Voicing the Popular
How does popular music produce its subject? How does it produce us as subjects? More specifically, how does it do this through voice--through "giving voice"? And how should we understand this subject--"the people"--that it voices into existence? Is it singular or plural? What is its history and what is its future? Voicing the Popular draws on approaches from musical interpretation, cultural history, social theory and psychoanalysis to explore key topics in the field, including race, gender, authenticity and repetition. Taking most of his examples from across the past hundred years of popular music development--but relating them to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century "pre-history"--Richard Middleton constructs an argument that relates "the popular" to the unfolding of modernity itself. Voicing the Popular renews the case for ambitious theory in musical and cultural studies, and, against the grain of much contemporary thought, insists on the progressive potential of a politics of the Low.
Unbroken Circle
Unbroken Circle: a Quotable history of the Grand Ole Opry"", edited by Randall Bedwell, is a tribute to this most homegrown of American institutions. Filled with quotations from Opry stars -- from Uncle Dave Macon to Patsy Cline, Hank Williams to Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl -- it is a loving, respectful tribute to the stars and the show that have made country music the music of the people.""
My Only Comfort
In the history of Western music, J. S. Bach is unsurpassed in mastery of technique and profundity of thought. He was also a devout Lutheran with a broad knowledge of Scripture and theology. Given Bach's combination of musical prowess, personal devotion, and theological depth, it is not surprising that his music stands unexcelled among artistic expressions of the Christian faith. With the passage of time, however, many of the essential keys to understanding Bach's music have been lost. My Only Comfort uniquely reconnects modern listeners with Bach's music, enabling them to listen to Bach with renewed understanding and appreciation. After an introduction to Bach, his theological knowledge, his musical language, and the various genres of sacred music in his output, Calvin Stapert leads readers through specific works by Bach that express, interpret, and vivify some of the principal doctrines of the Christian faith. For each work discussed, Stapert provides relevant quotations from the Heidelberg Catechism (a novel and provocative approach to the study of Bach), a literal translation of the text set beside the German original, and textual and musical commentary meant to contribute to a more perceptive and devotional listening to the work.
Carl Stamitz (1745-1801)
(Dowani Book/CD). Dowani 3 Tempi Play Along is an effective and time-tested method of practicing that offers more than conventional play-long editions. Dowani 3 Tempi Play Along enables you to learn a work systematically and with accompaniment at different tempi. The first thing you hear on the CD is the concert version in a first-class recording with solo instrument and orchestral, continuo, or piano accompaniment. Then the piano or harpsichord accompaniment follows in slow and medium tempo for practice purposes with the solo instrument heard softly in the background at a slow tempo. Finally, you can play at the original tempo to the accompaniment of an orchestra, piano, or basso continuo. All versions appearing on the CD were recorded live by renowned soloists, accompanists, and orchestras. There are no synthesized sounds in a Dowani edition!
Concerto for Violin and Piano Op.13, No 2 / G Major
(Dowani Book/CD). Dowani 3 Tempi Play Along is an effective and time-tested method of practicing that offers more than conventional play-along editions. Dowani 3 Tempi Play Along enables you to learn a work systematically and with accompaniment at different tempi. The first thing you hear on the CD is the concert version in a first-class recording with solo instrument and orchestral, continuo, or piano accompaniment. Then the piano or harpsichord accompaniment follows in slow and medium tempo for practice purposes with the solo instrument heard softly in the background at a slow tempo. Finally, you can play at the original tempo to the accompaniment of an orchestra, piano, or basso continuo. All versions appearing on the CD were recorded live by renowned soloists, accompanists, and orchestras. There are no synthesised sounds in a Dowani edition!
