Book picks similar to
Writing Jazz by David Meltzer
jazz
mh
mojo
music-art
Sinatra! the Song is You: A Singer's Art
Will Friedwald - 1995
It draws on interviews with musicians, perfomers, arrangers and songwriters with whom Sinatra has worked.
365 Takes
Andy Warhol - 2004
He was also a notorious collector who saved practically everything that came his way. In 1994, seven years after the artist's death, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh became the repository not only for a substantial body of his artwork and films, but also for the Time Capsules into which he obsessively deposited a lifetime's worth of ephemera and personal memorabilia. For this book--created in the same format as Abrams' best-selling Earth From Above: 365 Days--the museum has gathered highlights of its collection. Illustrated with almost 400 objects, from paintings to party invitations, the volume also features lively commentaries by the museum's staff as well as quotes from Warhol's own irreverent writings. Timed to coincide with the celebration of the museum's 10-year anniversary, this book will serve as both an introduction to and a handbook for the most extensive collection anywhere of this iconic artist's work.
The Rolling Stone Record Guide (Reviews And Ratings Of Almost 10,000 Currently Available Rock, Pop, Soul, Country, Blues, Jazz, And Gospel Albums)
Dave Marsh - 1979
Nina Simone: The Biography
David Brun-Lambert - 2005
After a rejection from an elite New York conservatoire—a rejection she always believed stemmed from the color of her skin—she began performing jazz, blues, and classical songs in a bar to fund her music studies. In 1958 her rendition of the Gershwin standard “I Loves You Porgy” became a Top 40 hit, and her subsequent debut album Little Girl Blue launched what would become an extensive singing and songwriting career. Drawing on a wealth of original interviews with Simone’s closest associates, this extraordinary biography follows her sparkling career as well as her passionate belief in racial equality that eventually led her to undergo self-imposed exile from America in 1970. Featuring rare photographs and a review of Simone’s more than 40 albums and numerous hits, this is an extensive look at the complex and extremely talented diva.
Velvet Shadows
Andre Norton - 1977
She would be a "friend" who would try to protect her from another scandalous involvement--like the one back in France.Alain was a generous and thoughtful employer. Victorine a bright and amusing companion. But Tamaris could not help wondering about the significance of the gold and enamel snake Victorine wore around her neck. Nor could she stop thinking about the fact that someone had been going through her belongings and leaving strange objects among them.Then one day Alain was forced to reveal the true story of Victorine's past. A past, Tamaris suspected, that would soon gain on the future and place everyone at Rancho del Sol under a shadow of constant fear..
Love on the Left Bank
Ed van der Elsken - 1999
Elsken focuses on the Left Bank of Paris in the 1950s—a time when it was recognised as a centre of creative ferment which would determine the cultural agenda of a generation. With its unconventional, gritty, snapshot-like technique the work has been acclaimed as expanding the boundaries of documentary photography.
How To Kill A Mockingbird (Very Literally Titled Books Book 2)
Takin G. Thepiss - 2012
Or for Homer Simpson, who clearly thought he was buying this book in the first place.
The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool
Michael Segell - 2005
The saxophone has insinuated itself into virtually every musical idiom that has come along since its birth as well as into music with traditions thousands of years old. But it has also been controversial, viewed as a symbol of decadence, immorality and lasciviousness: it was banned in Japan, saxophonists have been sent to Siberian lockdown by Communist officials, and a pope even indicted it.Segell outlines the saxophone's fascinating history while he highlights many of its legendary players, including Benny Carter, Illinois Jacquet, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Branford Marsalis, and Michael Brecker. The Devil's Horn explores the saxophone's intersections with social movement and change, the innovative acoustical science behind the instrument, its struggles in the world of "legit" music, and the mystical properties that seduce all who fall under its influence. Colorful, evocative, and richly informed, The Devil's Horn is an ingenious portrait of one of the most popular instruments in the world.
Giants of Jazz
Studs Terkel - 1957
Now reissued in the original illustrated edition, the stars portrayed include John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday & Fats Waller.
Tell Me Why
Stella Cameron - 2001
The woman herself is a melancholy mystery --- one Max can't stop thinking about.But Carolee isn't talking --- at least not at first. Hiding from everything --- the end of what she thought was a happy marriage, the painful estrangement from her cherished daughter --- is the only way she can get through each day. Even the thought of a friendship with Max isn't possible --- or is it?But just as Max and Carolee realize that companionship is the least of what they want from each other, tragedy shatters Carolee's fragile new confidence --- and reveals that danger may wear a familiar face. Someone is determined to destroy everything --- and everyone --- Carolee loves ...
Why Jazz Happened
Marc Myers - 2012
It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz’s post-war styles. Rich with the voices of musicians, producers, promoters, and others on the scene during the decades following World War II, this book views jazz’s evolution through the prism of technological advances, social transformations, changes in the law, economic trends, and much more.In an absorbing narrative enlivened by the commentary of key personalities, Marc Myers describes the myriad of events and trends that affected the music's evolution, among them, the American Federation of Musicians strike in the early 1940s, changes in radio and concert-promotion, the introduction of the long-playing record, the suburbanization of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights movement, the “British invasion” and the rise of electronic instruments. This groundbreaking book deepens our appreciation of this music by identifying many of the developments outside of jazz itself that contributed most to its texture, complexity, and growth.
John Lennon: The New York Years
Bob Gruen - 2005
Presents a summary of the innovative musician's life during his nine years in New York City, together with a collection of 150 full-color photographs and reminiscences on the stories behind the photographs.
Pleasure And Pain: My Life
Chrissy Amphlett - 2005
Here, the spellbinding performer who inspired and outraged as lead singer of the Divinyls tells her own amazing story.In this raw, gripping and searingly honest account, Chrissy spares no one – least of all herself. She reveals how she formed the Divinyls and, with a unique voice, steely ambition and an outrageous stage act powered them to Australian and international stardom.Having battled alcohol, drugs and a million dollars worth of debt, Chrissy tells of her fight with MS and of finally finding peace with the love of her life in New York.Brave, sad, funny, ferocious, there's never been anyone like Chrissy Amphlett.
Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands
Will Carruthers - 2016
The other two are probably phantoms. Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands tells the story of one of the most influential, revered and ultimately demented British bands of the 1980s, Spacemen 3. In classic rock n roll style they split up on the brink of their major breakthrough. As the decade turned sour and acid house hit the news, Rugby's finest imploded spectacularly, with Jason Pierce (aka Jason Spaceman) and Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) going their separate ways. Here, Will Carruthers tells the whole sorry story and the segue into Spirtualised in one of the funniest and most memorable memoirs committed to the page.
Jazz Styles: History and Analysis
Mark C. Gridley - 1978
America's most widely used introduction to jazz, it teaches the chronology of jazz by showing students how to listen and what to notice in each style. Though originally conceived for nonmusicians and written at a college freshmen reading level, Jazz Styles also has been widely adopted in courses for musicians because of its point-by-point specification of each style's musical characteristics and its technical appendix. The text helps students hear how the styles differ and why the top names are important. The book's listening guides offer in-depth analysis for 38 historic recordings contained on the 2CD Jazz Classics collection.