Rhythm-A-Ning
In a companion to his collections Riding on a Blue Note and Faces in the Crowd, Gary Giddins has assembled a mosaic of pieces that provide an essential guide to the jazz world. Moving with ease from sweeping surveys of jazz history to precise, vivid assessments of individual performers including Thelonius Monk, the Marsalis brothers, Ornette Coleman, and David Murray, Giddins demonstrates once again why he is lauded as "the best jazz critic now at work" (Newsweek).
Sarcasms, Visions Fugitives and Other Short Works for Piano
One of the 20th century's most prolific composers of piano music, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is celebrated for his unique piano idiom, combining the seemingly incongruous elements of highly percussive textures with passages of great lyrical charm. "Above all," notes Grove's, "his music shows a professional care for the performer, never reaching beyond the practicable limits of execution."Pianists will welcome this excellent new compilation of pieces composed between 1907 and 1922 -- the great formative years of Prokofiev's unique approach to keyboard writing -- from his highly original Diabolical suggestion and the dramatic, capricious Sarcasms to the very popular March and Scherzo transcribed by the composer from his opera The love for three organs.Reproduced from authoritative early editions, this generous collection includes Four 矇tudes, Op. 2; Four pieces, Op. 3; excerpts from Four pieces, Op. 4; Toccata, Op. 11; Ten pieces, Op. 12; the complete Sarcasms, Op. 17, and Visions fugitives, Op. 22; Tales of the old grandmother, Op. 31; Four pieces, Op. 32; and the March and Scherzo, Op. 33ter.
The Firebird
In 1910, innovative young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes, to create a completely new score. The dazzling result was The Firebird, which brought overnight success to its creator and distinguished him as the most gifted of the younger generation of Russian composers. According to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the piece, based on a series of Russian fairy tales, has "all the coloring of a Russian child's picture book . . . brilliant orchestration, glowing color . . . an extraordinary evocative power which literally enchants the listener."As popular today as it was nearly a century ago at its premiere, Stravinsky's modern masterpiece appears here in full score. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume is a wonderful addition to the score library of all lovers of great music.
Jazz 101
A vital tool in understanding and appreciating jazz -- introducing the key figures, theory, and the controversies that shaped it development -- that explores how it became North America's most popular music in less than fifty years. Often called America's only original art form, jazz is also one of our least understood. This fascinating entry into the world of jazz for the beginner, novice, casual enthusiast, or anyone who thinks jazz stopped developing in the 1950s, a misconception widely held today, debunks fallacies and analyzes the myths, history, and developments of this enthralling art form. John F. Szwed, anthropologist, critic, and musical scholar, takes readers on a tour of the varied and nonlinear history of jazz, exploring how it developed from an ethnic music to popular music to part of the avant garde in less than fifty years. But he also offers insightful commentary on how jazz changed the way the world would look at music. This complete overview includes: The major types of jazz and the significant jazz musicians of the 20th centuryThe roots of jazz, including its European and African influencesExtensive sidebars with recommended listening, plus exhaustive appendices on jazz singers, record guides, and more Jazz 101 makes jazz, with all its intricacies of artistry and vast array of forms, accessible to readers in fluid, entertaining prose.
Desperados
Desperados is the first full history to describe the development of ountry rock, the genre that spawned the world's bestselling record, The Eagles Greatest Hits (which has surpassed Michael Jackson's Thriller .
Requiem in d Minor, Op. 48
Among the most widely performed choral works in the repertoire, Faur矇's Requiem is generally considered the composer's greatest achievement. Written in memory of his father and first performed in Paris in 1888, this magnificent work is admired for its clarity, balance, serenity, and ethereal beauty, and enjoys tremendous popularity with concert goers and lovers of sacred music.Reproduced from an authoritative French edition, this music is presented here with bar-numbered movements for easy reference. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, durable, and portable volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.
Remembering Bix
As Nat Hentoff says, "Hearing Bix for the first time was like waking up to the first day of spring." Bix has always inspired such acclaim, for he was an unmatched master of the cornet. Ralph Berton was privileged enough to have been a fan -- and younger brother of Bix's drummer -- just as Beiderbecke's genius was flowering, before he died in 1931 at age twenty-eight. Listening from behind the piano, tagging along to honky-tonks and jam sessions, Berton heard some of the most extraordinary music of the century, and he brings Bix and his era alive with a remarkable combination of the excitement of youth and the perspective of the five decades that followed -- decades that confirmed Bix's place in the pantheon of jazz.