For the End of Time
The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book.... Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere.... Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians--?tienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist--who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the premiere."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker "This book offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the Quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the Quartet's composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end.... For the End of Time touches on many things: faith, friendship, creativity, grace in a time of despair, and the uncommon human alliances that wartime engenders."--Arnold Steinhardt, Chamber Music"The clarification of the order of composition of the movements is just one of the minor but cumulatively significant ways in which Rischin modifies the widely accepted account of the events at Stalag VIII A.... For the End of Time is a thorough and readable piece of investigative journalism that clarifies some important points about the Quartet's genesis."--Michael Downes, Times Literary Supplement The premiere of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time on January 15, 1941, has been called one of the great stories of twentieth-century music. Composed while Messiaen (1908-1992) was imprisoned by the Nazis in Stalag VIII A, the work was performed under the most trying of circumstances: the temperature, inferior instruments, and the general conditions of life in a POW camp.Based on testimonies by the musicians and their families, witnesses to the premiere, former prisoners, and on documents from Stalag VIII A, For the End of Time examines the events that led to the Quartet's composition, the composer's interpretive preferences, and the musicians' problems in execution and how they affected the premiere and subsequent performances. Rebecca Rischin explores the musicians' life in the prison camp, their relationships with each other and with the German camp officials, and their intriguing fortunes before and after the momentous premiere. This paperback edition features supplementary texts and information previously unavailable to the author about the Quartet's premiere, Vichy and the composer, the Paris premiere, a recording featuring Messiaen as performer, and an updated bibliography and discography.
Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s Fabulous Flaming Lips
An engrossing and intimate portrait of the Oklahoma-based psychedelic pop band the Flaming Lips, cult heroes to millions of indie-rock fans.In July 2002, the Flaming Lips released an ambitious album called Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which merged elements of orchestral pop, electronic dance music, and old-fashioned psychedelic rock with lyrical themes that were simultaneously poignant and philosophical and supremely silly. The album sold a million copies worldwide, introduced the Flaming Lips to a mass audience, and made them one of the best-known cult bands in rock history. Staring at Sound is the tale of the Flaming Lips's fascinating career (which, in reality, began in 1983) and the many colorful personalities in their orbit, especially Wayne Coyne, their charismatic and visionary founder. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the band, it follows the Flaming Lips through the thriving indie-rock underground of the 1980s and the alternative-rock movement of the early '90s, during which they found fans in such rock legends as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, and Devo, and respected peers in such acts as the White Stripes, Radiohead, and Beck. It concludes with exclusive coverage of the creation of the group's latest album, At War with the Mystics.
Whores
Jane's Addiction's 1988 breakthrough album, Nothing's Shocking, had a seismic impact. With a bracing combination of metal, punk, and psychedelia, coupled with lead singer Perry Farrell's banshee-ina- wind-tunnel vocals, Jane's Addiction helped put alternative music on the map. The band helped pave the way for the mainstream success of bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. Along the way, Jane's Addiction released another classic album, Ritual de lo Habitual (with the hit "Been Caught Stealing"), founded the Lollapalooza festival, and openly celebrated a bacchanalian lifestyle that blurred all lines of gender and sexuality. Drawn from original interviews with the band, their friends, and their musical colleagues, Whores takes readers through Farrell's early sonic experiments with Psi-Com and the formative days of Jane's Addiction to their drug-addled break-up and controversial reunion with 2003's Strays. Along the way it provides a candid, often disturbing glimpse into the dynamic alternative rock scene of Los Angeles in the '80s and '90s.
Rip It Up and Start Again
A landmark history of post-punk and the basis of the documentary film directed by Nikolaos Katranis Renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds celebrates the futurist sound and spirit of such bands as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, which resulted in endless innovations in music, lyrics, performance, and style. Reynolds explores these influences which continued into the early eighties with the video-savvy synth-pop of groups such as Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell--all of whom found success which coincided with the rise of the iconic Music Telelvision, or better known as MTV. Full of insight and anecdotes and populated by charismatic and well-known characters, Rip It Up and Start Again re-creates the idealism, urgency, and excitement of one of the most important and challenging periods in the history of popular music.
All Yesterdays' Parties
The Velvet Underground, among the most influential bands of all time, are credited with creating a streetwise, pre-punk sensibility that has become inseparable from the popular image of downtown New York. "Discovered" by Andy Warhol in 1966, the VU - with their original line-up of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Mo Tucker - would soon become the house band of the avantgarde, composing songs simultaneously furious in their abrasiveness and beautiful in their pathos, standing in striking contrast to the prevailing flower power of the era. All Yesterdays' Parties gathers for the first time almost all of the published writings contemporary with the band's existence-from sources as mainstream as the New York Times to vanished voices of the counterculture like Oz, Fusion, and Crawdaddy! The book is a revealing snapshot of an era by trailblazing rock writers such as Lester Bangs, Robert Greenfield, and Paul Williams. With photographs, posters, and other visual evocations of the period throughout, All Yesterdays' Parties is an invaluable resource, a trove of lore for anyone interested in the VU, their roots, and legacy.
