The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music [Paperback] Review

My only negative comment is perhaps some repetitiveness in some of the comments in the book. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like biographies in general. This is a must read for people interested in the music business. Mr. Hammond was an interesting character and a man who stood up for what he believed in. He loved jazz, and fought for racial equality. It is amazing how many different artists he was instrumental in promoting over the years.

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In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) [Paperback] Review

An excellent set of articles on improvisation, with one on the psychology of improv, and articles on Gamelan, Arabic music, jazz, Cantonese opera, Latin dance, Hindustani music, children's games.
Improvisation is not the same everywhere.And there are differences from culture to culture, and performer to performer, in just how much of a performance is improvised.These essays address these and other issues.

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Product Description:
In the Course of Performance is the first book in decades to illustrate and explain the practices and processes of musical improvisation. Improvisation, by its very nature, seems to resist interpretation or elucidation. This difficulty may account for the very few attempts scholars have made to provide a general guide to this elusive subject. With contributions by seventeen scholars and improvisers, In the Course of Performance offers a history of research on improvisation and an overview of the different approaches to the topic that can be used, ranging from cognitive study to detailed musical analysis. Such diverse genres as Italian lyrical singing, modal jazz, Indian classical music, Javanese gamelan, and African-American girls' singing games are examined. The most comprehensive guide to the understanding of musical improvisation available, In the Course of Performance will be indispensable to anyone attracted to this fascinating art.

Contributors are Stephen Blum, Sau Y. Chan, Jody Cormack, Valerie Woodring Goertzen, Lawrence Gushee, Eve Harwood, Tullia Magrini, Peter Manuel, Ingrid Monson, Bruno Nettl, Jeff Pressing, Ali Jihad Racy, Ronald Riddle, Stephen Slawek, Chris Smith, R. Anderson Sutton, and T. Viswanathan.

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The Herbie Hancock Collection (Artist Transcriptions) [Paperback] Review

It happens that I have bought several transcription books, and the one that I do have for jazz piano ("Poinciana" by Ahmad Jamal) is transcribed in a very different way to the Herbie Hancock book.

Most of the time these other (=not the ones in this book) transcriptions are written such that the piano line is the primary part (1), multiple keyboards are combined to be played by one keyboard (2), the vocal line or any secondary instrument parts appear directly above the piano staffs and are so noted (3). Very easy to follow.

Not so for this collection. There are 7 transcriptions in 68 pages, and they are all arranged something like: Piano Intro, Melody, Trumpet Solo, Sax Solo, Piano Solo. It did have the meatier parts of the piano solos, but none of the piano line that was played underneath the solos of the secondary instruments (and in most of the songs here, the secondary instruments solo first). And for that matter, it would have been useful for the saxophone player so that these songs could be PLAYED as written and the solos for the secondary parts wouldn't have to be improvised or re-transcribed. "Watermelon Man,"for example (a 7 minute song), was castrated down to 4 pages and none of the piano solo was written down after the final statement of the head. There was even a notational error in that piece (the saxophone solo was noted as a piano solo).

This book would have been a million times more useful if the transcribers had just written down the piano line note for note all the way through and then included an extra staff on top to detail the secondary instrument solos. It would have used several more pages, but it would have been worth it at least for clarity.

Metronome marks are also missing for EVERY SINGLE SONG. It is not that much trouble to go back and calculate the metronome marks with a stop watch, but how difficult would it have been to do that as a transcriber?

This book is worth about $5 for a second hand purchase.

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Product Description:
One of American music's most gifted and eclectic artists, Hancock's talent as a pianist and composer is highlighted in these 8 note-for-note solo piano transcriptions of his performances. Includes: Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes) * Butterfly * Cantelope Island * Dolphin Dance * Maiden Voyage * 'Round Midnight * Speak like a Child * and Watermelon Man, plus a biography.

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Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story [Paperback] Review

This book changed my life.It gave me the courage and inspiration to overcome a horrible childhood experience with piano lessons, and relearn to play as an adult.Playing the piano has become one of the great joys of mylife, and John Holt gave me the kick to allow that to happen.