Heavy Metal
Few forms of music elicit such strong reactions as does heavy metal. Embraced by millions of fans, it has also attracted a chorus of critics, who have denounced it as a corrupter of youth--even blamed it for tragedies like the murders at Columbine. Deena Weinstein argues that these fears stem from a deep misunderstanding of the energetic, rebellious culture of metal, which she analyzes, explains, and defends. She interprets all aspects of the metal world--the music and its makers, its fans, its dress code, its lyrics--and in the process unravels the myths, misconceptions, and truths about an irreverent subculture that has endured and evolved for twenty years.
How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life
A collection of fictional but semi-autobiographical stories, this work comes from one of the most influential guitarists in music history. The tales are recalled in a conversational, feverish tone, following the musician in his childhood and young adulthood in post-World War II suburbia, pausing along the way for moments of clarity and introspection. The stories resist categorization--part memoir, part personal essay, part fiction, and part manifesto they simply stand alone, having their own logic, religious dogma, and mythological history.
The Chieftains
The history of the Chieftains over the last thirty-five years is the remarkable tale of how an unlikely group of enthusiasts came together to rescue some of the world's most beautiful music from near-extinction, brought it to an audience of millions, and became stars. Based on exclusive and extensive interviews with all the band's members, their families and friends, and with many of the international superstars who have recorded with them, The Chieftains tells the group's own story for the first time, with insight, wit, and charm.
Chopin in Paris
Born in Poland in 1810, Chopin emigrated to Vienna at age eighteen--and then to Paris, where from 1831 to 1849 he would spend almost half of his brief and tumultuous life. In Paris his extraordinary powers would reach their height and he would shine among the immensely talented writers, painters, and musicians who were working there and defining their era. Chopin's other acquaintances ranged from Rothschild to Marx--and it was here that he began his long and stormy relationship with the novelist George Sand. In Chopin in Paris--a New York Times Notable Book--Tad Szulc brings to life this complex, contradictory genius, and re-creates an unsurpassed epoch of European history, culture, and music.
Petrushka
Commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, Stravinsky's score for the ballet Petrushka was an immediate sensation at its Paris premiere in 1911. Brilliantly orchestrated in bold, unheard-of instrumental colors, this work is filled with Russian folksongs as well as new and striking harmonies. Alternately poignant and splendidly imposing, the score is one of the most popular and acclaimed works of the twentieth century.Petrushka is published here in full score with English titling, stage directions, and a detailed table of contents. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.
Sweet Soul Music
Renowned music writer Peter Guralnick takes on rhythm and blues in "the best history of '60s soul music anyone has written or is likely to write" (New York Times). A gripping narrative that captures the tumult and liberating energy of a nation in transition, Sweet Soul Music is an intimate portrait of the legendary performers--Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green among them--who merged gospel and rhythm and blues to create Southern soul music. Through rare interviews and with unique insight, Peter Guralnick tells the definitive story of the songs that inspired a generation and forever changed the sound of American music. "One of the ten books [I] couldn't live without."--Ta-Nehisi Coates
Lost Highway
Winner of ​Ishmael Reed's Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award This masterful explorationof American roots music--country, rockabilly, and the blues--spotlights the artists who created a distinctly American sound, including Ernest Tubb, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, and Sleepy LaBeef. In incisive portraits based on searching interviews with these legendary performers, Peter Guralnick captures the boundless passion that drove these men to music-making and that kept them determinedly, and sometimes almost desperately, on the road.
The Art of Teaching Ballet
"What a superb and inspiring book this is! It is a celebration of the art of teaching ballet and it will delight anyone who is interested in classical dancing. . . . It is by a dancer, for dancers, about dancing, and we should be grateful to Gretchen Ward Warren for giving us the opportunity to share the philosophy, methods, and, above all, the sheer inspiration of these ten great teachers."--Dancing Times "The lifeblood of ballet is pedagogy, and the performances in which audiences delight are a result of the dancers' instruction. To better understand the magical transfer of information and artistry, Warren interviewed ten exceptional teachers. They represent different artistic lineages, employ distinctive classroom techniques, and structure a range of varying exercises. Each profile is stimulating, combining philosophical discussions and anecdotal history with sample representative classroom exercises. Ballet teachers will value this addition to the dance literature, and the larger audience of balletomanes will also find it engrossing."--Library Journal "Warren combines her own years as a master teacher with her clear, detailed writing style to document the artistry of each of her subjects. . . . Students of dance are indebted to Warren."--Choice
Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of "maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. G繹del, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.