The Firebird for Solo Piano
Composed in 1910, The Firebird was the first of many successful ballets that brought Igor Stravinsky international recognition. In collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russe, Stravinsky based his score on an old Russian fairytale. It tells a musical story of a prince's kindness to a captive bird, his encounter with a bevy of princesses trapped in an enchanted garden, and his battle against an army of monsters. "You don't even have to see the stage," explained Leonard Bernstein in his Young People's Concerts, "the music tells you everything. This music does honor to the art of ballet, and to music, and to Stravinsky himself, the greatest master our century has produced."This edition is Stravinsky's own reduction for solo piano. Originally intended for Ballets Russe rehearsals, this arrangement has evolved into a popular and challenging part of the piano repertoire. It also offers an excellent way for listeners to follow this complex work and to fully appreciate its brilliance.
Can't Stop Won't Stop
Can't Stop Won't Stop is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created. Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation's worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style. Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 60's into the new millennium.
Abba Unplugged
In April 1974, 500 million television viewers across Europe witnessed the bizarrely thrilling sight of four garishly-dressed unknowns from Sweden storm their way to victory in the Eurovision Song Contest. The song was 'Waterloo'. Abba had arrived.Over the next three decades, the band moved on through an almost unbroken succession of hit albums and singles. Abba have sold some 400 million records around the world, and their songs inspired a musical which since opening in October 2001 has been seen by more than 10 million people. In Abba: Unplugged, Karl French, a journalist and author specialising in popular culture, brings his inimitable wry perception to bear on the band's whole story. Born in Sweden, and raised in England, he comes to the subject as someone with first-hand knowledge of the very particular social and political climate from which Abba emerged. He has been a fan - although not necessarily an uncritical one - for three decades.
Tupac
Tupac is a hip-hop icon. In the years since his death, he has sold more records than at the peak of his career. The first black artist to have become as legendary as an Elvis or a James Dean, his reputation rests on a mass of contradictions: the gangsta-rapper who eulogised the 'thug life'; the erudite young man who hoped for a political and spiritual awakening among his peers; the star who served a prison term for sexually abusing a female fan; the sensitive son of a politicised single mother. A Thug Life explores every aspect of Tupac's career in a thorough selection of interviews, articles, reviews and essays on rap music's enduring icon. Extensively illustrated, it tells the definitive story.
Metallica: This Monster Lives
Metallica is the most successful hard-rock band of all time, having sold more than one hundred million albums worldwide. Receiving unique, unfettered access, acclaimed filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky followed Metallica over two and a half years as they faced monumental personal and professional challenges that threatened to destroy the band just as they returned to the studio to record their first album in four years. Berlinger's book about the experience reveals the stories behind the documentary Some Kind of Monster, capturing the energy, uncertainty, and ultimate triumph of both the filming and Metallica's bid for survival. It weaves the on-screen stories together with what happened off-screen, revealing intimate details of the band's struggle amid personnel changes, addiction, and controversy. In part because Berlinger was one of the only witnesses to the intensive group-therapy sessions and numerous band meetings, his account of his experience filming the band is the most honest and deeply probing book about Metallica---or any rock band---ever written.This is the book both Metallica and film fans have dreamed of---a stark and honest look at one of rock's most important bands through the eyes of one of the most provocative documentary filmmakers working today.
To a Young Jazz Musician: Letters from the Road
In To a Young Jazz Musician, the renowned jazz musician and Pulitzer Prize--winning composer Wynton Marsalis gives us an invaluable guide to making good music-and to leading a good life.Writing from the road "between the bus ride, the sound check, and the gig," Marsalis passes on wisdom gained from experience, addressed to a young musician coming up-and to any of us at any stage of life. He writes that having humility is a way to continue to grow, to listen, and to learn; that patience is necessary for developing both technical proficiency and your own art rather than an imitation of someone else's; and that rules are indispensable because "freedom lives in structure." He offers lessons learned from his years as a performer and from his great forebears Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and others; he explores the art of swing; he discusses why it is important to run toward your issues, not away; and he talks about what to do when your integrity runs up against the lack thereof in others and in our culture. He poetically expresses our need for healers: "All of it tracks back to how you heal your culture, one patient at a time, beginning with yourself." This is a unique book, in which a great artist offers his personal thoughts, both on jazz and on how to live a better, more original, productive, and meaningful life. To a Young Jazz Musician is sure to be treasured by readers young and old, musicians, lovers of music, and anyone interested in being mentored by one of America's most influential, generous, and talented artists.