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“If I could learn to play the cello well, as I thought I could, I could show by my own example that we all have greater powers than we think; that whatever we want to learn or learn to do, we probably can learn; that our lives and our possibilities are not determined and fixed by what happened to us when we were little, or by what experts say we can or cannot do."Best known for his brilliant insight into the way children learn, John Holt was also an intrepid explorer of adult learning. At the age of forty, with no particular musical background, he took up the cello. His touching and hilarious account of his passionate second career demolished the myth that one must start an instrument (or a sport, or a language) in early childhood, and will inspire any reader who dreams of taking up a new skill.

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Metaphors for the Musician [Spiral-bound] Review

This book makes you think.But it also fills your practice sessions with "Aha!" moments.While the format is simple, the author does put you through your paces and you will emerge a much better pianist with a deeper understanding of pop piano, blues, gospel, funk and country.The riffs and cliche sounds of each are showcased in a way that sets them apart and distinguishes your playing style.This is a rare book.You ought to have it whether you're still struggling with faking or already working the music circuit.

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Product Description:
This book is a gold mine of insights into almost every aspect of jazz musicianship, including scale/chord theory, practice strategies, composing techniques, performance psychology and how to create the states of mind that produce the best improvisations. Designed for any level of player, on any instrument, the book provides numerous exercises throughout to help the reader turn these concepts into musical reality. Endorsed by Jessica Williams, Jerry Bergonzi and others.

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Bill Evans - Everything Happens to Me: A Musical Biography (Book) [Paperback] Review

I also prefer How My Heart Sings over this one -I'm a huge Evans fan and as a jazz musician, I was thrilled about finding a "musical biography". Well, just repeating the same old stories as all the other books on the subject and then throwing in comments about the recordings -some of them suspiciously harsh, even- does not make it any more musical than any other biography. Not only that, but the times he comments on the actual music, he is almost invariably mistaken and wrong; "Freddie Freeloader" in NOT in a minor key and "These Things Called Changes" is based on "What Is This Thing Called Love", not "All The Things You Are" as Shadwick suggests. If he ever really studied the Manne-Hole live recordings instead of undeservedly dismissing them, he would know that Evans was already using the very same changes. As a collector of everything about Mr.Evans, I had to get this but I would not recommend it to anyone. Two stars for the subject alone.

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Product Description:
A Grammy winner and pioneer of multi-track jazz recording, Bill Evans was the pianist on Miles DavisÕ classic Kind of Blue album and a key figure in the development of modern jazz piano. This new Backbeat book details his wide-ranging and absorbing career, from freelance work in the 1950s, through his groundbreaking trios and solo releases, to his relationships with various record labels, to the intense final phase before his death in 1980. Printed on top-quality stock, the book includes fantastic full-page photos throughout, and a special color section.

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All About Trumpet BK/CD [Paperback] Review

Be aware that "All About Trumpet" (AAT) is VERY similar to "Sound the Trumpet: How to Blow Your Own Horn," (ST) as they were both written by Harnum and are basically the same text, but ST is longer.

AAT comes w/ a professionally recorded CD (80-some tracks) w/ examples from the book, and contains more written songs, both pop, rock, jazz, and classical.

ST contains a bit more information, containing additional chapters on trumpet history, types of trumpets, a didgeridoo lesson, list of trumpet sheet music and books and where to find them, index containing a glossary, practice aids, about 100 scales, transposition card, etc.

Both books have support files that can be found at sol-ut.com

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Teach Yourself Chords and Progressions at the Keyboard (Book & CD) [Paperback] Review

This is a wonderful book, if you're interested in learning how to put chords together to create music at the piano. It teaches you all the basic progressions and provides many beautiful samples of how to put them into action. I'm writing mostly to counterbalance the one other review that appears here. That person made a mistake on their order, thinking that they were buying a book that provided a list of all the chords. Undoubtedly, such a book could be a useful tool, perhaps especially in conjunction with this book. If you read the description of this book, you will clearly see what it offers. I recommend it.

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Product Description:
Teach Yourself Chords & Progressions at the Keyboardwill have you playing great chords and progressions right from the beginning. You will learn how to build and organize all the traditional jazz chords into progressions in every key. As you progress, you will learn how to comp, create new bass rhythms and improvise from chord symbols using blues and ii-V progressions. Also included are unique arrangements demonstrating how to play in the style of Meade Lux Lewis, Erroll Garner and Bill Evans.