Titanic
A full-color gallery with over 150 photos of the original Broadway production; color costume and set designs and sketches; the complete back-story of the production from concept to launch to hit musical; artists at the helm: the crossing from fact to fiction; a brief history of Titanic lore; poster and marketing art; and the complete book and lyrics.
First Piano Quartet
(Ensemble). Composed during World War II and back in print by popular demand, a brilliant chamber work by the great Czech composer.
Great Pop Things
The comic strips of Colin B. Morton and Chuck Death deliver an irreverent, heartfelt, and devastatingly funny history of rock and roll. Like Monty Python at its best, their version is surreal and ridiculous - yet somehow everything in it rings true. According to Morton and Death, the bass player in Led Zeppelin was Jean-Paul Sartre. And despite having been able to think up brilliant titles for their first three albums, Led Zeppelin were stuck for what to call the fourth one - so they put a load of prunes on the front. In strip after strip, Morton & Death pinpoint the absurdities and oddities of rock history. In the process, they often come closer to its truth than conventional accounts do, as well as being far more entertaining. As for the drawings, their caricatures of rock stars from Mick Jagger to Frank Zappa, Johnny Rotten to Courtney Love, are in themselves worth the price of admission.
Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues
"Paul is dead." It was the late 1960s, the Beatles hadn't toured since 1966, and some truly bizarre indications began appearing, pointing to the unthinkable: Paul McCartney had been killed in a car accident and replaced by a look-alike. The Walrus Was Paul unearths every single clue from one of rock 'n' roll's most enduring puzzles and takes you on a magical mystery tour of baffling, yet fascinating, hints for solving this mystery. Test your "Paul is dead" trivia knowledge. Did you find and answer the following clues on the front cover? To what song does the title, The Walrus Was Paul, refer? -"I Am the Walrus," which appeared on the clue-filled album Magical Mystery Tour. There is an egg in Paul's eye. Why? -In the song "I Am the Walrus," John Lennon sings, "I am the eggman...I am the walrus"--and later, in the song "Glass Onion," we find out that, in fact, "the walrus was Paul." To what album (and richest source of "Paul is dead" clues) do the red, Victorian-style design elements on the front refer? -Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Why is the image of Paul McCartney on the cover blurry? Are there distinguishing characteristics that might lead you to conclude something is awry? -Many photographs of Paul in these questionable years were blurry, and Paul had a mustache, which allegedly concealed the fact that this was not Paul and the plastic-surgery scars were being hidden from his curious public. The anagram on the bottom of the cover refers to a Greek island where John Lennon had what planned? -The island Leso is the "hidden Greek island" on which John Lennon planned to bury Paul, and it is spelled out as "Be at Leso" on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Fight the Power
Like the hard-hitting sounds of a Public Enemy jam, the words of the band's lead singer, Chuck D, excite the mind and senses. In his first book, Chuck D pours out commentary that takes on Hollywood, race, the music industry, the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., drugs, and the three E's--education, economics and enforcement. Likening the challenge to "scaling a slick mountain on roller skates," Chuck D lets no one off the hook, putting celebrities and street kids alike on notice that the future is up for grabs...and the only way to be part of it, to be players not victims, is to work together. As an insider's view on Hip-Hop culture slides into intimate revelations about his own life, as lyrics from his songs bump shoulders with top ten lists like "The Greatest Rappers of All Time," Chuck D has his say with verve and electrifying energy, with anger, love and truth. A book that brings light into darkness, Fight the Power speaks for a generation. It is a powerful and prophetic message that America, both Black and White, urgently needs to hear. Nightline with Chuck as the featured guest. His rejection of celebrity and his constant community activism have made him a hero. For the past five years he's been touring colleges and universities, delivering three hour lectures on everything from the music industry's corruption of young talent, the history of black music from Blues to Rap, his own controversial lyrics, problems in the black community, self-empowerment, contemporary culture and current political leaders to Public Enemy's rise to international stardom. All while maintaining his solo and Public Enemy's recording careers. Fight the Power examines a multitude of complex social, racial and artistic issues. In his unmistakable voice, Chuck discusses the role of heroes and role models in the black community, Hollywood's negative images of blacks, the effect of gangsta rap, its images on the country's youth and the war between east and west coast rappers that may have spawned the murder of Tupac Shakur, the role of athletes and entertainers in eroding and strengthening values, and other vital contemporary concerns. Candid, thoughtful, and in your face, Fight the Power, the first substantial book by a rapper, offers readers a look into the culture of hip hop and the future of Black culture.