Running the Voodoo Down
This book reassesses Miles Davis' "electric period" and analyzes its continuing influence on contemporary music. While jazz purists often revile this phase - which encompasses the entire second half of his career, from 1967 until his death in 1991 - this book takes a new, appreciative look at this music and shows its importance to Davis' career and to jazz as a whole. The author also reveals surprising connections between Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, particularly the ways they fed each other's creativity. This book will stir up the longtime debate about this important music and give Davis' legions of fans refreshing insights into his work.
The Rose & The Briar
Praised by Robbie Robertson of The Band as "a classic & a ticket to ride," The Rose & the Briar assembles an astonishing group of writers and artists: Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sharyn McCrumb, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Marsh, and more than a dozen other novelists, essayists, performers, and critics; to explore the ineffable power of the American ballad. From "Barbara Allen" through "The Wreck of the Old 97" to contemporary ballads by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, The Rose & the Briar is, as Geoffrey O'Brien hailed in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "a book full of internal echoes and provocative coincidences," featuring "historical investigation, shamanistic trance-journey, memoir, novella and cartoon," where "names and costumes change, soldiers become cowboys, demon lovers become backwoods murderer; the voices are unmistakably distinct but they share a common ground."
Scar Tissue
In this "vivid and inspiring" New York Times bestseller (Newsweek), the Red Hot Chili Peppers' lead singer and songwriter shares a searingly honest account of life in the rock scene's fast lane--from the darkness into the light. In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, against all odds, have become one of the most successful bands in the world. Though the band has gone through many incarnations, Anthony Kiedis, the group's lyricist and dynamic lead singer, has been there for the whole roller-coaster ride. In Scar Tissue, Kiedis delivers a compelling life story from a man "in love with everything"--the darkness, the death, the disease. Even his descent into drug addiction was a part of that journey, another element transformed into art. Whether he's honoring the influence of the beautiful, strong women who have been his muses or remembering the roaring crowds of Woodstock and the Dalai Lama's humble compound, Kiedis shares a compelling story about the price of success and excess. Scar Tissue is a story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption--a story that could only have come out of the world of rock.
Inner City Sound
The bands that spearheaded the late '70s punk and post-punk scene in Australia - the Saints, the Birthday Party, Radio Birdman and the Go-Betweens - are among the most important of their era, and Inner City Sound is the -classic account of the explosive development of that scene. Original articles from fanzines and newspapers, together with almost 300 photographs, vividly portray the creative ferment of the period and the dozens of bands that sprang up in the wake of the pioneers, including the Scientists, Severed Heads, Sunnyboys, Hunters and Collectors and many more.Inner City Sound was published in late 1981, as the post-punk scene was approaching its zenith, but soon fell out of print. The book became a lost classic, so sought after that it has been bootlegged like the rare singles listed in its discography, and its influence was so seminal it helped shape the Australian indie rock scene of the following decade. For this new edition, editor Clinton Walker has added 32 new pages of articles, photographs and discographical data, which take the story through to its real resolution around 1985, when Nick Cave, the Go-Betweens, the Triffids, and -others began to break through internationally. Its DIY graphics, high-octane prose and many rare images make Inner City Sound a crucial part of the culture it portrays.
B. B. King
The Lives in Music series meshes biography with discography. This debut title profiles the legendary King of Blues, B.B. King. An opening essay charts his life from childhood in the Mississippi Delta up to his first studio session. The author then takes an inside look at his distinguished career, album by album, offering a critical appraisal of each recording and a portrait of the making of each album. First-hand interviews with B.B. King, as well as producers, engineers, arrangers, and key musicians, bring these sessions to life and provide readers a context for understanding B.B. King's recordings in light of his career and life events that shaped them. This definitive book also incudes a complete history of every B.B. King session.
The Rite of Spring for Piano Four Hands
Composed for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring premiered in 1913 at the Th矇璽tre des Champs-Elys矇es in Paris. Igor Stravinsky's harmonically adventurous score--along with a scenario of pagan sacrifice and Vaslav Nijinsky's unconventional choreography--excited both opposition and support, and the event's climax in a near-riot remains among the most notorious premieres in music history.Stravinsky created a version of the orchestral score for piano four hands, and it was in this form that the piece was first published in 1913; the full score was unavailable in print until 1921. World War I's disastrous effects permeated every aspect of European life, and there were few performances of the work in the years following its composition--which made this arrangement the primary introduction to the work. Scaled down for rehearsal purposes, this reduction provides a practical opportunity for two pianists to perform the complete work, or for listeners to delve inside the structure behind Stravinsky's landmark opus.