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The Rough Guide to Blues 1 (Rough Guide Reference) [Paperback] Review

Lacking satisfactory background knowledge I strongly felt it'd do me well to bone up some on this rich history of the musical tradition called the Blues. In addition to this somewhat romanticized and mysterious past promising to be entertaining to read about I knew that most of the music I've loved as what some may call a middle class white boy comes from the Blues, to one degree or another. I really feel I should know more about these people. I've found "Rough Guide to the Blues" to be a well written, top-notch reference book that provides a solid and through overview of a long, rich cultural history. That's the point of it. Detailed profiles of hundreds of musicians and critical reviews of the best, most influential Blues albums. Tells you what albums and songs to hear, offering lists as well such as 10 best harmonica solos and 10 greatest slide-guitar tracks. Rockers influenced by the Blues are covered as well.

Robert Plant digs it. Says author Nigel Williamson "has transported these angel wraiths into the 21st century - breathing new life into a glorious kaleidoscope of Afro-American music".

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The Rough Guide to Blues gives you the complete lowdown on all the grittiest singers, bottleneck guitarists, belt-it-out divas and wailing harmonica players that made the most influential music of the last century. From music legend B.B. King to folk hero Robert Johnson, the guide includes detailed profiles of hundreds of artists and critical reviews of their best albums. The fascinating story is told in full – how the blues crawled from the Mississippi Delta, went electric in the big cities, and spread across the world – with feature boxes on topics like boogie woogie, gospel and the best blues record labels. Check out the ten greatest slide-guitar tracks – or the ten most miserable "woke up this mornin"s. with the handy playlists that help you to pick'n'choose quick "best ofs" to download to your iPod or MP3 player.

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Exotica [Paperback] Review

Exoticaby David Toop
David Toop is arguably the most intelligent music critic writing today, his range of interests prospecting across an avant garde canvas coloured by the 20th century's foremost writers,thinkers and musicians.
Although Toop's subject is predominantlythat of fabricated soundscapes in a real world, a music which has come tobe categorised as exotica, his roots are literary and extend to novelisticcosmographers like Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and William Burroughs.Toop is erudite, but refreshingly unacademic in the way his texts areinterspersed with autobiography, anecdote, interviews and fiction. Bringingimaginative criticism to bear on a range of subjects from the beginnings ofethnic music to Josephine Baker and Yma Sumac, Les Baxter and Martin Denny,Toop succeeds in aligning the concept of the exotic with world music. In acentury in which we have grown to be increasingly interiorised, televisionoften providing our point of contact with the external world, so music hascome to assume the role of transporting geography into our rooms. In thisrespect Les Baxter's floridly contrived soundscapes prove central to Toop'sthesis, for Baxter was throughout the 1950's to offer his listeners packagetours in sound. According to Toop Baxter's music provided 'runningexcursions for sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboourges before lunch, view a pagan ceremony through gaps in the bamboo, gowild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home stereocomforts in the whitebread suburbs.' Baxter's albums carried titles such asCaribbean moonlight, Jewels of the Sea, Ritual of the Savage and Ports ofPleasure, and by hinting at sexual licentiousness in exotic landscapes, themusic was to prove irresistible to a 1950's record buying public.
Toop is particularly good on inventive vocalists like Josephine Baker andYma Sumac. When Baker arrived in Paris in 1925 as a dancer with La RevueNégre, she caused a sensation by exposing her breasts when she danced.Aspiring to chanson, she injected the medium with her atavistic Africanroots, so as to create an exotic vocal genre.
Yma Sumac noted forher collaboration with Les Baxter on Voice of the Xtabay, was anextraordinarily volatile singer of South American ancestry noted for hermulti-octave range and freakishly histrionic tone. Sumac shared with Baxterand Denny the ability to transpose a spuriously sourced primitivism to thecontrived medium of the Western recording studio.
David Toop is amarvellous guide to the curious, the bizarre, the culted and the durable in20th century music. His book includes interviews with the eclectic likes ofBurt Bacharach, Ornette Coleman, Bill Laswell, Maroumi Hosno and NusratFateh Ali Khan, the renowned Pakistani popular singer.
More thanjust a vibrantly maverick musician and musicologist David Toop writes withthe exciting inventiveness of a fine prose stylist. This is a book to beingested slowly and with careful attention paid to the originality of theauthor's metaphors. Exotica is a rich text in the best sense ofcontemporary writing.
JEREMY REED

