irreplaceable example of his rich and resplendent lyricism.

    No practical aspect of instrumentation for the orchestra is neglected, and comprehensive treatment is given to each significant component. The author approaches orchestration from the premise that the principles can best be presented by analysis of music as it has been written.The essentials of instrument combination discussed here are those which can be observed operating in the scores of great composers from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven down to our own day.Orchestration is notable for the clarity and logic of its organization. From a consideration of the individual instruments and their technical problems the author skillfully develops his analysis of orchestration, covering his analysis of orchestration, covering instrumentation of primary and secondary melodies, part-writing, chords, and contrapuntal techniques. Finally, he discusses typical problems in orchestration together with some examples of their solutions.Orchestration is profusely illustrated with hundreds of musical examples and with drawings of the various musical instruments that make up the modern orchestra.

    Contains a detailed songbook and over 30 exclusive interviews with Björk's associates, family members, and industry professionals.

    Nobody rockedor partiedharder. Photographer Neil Zlozower first met the band in 1978, worked with them again on Van Halen II, and soon became their friend, hanging out in L.A. and hitting the road on tour with them. Van Halen collects more than 250 backstage, candid, and full rock-out photos of the all-powerful, spandexed, high-kicking, guitar blazing, stadium-shaking, original Van Halen lineup. Accompanying Zlozower's amazing photos are an introduction about his wild ride with VH, a foreword by David Lee Roth, and testimony from the rock pantheon paying homage to the band, including members of Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, KISS, Motley Cre, and more. Turn it up!

    From his childhood and his journey to fame on the X-Factor to releasing solo music and becoming fashion royalty, this book gets you closer to Harry than ever before. From the start of his career we follow the roller coaster of emotions as One Direction broke up, and we learn how Harry reinvented himself. Free from the shackles of being in a boyband he was able to be the rock star he had always dreamed of being and conquer the US by himself.Not content with being one of the world's biggest popstars, Harry has also cultivated a career as a film and television star, featuring in box-office hits like Dunkirk as well as presenting Saturday Night Live. He's also making a name for himself as fashion royalty – presenting the fashion event of the year, the Met Gala, with Serena Williams and Lady Gaga and regularly modelling for iconic brand Gucci. He has even partnered with the meditation app Calm to record a story designed to help listeners drift off. This is a book that gets you to the heart of a very modern pop star – a must read for all of Harry's fans.

    With candor and humor, Mauceri makes clear that conducting is itself a composition: of legacy and tradition, techniques handed down from master to apprentice--and more than a trace of ineffable magic. He reveals how conductors approach a piece of music (a calculated combination of personal interpretation, imagination, and insight into the composer's intent); what it takes to communicate solely through gesture, with sometimes hundreds of performers at once; and the occasionally glamorous, often challenging life of the itinerant maestro. Mauceri, who worked closely with Leonard Bernstein for eighteen years, studied with Leopold Stokowski, and was on the faculty of Yale University for fifteen years, is the perfect guide to the allure and theater, passion and drudgery, rivalries and relationships of the conducting life.

    Starting with the Midlands beat combo Finders Keepers in the 1960s, he formed acclaimed funk-rock band Trapeze in the early 70s before joining Deep Purple at their commercial peak. Flying the world in Starship 1, the band's own Boeing 720 jet, Hughes enthusiastically embraced the rock superstar's lifestyle while playing on three Purple albums, including the classic Burn. When the band split in 1976 Hughes embarked on a breakneck run of solo albums, collaborations and even a brief, chaotic spell fronting Black Sabbath. All of this was accompanied by cocaine psychosis, crack addiction and other excesses, before Hughes survived a clean-up-or-die crisis, and embarked on a reinvigorated solo career enriched by a survivor's wisdom. In his autobiography, Hughes talks us through this whirlwind of a life with unflinching honesty and good humour, taking us right up to date with his triumphant re-emergence in current supergroup Black Country Communion. "I had a constant fascination with the darkside. It is another world, bordering on insanity, and demonic possession, or what I thought was my own Soul Bending personal nirvana. Its good to be back in the middle of the boat, instead of hanging on for dear life in the last life boat." - Glenn Hughes, April 2011