Lost Delta Found
Blues Hall of Fame Inductee--Named a "Classic of Blues Literature" by the Blues Foundation, 2019 This remarkable book recovers three invaluable perspectives, long thought to have been lost, on the culture and music of the Mississippi Delta. In 1941 and '42 African American schol-ars from Fisk University--among them the noted composer and musicologist John W. Work III, sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, and graduate student Samuel C. Adams Jr.--joined folklorist Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress on research trips to Coahoma County, Mississippi. Their mis­sion was "to document adequately the cul­tural and social backgrounds for music in the community." Among the fruits of the project were the earliest recordings by the legendary blues singer and guitar­ist Muddy Waters. The hallmark of the study was to have been a joint publica­tion of its findings by Fisk and the Library of Congress. While this publication was never completed, Lost Delta Found is com­posed of the writings, interviews, notes, and musical transcriptions produced by Work, Jones, and Adams in the Coahoma County study. Their work captures, with compelling immediacy, a place, a people, a way of life, and a set of rich musical tra­ditions as they existed in the 1940s. Illustrated with photos and more than 160 musical transcriptions.
St Basil Hymnbook Spiral
(Willis). This spiral-bound liturgical hymnal is perfectly suited for pianists and organists. Over 250 selections are divided into two sections: Hymns and Service Music. Compiled, arranged and edited by the Basilian Fathers for congregational singing or four-part mixed voices. Many hymns include both Latin and English texts. Paperback, 360 pages. A pew edition is also available (HL00409152).
Fever
In Fever, music critic Tim Riley argues that while political and athletic role models have let us down, rock and roll has provided enduring role models for men and women. From Elvis Presley to Tina Turner to Bruce Springsteen to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Riley makes a persuasive case that rock and roll, far from the corrosive force that conservative critics make it out to be, has instead been a positive influence in people's lives, laying out gender-defying role models far more enduringly than movies, TV, or "real life."
Hip Hop America
From Nelson George, supervising producer and writer of the hit Netflix series, "The Get Down, Hip Hop America is the definitive account of the society-altering collision between black youth culture and the mass media.
Hip Hop As Performance and Ritual
Hip-hop has had a fertile and exciting life in the underground scene of Washington DC. There are several clubs that have nurtured the music and many individuals who have upheld the art form in the shadow of DC's popular music, go-go. Priest do Nomad is one of these formidable MC's who kept the torch lit. This is the story in historical, musicological and anthropological context. By looking at Priest da Nomad (an underground hip-hop MC) through his various performances, relationships, and compositions, we may be able to understand more clearly what goes on in the life of an underground hip-hop artist and find out what informs his perspective vis-?-vis other pop hip-hop artists. This will also give us a chance to investigate the apparent links between the Africanisms that exist in all other forms of Afro-Diasporic expressions such as jazz, blues, reggae, calypso, Latin music and compare and contrast them with hip-hop.
Grace
The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckley's fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album. With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckley's passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial figure in the American music scene of the 1990s. EXCERPT: Jeff Buckley was piecing together a contemporary popular music history for himself that was steeped in the magic of singing. He was busy hearing how Dylan channeled Billie Holiday in Blonde On Blonde and how Robert Plant was doing his best to sound like Janis Joplin on early Led Zeppelin recordings. He was thinking about doo-wop and opera and Elton John and working at developing a way to harness the power of the voice...In the process, he was re-defining punk and grunge "attitude" itself by rejecting the ambivalent sexual undercurrents of those movements, as well as Led Zeppelin's canonical "cock rock" kingdom that he'd grown up adoring. He was forging a one-man revolution set to the rhythms of New York City and beyond. And he was on the brink of recording his elegant battle in song for the world to hear.
Murmur
R.E.M.'s debut album, released in 1983, was so far removed from the prevailing trends of American popular music that it still sounds miraculous and out of time today. J. Niimi tells the story of the album's genesis - with fascinating input from Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. He also investigates Michael Stipe's hypnotic, mysterious lyrics, and makes the case for Murmur as a work of Southern Gothic art.