Blues for Dummies
Get your mojo working as you take a musical trip from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago's gritty South Side and points beyond with Blues For Dummies, an insightful, toe-tappin', music lovers' guide to the blues. Popular blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks serves as your tour guide through the life and times of the blues, from the acoustic mystique of Robert Johnson and Son House to the urban blues men and women of today: John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Etta James, Koko Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and, of course, Brooks himself.Blues For Dummies travels from sad to glad, with stops along the way at heartache and despair, hope and joy, on the road to great music. Get hip to the different styles and eras of the blues; discover what makes the blues so blue; find out "Who's Who" among four generations of blues musicians; and make tracks to the best blues clubs on the planet with this great, easygoing reference.
Easy Piano Classics
Learning how to play the world's most beautiful classical music has never been easier, because now there is Easy Piano Classics: 97 Pieces for Early and Intermediate Players, the sequel to Ronald Herder's highly successful Favorite Piano Classics. With this handsome volume on the piano, students of all ages will quickly master these timeless piano works.Inside this original compilation you'll find music by no less than 36 of the world's greatest composers -- including Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Mozart, and Schubert, among many others. Included are these and other favorite pieces: C. P. E. Bach, Solfeggietto; Beethoven, F羹r Elise; Brahms, Five Waltzes; Chopin, Mazurka in G Minor; Clementi, Sonatina in C; Debussy, Jimbo's Lullaby; Franck, A Doll's Lament; Grieg, Grandmother's Minuet; Joplin, Bethena, a Concert Waltz; Liszt, Consolation; MacDowell, To a Wild Rose; Mendelssohn, Venetian Gondola Song; Mozart, Two German Dances; Purcell, Lilliburlero: A New Irish Tune; Scarlatti, Gavotta; and Schumann, The Happy Farmer.If you're just learning the piano or simply adding to your repertoire, this collection belongs in your music library. Offering both high quality and a rich selection of compositions at a remarkably low price, Easy Piano Classics is a wonderful resource for beginning and intermediate-level piano students.
Easy Jazz Favorites
(Easy Jazz Ensemble Series). Includes: Ain't Misbehavin'; All the Things You Are; Blue Train (Blue Trane); Caravan; Chameleon; Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words); The Girl from Ipanema (Garota De Ipanema); In the Mood; Inside Out; Milestones; A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square; One Note Samba (Samba De Uma Nota So); Route 66; St. Louis Blues; When I Fall in Love. Enjoy great flexibility with the Easy Jazz Ensemble series ! Playable with 4 saxes, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and rhythm.
The Gospel Sound
This book relays the complete history of gospel music, paying special attention to the relationship between gospel and other African American musical forms in America such as jazz and R&B. It discusses specific gospel music singers as well as the world of the gospel church itself. Includes black-and-white photos.
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
From "Trial by Jury" to "The Pirates of Penzance" the complete librettos of all fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Here are the witty and charming librettos that have delighted generations of fans. Complete and authentic, these are the texts on which modern performances and recordings are based.
LA Mer (The Sea)
"It may be in fact I have taken on a task that is too much for me; there is no precedent, so I'm obliged to invent new forms." -- Claude DebussyOne of the most revolutionary and influential of modern composers, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) overturned traditional concepts of form, harmony, and instrumental color to create a unique body of music characterized by innovation, individuality of style, and perfection of workmanship.Among his most popular, most performed, most recorded works is La Mer, a complex masterpiece comprising three symphonic sketches: "De l'aube ? midi sur la mer" (From dawn to noon on the sea); "Jeux de vagues" (Play of waves); and "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" (Dialogue of the wind and sea).This extraordinary work, full of light and shimmering shapes and colors, is published here in full score with bar-numbered movements. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume will be the edition of choice from music students and music lovers alike.