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Product Description:
"Exotica" takes a look at the music and people behind some of the world's most witty, experimental and adventurous sound recordings. Since the invention of the microphone, people have experimented with sound, putting everything from thunderstorms and dolphin sounds, medical operations, native jungle drums and junkyard trash down on vinyl. Notions of the exotic have inspired popular music and musicians in all fields from classical, through "easy listening" to rap - from Stravinsky to the Boo-Yah T.R.I.B.E David Toop takes the reader through the 20th century's fascination with exotica, its icons and practitioners, taking in the work of Les Baxter, the meaning of Carmen Miranda, leopard skin leotards and pink fluffy cubicles, elevator music and more. Included are interviews with Burt Bacharach, Ornette Coleman, Bill Laswell, YMO's Haroumi Hosono, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

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The Words and Music of Tom Waits (The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) [Hardcover] Review

I've read many books about Tom Waits both in italian and english language (I'm writing from Italy)almost 11.
This is the best one related to the analysis of Tom Waits sounds-world creation and lyrics deep check, the fact that Mrs Kessel is a musician help very much the whole thing moreover considered that she had cooperate with Tom in BLACK RIDER.This book is the deepest text about the Tom Waits style all over his own 40 years of music career,in many book lines while I was reading I've found the exact description of my own feelings felt while I was listening that song considerated.
Mrs Kessel take a wide look also on the process of creation and on the double side: Waits as a man and Waits as an istrument of expression taking into consideration the voice, sounds landscapes, styles, periods of creation and all the needful details for define the "TOM WAITS WORLD".
After more than 12 years of listening and descovering Tom Waits this is the most helpful book to go into and deep inside his own music.Only one thing: there is no Tom Waits contribution to this book and no "thanks" by Mrs Kessel to Tom Waits and these two aspects sounds a little bit strange knowing Tom way of view about things that involve his music and works.
However I sugget this book to all the fans that has the needing to know that "...something more" about Tom Waits.

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Tom Waits's distinctive, bourbon-soaked growl, his unique persona, and his incorporation of musical styles from blues to experimental to vaudeville have secured for him a top-shelf cult following and an extraordinary critical respect. The idea of the Wanderer - someone who seeks an escape from all of life's problems, and dreams himself into oblivion - serves as the fundamental personality type around which all Waits's music revolves. Ten years of producing and touring with Waits's macabre folktale adaptation across Canada and the U.S. has given author Corinne Kessel direct access to his work, creative process, and his associates. In this comprehensive analysis, Kessel examines all of the many characters that have appeared throughout the course of Waits' musical career, from Closing Time (1973) to Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards.His raw form of expression and his evocative lyrics work together to form an emotional chronicle of society's misfits, outcasts, and lowlifes. He is not the sort of composer to chase after shiny red fire trucks to awesome blazing fires, but instead looks after the intangible dreams found dissipating in the last wisp of smoke from a cigarette, held in the weathered hands of a broken soul. Here, author Corinne Kessel pursues Waits into this distinctly murky and unsettled atmosphere to address in particular Waits's enduring questions of reality, landscape, and identity.


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Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All in Good Time (Music in American Life) [Hardcover] Review

If you're a fan of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz show on NPR, you'll adore reading this fabulous book about her life in the music business. Music flows through her writing. It's clear that her radio skills stem from her uncanny ability to really listen to what's going on around her, and she achieves the same warm and intelligent result with her writing. As my friend Daryl Sherman says, Marian is one of the wonders of the world.

[ASIN:0879308826 Piano Girl: A Memoir]]

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In this collection of musical portraits, jazz pianist and radio host Marian McPartland pays tribute to such beloved and legendary figures as Benny Goodman, Bill Evans, Joe Morello, Paul Desmond, Alec Wilder, Mary Lou Williams, and others. McPartland's reminiscences and anecdotes about these jazz greats are informed by her encyclopedic knowledge of their music, making this richly detailed collection an important addition to the literature of jazz.
In a preface to this new edition -- originally published as All in Good Time -- McPartland extends her commentary to include details of her long-running National Public Radio show "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" and memories of her late husband, famed Chicago trumpeter Jimmy McPartland.