    Now you can learn to play 100 classic songs as your playing develops through the course. The book includes: · Complete lyrics and chords to 100 songs by artists such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, Jeff Buckley, Crowded House, Mumford & Sons, Kings of Leon, Nirvana and many more. · 10 songs for each stage of the Beginner’s Course, building up from easy three-chord songs through to more advanced tunes. · Tuition notes for each song by Justin advising you on strumming patterns and chord changes, with diagrams to illustrate all the chord shapes you need. Completely revised and updated, this really is the ultimate beginner’s songbook!

    He references his own contributions to the canon of popular music, and he provides fascinating insider portraits of the industry and its protagonists. But above all, he questions our ideas of music and our attitude to sound, introducing us throughout this provocative and superbly written book to his current work, The17.

    Davis, political activist, scholar, author, and speakerSophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his "solo" turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, "Man, you ought to leave your karma to science."Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore--even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.

    Whether you are teaching yourself piano or learning with a music instructor, this book and streaming video course will take your piano playing to a whole new level!Ask yourself this:1. Have you always wanted to learn how to play famous piano pieces, but did not know where to start?2. Did you start piano lessons once and give up because the lessons were too difficult?3. Are you struggling to follow online piano lessons that seem to jump all over the place without any sense of direction or consistency?4. Would you like to expand your musical understanding and learn how to play the piano through an affordable, step-by-step book and video course?If your answer to any of the these questions is yes, then this beginner piano book and video course is definitely for you!The following great music is covered in this book and streaming video course:* Für Elise by Beethoven
* The Entertainer by Scott Joplin
* Amazing Grace
* Pachelbel's Canon
* House of the Rising Sun
* Scarborough Fair
* Turkish Rondo by Mozart
* Shenandoah
* Happy Birthday
* Danny Boy
* Kum-Bah-Yah
* Jingle Bells
* J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major
* Home on the Range
* This Little Light of Mine
* Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg* Take Me Out to the Ballgame
* Red River Valley
* Silent Night
* New World Symphony Theme
* When the Saints Go Marching In
* Greensleeves
* Aura Lee
* Brahms' Famous Lullaby
* Simple Gifts
* And Many More Great Songs and Pieces!

    Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea.The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world, Thinking in Jazz combines participant observation with detailed musicological analysis, the author's experience as a jazz trumpeter, interpretations of published material by scholars and performers, and, above all, original data from interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Together, the interviews provide insight into the production of jazz by great artists like Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.Thinking in Jazz overflows with musical examples from the 1920s to the present, including original transcriptions (keyed to commercial recordings) of collective improvisations by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's groups. These transcriptions provide additional insight into the structure and creativity of jazz improvisation and represent a remarkable resource for jazz musicians as well as students and educators.Berliner explores the alternative ways—aural, visual, kinetic, verbal, emotional, theoretical, associative—in which these performers conceptualize their music and describes the delicate interplay of soloist and ensemble in collective improvisation. Berliner's skillful integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside of performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic, and a tradition. This unprecedented journey to the heart of the jazz tradition will fascinate and enlighten musicians, musicologists, and jazz fans alike.

     W. A. Mathieu, an accomplished author and recording artist, presents a way of learning music that reconnects modern-day musicians with the source from which music was originally generated. As the author states, "The rules of music--including counterpoint and harmony--were not formed in our brains but in the resonance chambers of our bodies." His theory of music reconciles the ancient harmonic system of just intonation with the modern system of twelve-tone temperament. Saying that the way we think music is far from the way we do music, Mathieu explains why certain combinations of sounds are experienced by the listener as harmonious. His prose often resembles the rhythms and cadences of music itself, and his many musical examples allow readers to discover their own musical responses.