LA Valse in Full Score
Ravel originally conceived of his "choreographic poem" La Valse (The Waltz) as a tribute to Johann Strauss and "a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz." But this is a waltz far removed from the urbane gaiety of old Vienna. A masterpiece of lush and brilliant orchestration, it is a work of considerable emotional depth in which the initial series of elegant waltzes are transformed into what Ravel describes as "a fantastic and fatal whirling" loading to a powerful, turbulent climax.Now musicians, music students, conductors -- any music lover -- can study La Valse in this high-quality edition, reproduced from the authoritative Durand original.
Viva LA Liberta!
In this ambitious and wide-ranging book, Anthony Arblaster shows that attempts by many music critics to disregard or disparage opera's politics are at best delusory, at worst a political ploy. Writing with passionate enthusiasm, both for opera and for th ideals of freedom it has so often represented, he uncovers the political dimensions of a vast range of works, from The Marriage of Figaro to Nixon in China. Beginning with an investigation of opera in revolutionary France, Anthony Arblaster goes on to analyse Mozart's enigmatic politics, and to explore the work of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and, above all, Verdi, in the context of the Risorgimento. Further chapters examine Wagner's early radicalism and notorious anti-semitism, nationalism in Russian, Czech and English opera, and the weaknesses of Puccini and Strauss. He also discusses the place of women in opera, and concludes with a fascinating survey of the treatment of everyday life in opera and musicals, from Dallapiccola to Sondheim.
Prairie Nights to Neon Lights
Winner of the Belmont University Prize for Best Book on Country Western Music. Alan Munde and Joe Carr are the best known as superb bluegrass musicians. In this book they demonstrate that they are also good historians, and that they understand the full range of styles generally associated with country music. And better than anyone else so far, they have described and explained the vital contributions made by West Texas musicians to the music of America and the world. Ever since the Amarillo fiddler Eck Robertson inaugurated country music's commercial history with his first recordings in 1922, West Texas musicians have played major innovative roles in the shaping and popularization of the nation's popular music forms. The Beatles emerged from the gritty industrial world of Liverpool, but their musical roots run directly to Buddy Holly and the Texas plains. People who have wondered how such remarkable music talent could emerge from the vast seemingly empty landscape of West Texas need look no farther than this important and compelling book. --Bill C. Malone West Texas music, like the West Texas wind, is hard to describe, but once it blows by, it's hard to forget. This book is a powerful historical documentation of that music and the musicians who brought it to life. I love it! --Sonny Curtis It's a wonderful book, and the title says it all. When you grow up with country music, you never stray far from it because a Texan is a Texan is a Texan. --Waylon Jennings. Picker/teachers Joe Carr and Alan Munde have written a wholly delightful, informative book.... --Billboard Magazine
Country
Celebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys; honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven; medieval myth and musical miscegenation; sex, drugs, murder; and rays of fierce illumination on Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others, famous and forgotten, whose demonology is America's own. Profusely and superbly illustrated, Country stands as one of the most brilliant explorations of American musical culture ever written.
Midnight Riders
In this riveting tale of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, Freeman brings to life the turbulent career of the original Southern rock band. This history includes the band's blues roots, their wild early days on the road and their recent resurgence.
Funk
Funk: It's the only musical genre ever to have transformed the nation into a throbbing army of bell-bottomed, hoop-earringed, rainbow-Afro'd warriors on the dance floor. Its rhythms and lyrics turned bleak urban realties inside out with distinctive, danceable, downright irresistable music. Funk hasn't received the critical attention that rock, jazz, and the blues have-until now. Colorful, intelligent, and in-you-face, Rickey Vincent's Funk celebrates the songs, the musicians, the philosophy, and the meaning of funk. The book spans from the early work of James Brown (the Godfather of Funk) through today, covering funky soul (Stevie Wonder, the Temptations), so-called "black rock" (Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, the Isely Brothers), jazz-funk (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), monster funk (Parliament, Funkadelic, Bootsy's Rubber Band), naked funk (Rick James, Gap Band), disco-funk (Chic, K.C. and the Sunshine Band), funky pop (Kook & the Gang, Chaka Khan), P-Funk Hip Hop (Digital Underground, De La Soul), funk-sampling rap (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre), funk rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus), and more. Funk tells a vital, vibrant history-the history of a uniquely American music born out of tradition and community, filled with energy, attitude, anger, hope, and an irrepressible spirit.
The Sound of the City
This comprehensive study of the rise of rock and roll from 1954 to 1971 has now been expanded with close to 100 illustrations as well as a new introduction, recommended listening section, and bibliography.