Mr. Tambourine Man
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN THE STORY OF THE BYRDS GENE CLARK
Incurable Blues
INCURABLE BLUES THE TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH OF BLUES LEGEND HUBERT SUMLIN
A Simple Twist Of Fate
In 1974 Bob Dylan wrote, recorded, reconsidered, and then re-recorded the best-selling studio album of his career. Blood on the Tracks was composed as Dylan's twelve-year marriage began to unravel, and songs like "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Shelter from the Storm" have become templates for multidimensional, adult songs of love and loss. Yet the story behind the creation of this album has never been fully told; even the credits on the present-day album sleeve are inaccurate. Dylan recorded the album twice-once in New York City and again in Minneapolis, with a rag-tag gang of local musicians, quickly rewriting many of the songs in the process. For A Simple Twist of Fate, the authors have interviewed the musicians and producers, industry insiders, and others, creating an engaging chronicle of how one musician channeled his pain and confusion into great art.
The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide To Blues
Examining the changing face of the genre from its beginnings at the end of the 19th century to its international popularity today, this book traces the social climate that inspired the blues and takes a look at the unmistakable influences that blues had on 20th-century music. Includes information on performances from Muddy Waters to Eric Clapton.
TheOxford Companion to Jazz
Jazz and its colorful, expansive history resonate in this unique collection of 60 essays specially-commissioned from today's top jazz performers, writers, and scholars. Contributors include such jazz insiders as Bill Crow, Samuel A. Floyd Jr., Ted Gioia, Gene Lees, Dan Morgenstern, Gunther Schuller, Richard M. Sudhalter, and Patricia Willard. Both a reference book and an engaging read, the Companion surveys the evolution of jazz from its roots in Africa and Europe until the present. Along the way, each distinctive style and period is profiled by an expert in the field. Whether your preference is ragtime, the blues, bebop, or fusion, you will find the chief characteristics and memorable performances illuminated here with a thoroughness found in no other single-volume jazz reference. The Oxford Companion to Jazz features individual biographies of the most memorable characters of this relatively young art form. Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and the divas of jazz song--Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan--come to life in thoughtful considerations of their influences, often turbulent personal lives, and signature styles. In addition, this book looks at the impact of jazz on American culture-in literature, film, television, and dance-and explores the essential instruments of jazz and their most memorable players. The Oxford Companion to Jazz will provide a quick reference source as well as a dynamic and broad overview for all lovers of jazz, from novices to aficionados.
Cinderella’s Big Score
A tribute to the transgressive women of the underground music scene, who not only rocked as hard as the boys, but also tested the limits of what is culturally acceptable -- even in the anarchic world of punk rock Cinderella's Big Score celebrates the contributions of punk's oft-overlooked female artists, explores the latent -- and not so latent -- sexism of indie rock (so often thought of as the hallowed ground of progressive movements), and tells the story of how these women created spaces for themselves in a sometimes limited or exclusionary environment. The indie music world is littered with females who have not only withstood the racket of punk's intolerance, but have twisted our societal notions of femininity in knots. Maria Raha focuses on the United States and England in the '70s and '80s, and illuminates how the influential women of this time shaped the female rockers of the '90s and today. Groups profiled range from the Runaways, the Avengers, and the Raincoats to L7, Sleater-Kinney, and Le Tigre, and include women who rarely get featured in "women in rock" titles, such as Exene Cervenka of X, Eve Libertine and Joy de Vivre of Crass, and Poison Ivy of the Cramps. The book features a complete discography and more than 25 photos. Includes: Patti Smith, Exene Cervenka, Poison Ivy, Siouxsie Sioux, the Slits, Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre, the Raincoats, Lydia Lunch, Wendy O. Williams, Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, Mia Zapata, Jenny Toomey, Hole, L7, Tribe 8, PJ Harvey, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, the Gossip, and many more
Scripts
James Reaney is one of Canada's favourite poets and playwrights; at the intersection of his dramatic and poetic talents is Scripts, a collection of musical writings. There are nine complete works here, including the chamber opera Night-blooming Cereus, the poetry/music collage (and Governor General's Award winner) Twelve Letters to a Small Town, the Canada Dot, Canada Dash trilogy and operas Shivaree, Taptoo! and Serinette. Many of these pieces have been published individually, but none are in print, and they have never been amassed.