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The Songs of Cole Porter (Popular Performer) [Paperback] Review

Okay, I can't sight-read most of these the first time, but with a bit of note-dropping it was clear that these are very entertaining arrangements of great songs. I play for audiences who love this stuff and they enjoyed them as much as I did. I also learned a little more about how to bring a little variety to a tune by changing octaves, tempi etc.

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Arranged For Advanced Piano By Larry Shackley. Rich textures, sophisticated harmonies and inventive rhythms make these arrangements ideal for hobbyists, advancing students, professional musicians or any Popular Performer. Titles: Another Op'nin', Another Show * Anything Goes * I Get a Kick Out of You * In the Still of the Night * I've Got You Under My Skin * My Heart Belongs to Daddy * Night and Day * So In Love * You're the Top.

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Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee [Paperback] Review

This beautiful examination of Peggy Lee`s Life and music left me
with great admiration of Peter Richmond`s skills and talent.It
gives us a portrait of an amazing lady, who was not only a singer
but a complicated, intelligent person.The research behind the
book is breathtaking but never boring. In fact Richmond`s writing
at times is almost poetic-always interesting and exciting.
A really great read.

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GarageBand '08 Power!: The Comprehensive Recording and Podcasting Guide (Book) [Paperback] Review

This is an incredible book for anyone diving into Garageband to produce their own music and podcasts. The author makes it super easy to understand how to get into all the features that Garageband offers. There are excellent examples and tips that will advance the knowledge of even the most experienced of Garageband users.

I particularly recommend Chapter 10 on Podcasting for anyone who wants to create professional podcasts with the greatest of ease.I had no idea Garageband could be so simple to use for podcasting, but the results speak for themselves and author, Todd Howard, does a killer job of teaching the process.

Chapter 11 is also great about mixing tracks and taking advantage of all the cool automation features you can use to get the best results from your recording sessions. Todd also demystifies the extensive library of Garageband effects and how to adjust parameters to get just the kind of unique sound you are looking for.

Garageband '08 Power! really does have it all from step-by-step procedures to serving as an instant reference guided to everything you want to know about Garageband.

This book is highly recommended to all Garageband users who want to produce professional results. And from an educational perspective, it also serves as a comprehensive tool for the novice musician to learn the basics about how to digitally record their own music with a Mac!

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GarageBand is one of the most powerful tools for capturing and manipulating sound that has ever been made available to the public. Although GarageBand has always been easy to use, it provides an amazing amount of power and sophistication to users who really want to dig in and get the most out of the program. GarageBand '08 Power! provides an easy to understand, detailed guide on how to make professional sounding music, podcasts, soundtracks, mixes, mashups, and much more with the newest version of GarageBand. Through the use of screenshots, tutorials, creative jumping-off points, and real world examples, the book teaches the reader how to use GarageBand to create music, record and publish podcasts and score their own movies. It's an ideal introduction for those with no prior knowledge of GarageBand, but also covers advanced topics and provides info an all the new features.

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American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 [Hardcover] Review

Yes, the man is opinionated, and one may argue with some of his more controversial and unsparing critiques.His analyses are grounded in a thorough understanding of music, and he does not retreat from criticizing the most popular. I think that the whole topic is perhaps more subjective than Wilder lets on, but at least he's forthright about his opinions, and provides hundreds of musical annotations to illustrate his views. I'll also agree with the reviewer who criticizes Wilder's view that post-50's popular music was written by "amateurs." Still, this is widely regarded as a must-have for the student of popular music, and it's an excellent, albeit somewhat technical critique of popular music's "golden age."Recommended!

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When Alec Wilder's American Popular Song first appeared, it was almost universally hailed--from The New York Times to The New Yorker to Down Beat--as the definitive account of the classic era of American popular music.It has since become the standard work of the great songwriters who dominated popular music in the United States for half a century.Now Wilder's classic is available again, with a new introduction by Gene Lees.
Uniquely analytical yet engagingly informal, American Popular Song focuses on the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic qualities that distinguish American popular music and have made it an authentic art form. Wilder traces the roots of the American style to the ragtime music of the 1890s, shows how it was incorporated into mainstream popular music after 1900, and then surveys the careers of every major songwriter from World War I to 1950.Wilder devotes desparate chapters to such greats as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen.Illustrated with over seven hundred musical examples, Wilder's sensitive analyses of the most distinctive, creative, and original songs of this period reveal unexpected beauties in songs long forgotten and delightful subtleties in many familiar standards.The result is a definitive treatment of a strangely unsung and uniquely American art.