Celebrating the Duke
"If you want to know what real jazz criticism is, read Celebrating the Duke. It is a fitting memorial to an outstanding critic and writer."--Jazz JournalCelebrating the Duke offers readers a perceptive, panoramic survey of jazz as revealed, in illuminating detail, through the lives and music of its heroes and heroines, including Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Lunceford, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Albert Ayler, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and a rich cache of writings on "America's greatest composer," the Duke himself.Foreword by Studs TerkelNew introduction by Ira Gitler
A Dance to the Music of Time: Fourth Movement, Vol. 4
Read the novel that is #43 on the Modern Library's 100 Best of the 20th Century list and the Guardian called "a comic masterpiece" and the New York Times praised as "immensely entertaining." A Dance to the Music of Time is a landmark work of fiction, praised by readers and critics and other novelists throughout the 75 years since the first volume was published. Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, clever and moving, Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I and carries through the 1950s, with all the changes to society, character, and relationships those shifting eras bring. In this final volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, Nick Jenkins describes a world of ambition, intrigue, and dissolution. England has won the war, but its costs, physical and moral, were vast. Widmerpool's wife sets a snare for the young writer X. Trapnel, while her husband suffers private agony and public humiliation. Set against a background of politics, business, high society, and the counterculture in England and Europe, this magnificent work of art sounds an unforgettable requiem for an age. "Reading Powell," says the New York Times, "is like living someone else's life, inextricably entangled with your own." Give this first volume a try, and you'll find characters and scenes and insights that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Includes these novels: Books Do Furnish a Room Temporary Kings Hearing Secret Harmonies
Deep Blues
Blues is the cornerstone of American popular music, the bedrock of rock and roll. In this extraordinary musical and social history, Robert Palmer traces the odyssey of the blues from its rural beginnings, to the steamy bars of Chicago's South Side, to international popularity, recognition, and imitation. Palmer tells the story of the blues through the lives of its greatest practitioners: Robert Johnson, who sang of being pursued by the hounds of hell; Muddy Waters, who electrified Delta blues and gave the music its rock beat; Robert Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson, who launched the King Biscuit Time radio show and brought blues to the airwaves; and John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, B. B. King, and many others. "A lucid . . . entrancing study" -- Greil Marcus "Palmer has a powerful understanding of the music and an intense involvement in the culture." -- The Nation
Wagner’s Ring
Commentary on and a concise, lucid interpretation of the opera world's most complex masterwork, expanded from the author's popular intermission talks during Met Opera broadcasts. "Anyone, whether knowledgeable or not, will profit by reading it..." - Opera Quarterly
Thinking in Jazz
A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. 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.
Great Singers on Great Singing
Jerome Hines has interviewed 40 singers, a speech therapist, and a throat specialist to provide this invaluable collection of advice for all singers. This collection includes the commentary of Licia Albanese, Franco Corelli, Placido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti, Rose Ponselle, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland and many others. "Probably the best book on the subject." Publishers Weekly
Beale Black & Blue
W. C. Handy, Furry Lewis, Booker White, Lillie May Glover, Roosevelt Sykes, Arthur Crudup, B. B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Muddy Waters -- these and other musicians, singers, and songwriters, including the young Elvis Presley, eventually went to Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, to learn, improve, and practice their art. "To Handy and untold other blacks, Beale became as much a symbol of escape from black despair as Harriet Tubman's underground railroad," says Margaret McKee and Fred Chisenhall.They present Beale as a living microcosm of determination, survival, and change -- from its early days as a raucous haven for gamblers and grafters and as a black show business center to its present-day languishing. Choosing the former newspaper columnist, disc jockey, and schoolteacher Nat. D. Williams, as their main authority for the first part of this volume -- the street's history -- the authors have selected an individual with wisdom, perspective, and a distinctive voice that speaks from a lifetime of experience on Beale. His radio show on WDIA, "Tan Town Jamboree," was heard by thirteen-year-old Elvis Presley. Nat D. said, "We had a boast that if you made it on Beale Street, you can make it anywhere. And Elvis Presley made it on Beale first." Another Beale Streeter recalls, "He got that shaking, that wiggle, from Charlie Burse -- Ukulele Ike we called him -- right there at the Gray Mule on Beale."The street's history is richly complemented by the rare, extensive interviews that constitute the second half of the volume. "We undertook our research," the authors tell us, "not as a study of the blues but of the blues musicians themselves. They were a dying breed, these wandering minstrels who had become the principal storytellers of their people." Most of the musicians interviewed grew up in the rural southern areas where the authors found them, sometimes not far from their early homes. They tell of the music that took them to Memphis' street of the living blues. All show a resilience to despair, despite life's harsh times. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, who never received his accumulated royalties, shrugs, "I come here with nothing and I ain't going away with nothing, and it's no need worrying my life with it." In the life of Beale Street and in the conversations of its musicians, we experience with penetrating awareness a delicate balance of humor, courage, and pain.