Piano Trio, Mallarme Poems And Other Chamber Works
Ravel was known as a musical master craftsman, and some of his most exquisitely crafted music can be found in his chamber works, including the celebrated Piano Trio of 1914. It appears here with the remarkable Mallarm矇 Poems (1913), which show Ravel at his most harmonically adventurous and are scored for an ensemble inspired by the modernist works of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Also included are the brilliant Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922), which the composer considered a pivotal work in his stylistic development, and the sensual Introduction and Allegro (1905) for harp and ensemble. These works include some of Ravel's finest and most musically ambitious achievements and are now available for the first time in a single large-format volume.
Dancing Away An Anxious Mind
A fiction in which Italian American women and girls spin their culture's lore to enliven a dying steel town.
Britpop!
Beginning in 1994 and closing in the first months of 1998, the UK passed through a cultural moment as distinct and as celebrated as any since the war. Founded on rock music, celebrity, boom-time economics, and fleeting political optimism, this was "Cool Britannia." Records sold in the millions, a new celebrity elite emerged, and Tony Blair's Labour Party found itself returned to government. Drawing on interviews from all the major bands including Oasis, Blur, Elastica, and Suede, and from music journalists, record executives, and those close to government, Britpop! charts the rise and fall of the Britpop moment. In this wonderfully engaging, page-turning narrative, John Harris, currently the hottest young music journalist in the UK, argues that the high point of British music's cultural impact also signaled its effective demise. After all, if rock stars were now friends of government, how could they continue to matter?"Cool Britannia was an empty promise that was bound to end in tears. John Harris captures the moment when New Labour, desperately wanting to seem hip, invited Britpop into Downing Street. Irresistible."-Billy Bragg
Fell In Love With A Band
With only two members and no bass player the White Stripes certainly seemed like the ultimate makeshift band. So how is it that this enigmatic couple--who publicize themselves as brother and sister though official documents say they're ex-husband-and-wife--became a multi-platinum musical sensation? From their early days as the darlings of Detroit rock scene to their current status as MTV celebs, they've defied expectations every step of the way. How did it happen that the simple idea of staying true to a lo-fi, blues-based sound became a revolutionary idea in the age digital conformity and complex studio production? Fell in Love with a Band: The Story of the White Stripes is the first biography by a Detroit journalist who has followed their career since the group's inception in 1997. From Meg White's novice attempts at banging the drums to their current incarnation as the face of indie rock. With never before seen photos and exclusive interviews with members of Detroit bands like Blanche and The Von Bondies, Fell in Love with a Band gets to the heart of this enigmatic rock band and for the first time tells the real story of their rise to fame and the power behind their sound.
The Singer And The Scribe
The Singer and the Scribe brings together studies of the European ballad from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century by major authorities in the field and is of interest to students of European literature, popular traditions and folksong. It offers an original view of the development of the ballad by focusing on the interplay and interdependence of written and oral transmission, including studies of modern singers and their repertoires and of the role of the audience in generating a literary product which continues to live in performance. While using specific case studies the contributors systematically extend their reflections on the ballad as song and as poetry to draw broader conclusions. Covering the Hispanic world, including the Sephardic tradition, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Greece, Russia, England and Scotland the essays also demonstrate the interconnections of a European tradition beyond national boundaries.
Let it Be
One of the greatest moments of College Rock in the 1980s, Let It Be had a huge impact on the fans who fell under its spell. For Colin Meloy, growing up in Montana - a state that's strangely missing from the tour itineraries of almost every band - the album was a lifeline and an inspiration. In this disarming memoir, Meloy lovingly recreates those feverish first years when rock music grips you and never lets go.
Red and Hot
"...that rare thing, a piece of careful scholarship that is also superby entertaining...Starr, who is president of Oberlin College and has been associated with the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, is also a professional jazz musician, and his knowledgeable affection for the music shines through the text." - Andrea Lee, New York Times Book Review
Ella Fitzgerald
Stuart Nicholson's biography of Ella Fitzgerald is considered a classic in jazz literature. Drawing on original documents, interviews, and new information, Nicholson draws a complete picture of Fitzgerald's professional and personal life. Fitzgerald rose from being a pop singer with chart-novelty hits in the late '30s to become a bandleader and then one of the greatest interpreters of American popular song. Along with Billie Holiday, she virtually defined the female voice in jazz, and countless others followed in her wake and acknowledged her enormous influence. Also includes two 8-page inserts.