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How to Improvise [Paperback] Review

As a classically trained musician, jazz has been slow to reveal its secrets to me. I have enjoyed listening to it, but getting the hang of the jazz style in general and the art of improvisation in particular have been less enjoyable. However, the demands on musicians today makes it vital to have some understanding of all kinds of music, and this book is a great way to start your exploration of jazz. With a lot of short and well organized exercises, and a stress on learning to listen to what is happening, it tells the frustrated student how to master the mystery of making jazz happen. I know I have to work on the exercises to get where I want to, but the layout of this book makes it easy to organize my practice!

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by Hal Crook. Book/2CDs. What exactly are the steps that lead to ability? In which order should they been taken? What will be required to master each one? These are questions the author has explored in this book, resulting in a rather unique "one-thing-at-a-time" approach to studying improvisation - one that incorporates discipline, technique, creativity and musical intuition. Each topic is explained and demonstrated using written musical examples and it is accompanied by suggested exercises and a sample daily practice schedule, which can be modified to fit your own needs or liking. The book has been used by the Performance Studies Department of the Berklee College of Music in Boston for teaching improvisation since September 1988.

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Making Music for the Joy Of It [Paperback] Review

I've had this book for 10 years, and am just now reviewing it, partly because I feel that nothing I write will do it true justice.I do, however, want to add to the great comments here and to promote what Stephanie Judy has done.This book deserves about 5 million stars, if you ask me.
Before I talk about my own musical experience, I want to say something to those who had bad early experiences with music (usually at the hands of bad music TEACHERS).Many of us who were not natural athletes can remember the humiliation of being picked last for the team and then being assigned to the outfield because we weren't good enough for the real action on the diamond.What I didn't realize until reading this book is that there are many folks that experienced similar humiliation when it came to music--maybe being told to sing softer or worse yet, being told to just lip-sync.Now I know what to say to people who tell me, "I'd love to learn to sing or play and wish I'd taken lessons as a child."I ask them to share their experience with me, and then encourage them to get their hands on "Making Music for the Joy of It." If you are one of those folks who always wanted to "do something" with music--and one of your regrets in life is that you let an early experience such as that discourage you from ever trying again until now, don't live with that regret a minute longer. Hit the "purchase" button right now. (Gee, doesn't this sound like an infomercial??) Read the first few chapters and see if you're not encouraged to go for it again.I second the reviewer who said this is a must for teachers of adult students.In fact, they should buy copies for those students as a gift and a reference.
My own musical life has been a relatively easy one.I was a pretty good singer as a child and have played the piano for nearly 35 years.While I do have to practice and work at it to stay really good, it still feels very natural to me.I don't think of a house as being a home without a musical instrument in it.But in 1992, I was in a period of my life where I had spent several years doing music for "other people" more than myself--productions at church, playing for weddings, and most of the time it was stuff that other people picked out, not me--enjoying it less, and, not coincidentally, suffering from some aches and pains in the process.I was at a crossroads--not wanting to continue with music unless I could get some satisfaction out of it again.Call it God or serendipity, but at the low point of that time, I ran across this book, bought it, and my whole attitude about music became what it was when I was a child--pure fun and joy again.The suggestions on practicing, technique, improvisation, and especially the section on ensemble playing and dealing with the inevitable ego and morale issues therein really hit me.That whole concept of "release" and separating making music from "performance" was almost revolutionary--one I still use now when I'm playing songs of my own choosing, and as much as possible with music my director assigns me. I recently revisited them when I found myself drifting into feeling like I was just a pair of hands for a couple of groups I was accompanying.This summer, I've spoken up about what I need in order to continue working with them, keeping in mind what I'd read in the book, and things are much better. While I hope to take a partial break from music "for others" this fall, the music that I do contribute to my church will be much better and I think much more appreciated.
Adding to the excellent work she's done with the narrative is an extensive bibliography and thorough crediting of her sources when she mentions a technique, idea, or concept that was not hers originally.She makes some of the more scholarly work on musicology accessible and user-friendly.And the quotes are real gems--nothing but encouragement and hope, with a little humor thrown in now and then.
In short, this is one of the ten books I'd take to a desert island.Even if I were taking a break from music for a season, I would still want this book close by to ponder on for the time I returned to civilization and my piano.
Buy it now.You won't be sorry. . .