Wonderland Avenue
At the age of thirteen, Danny Sugerman- the already wayward product of Beverley Hills wealth and privilege- went to his first Doors concert. He never looked back. He became Jim Morrison's prot矇g矇 and- still in his teens- manager of the Doors and then Iggy Pop. He also plunged gleefully into the glamorous underworld of the rock 'n' roll scene, diving headfirst into booze, sex and drugs: every conceivable kind of drug, ever day, in every possible permutation. By the age of twenty-one he had an idyllic home, a beautiful girlfriend, the best car in the world, two kinds of hepatitis, a diseased heart, a $500 a day heroin habit and only a week to live. He lived. This is his tale. Excessive, scandalous, comic, cautionary and horrifying, it chronicles the 60s dream gone to rot and the early life of a Hollywood Wild Child who was just brilliant at being bad.
Moment's Notice
The editors have collected the jazz-inspired works of close to sixty writers ranging from Julio Cortazar and Jessica Hagedorn to Langston Hughes and Ishmael Reed. "Moment's Notice is the best anthology of jazz literature I've ever seen."--Bart Schneider, Hungry Mind Review 繞"The jazz anthology to end all jazz anthologies."--Booklist
All That Glitters
This collection of essays examines modern country music in America, from its roots to today's music. Contributors look at aspects of the music as diverse as the creation of country culture in the honky tonk; the development of the Nashville music industry; and why country music singers are similar to the English romantic poets. Historians, sociologists, musicologists, folklorists, anthropologists, ethnographers, communication specialists, and journalists are all represented.
Enigma Variations and Pomp and Circumstance Marches in Full Score
Authoritative British editions of the 14 Variations, rich with melody and vibrant rhythms, each revealing a facet of a central theme never fully expressed and each depicting an unnamed friend of the composer. Four of the 5 stirring Pomp and Circumstance Marches are included here as well. Filled with a distinctively English grandeur, they are popular everywhere and have been frequently recorded.
We Called It Music
Eddie Condon (1905-1973) pioneered a kind of jazz popularly known as Chicago-Dixieland, though musicians refer to it simply as Condon style. Played by small ensembles with driving beat, it was and is an informal, exciting music, slightly disjointed and often mischievous. The same could be said of Condon's autobiography, We Called It Music, a book widely celebrated for capturing the camaraderie of early jazz. Condon's wit was as legendary as the music he boosted. Here is Condon on modern jazz: "The boopers flat their fifths. We consume ours." On Bix Beiderbecke: "The sound came out like a girl saying yes." On the New York subway: "It was my first ride in a sewer." When his memoir was first published-to great acclaim-in 1947, he was well known as a newspaper columnist, radio personality, saloon keeper, guitarist, and bandleader. He was the ideal man to come up with an insightful portrait of the early days of white jazz, and his book offers nonpareil accounts of many of the jazz greats of that era, including Beiderbacke, Fats Waller, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy McPartland, Gene Krupa, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Bing Crosby.These were the days when jazz was popularly associated with Paul Whiteman and Irving Berlin. Condon considered true jazz an outlaw music and himself an outlaw. He and his cohorts tried to get as close as possible to the black roots of jazz, a scandalous thing in the '20s. Along the way he facilitated one of the first integrated recording sessions.We Called It Music, now published with an introduction by Gary Giddins that places the book in historical context, remains essential reading for anyone interested in the wild and restless beginnings of America's great musical art, or in the wit and vinegar of Eddie Condon.
My Fair Lady
(Vocal Selections). Features seven vocal selections from one of the most influential musicals of the 1950s. Includes: Get Me to the Church on Time * I Could Have Danced All Night * I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face * On the Street Where You Live * Show Me * With a Little Bit of Luck * Wouldn't It Be Loverly.