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Product Description:
Starting from the belief that we all have musical ability, Judy challenges popular assumptions about musicality and shows how to remove self-limiting beliefs and avoid frustrations as you discover and express the musician within, whether you want to play classical, jazz, pop, be-bob, old time, or new wave.

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Talking Music: Conversations With John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, And 5 Generations Of American Experimental Composers [Paperback] Review

Willian Duckworth is marvelous at asking questions,he is so natural at it that he makes you feel you have known his guests all your life. He allows everyone to feel at home, at ease,like catching more flies with sugar quip.Like asking John Cage for instance, "I don't have a very goodunderstanding of what your early musical training was like,". or to LaMonte Young, asking if he is the "father of minimalism", I guessit doesn't matter now, since most of what is discussed has played itselfout. Here Duckworth interviews creators of primary creative genres ofAmericana leaning toward the achievements of all the various,nefarious"isms", experimentalism, minimalism, well just intonation doesn'tfit, and the ubiquitously opaque post-modernity. And progressing from whoare considered the Mammas and Pappas to the younger generation.The genre ofInterviews seem to be occurring with greater frequency,speaking of one ofthe features of post-modernity. It is the most immediate way of knowingsomeone's art, aesthetic, how they feel about the world,about politics, orhow they don't feel. Obsessions are explored in these interviews,as withJohn Zorn's early buying jags of recordings,jazz etc.,and formative yearsas with La Monte Young and his obsessions with sound, listening totelephone generators,or machines, the inherent drone in these industrialobjects,Also professional associations, and disassociations with the NewYork scene,Fluxus which includes,just about everyone here interviewed isprobed, with nice discussions of the early years of performance art in NewYork City.Education away from academia was an important component ofAmerican music,sorry to say, with those of the post war-generation turningto the east, and World Music, as Steve Reich, Phil Glass,Lou Harrison,Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young. Young in particular reflects on hiseducation with Pandit Pran Nath on intonation and improvisation andlearning it with Marian Zazeela.Professional associations, how to surviveby being a performance artist, Duckworth pursues and explores with MeridithMonk and Laurie Anderson, finding gigs in New York City or Europe again waseveryone's passion.How do you work? is also a wonderful question, Monkreflects that she has to work all the time to feel attached, whereas sheknows composers who don't work for months and claim to feel they don't loseanything. How creators get into ,what they get into, as Ben Johnstonreflects on his early education with instrument iconoclast Harry Partch,how Partch taught Johnston to sing fractional tones, an eleventh/sixteenth,and how Partch would devote mornings to music, and afternoons to physicalwork, building sheds,or home extensions,or gathering wood. Also Johnstonspeaks about his wonderful string quartets, the Seventh in particular whichis based on an 100-tone scale, and how we come to understand it via therelationships it represents rather than hearing 100 isolated tones. WithLou Harrison we have almost a history of American music, in that his lifetraversed through the primary achievements, the interests in World Music,Tunings, percussion music, and extended techniques,living on both coasts.But Harrison claims he was always a melodic composer, he had to singwhatever he wrote first, to attach himself to the world of sound, no matterhow complex his music became.Some interviews are boring however as the theone with Phillip Glass where he simply recounts his life, and hisinterests, there was not a spirit of adventure, of discovery.Whereas MiltonBabbitt has wonderful reflections on his early studies in music with RogerSessions, and how Babbitt felt he needed to start over. The interview withChristian Wolff was over before it got interesting,Wolff primarilydiscussed his early music, the pieces associated with the CageSchool(Cage,Feldman,Brown,Wolff)(nice photo of them)instead of traversingthe set of problematics of dealing with political imagery. That questioncame as the very last one."Are you still writing politicalmusic?".Duckworth admirably gives nice introductions to eachcomposer, and makes you feel the center of where creativity occurs, whatexcites an artist,and where challenge and repose occurs within music.Onegood question here always was"When did you first hear of JohnCage", or what was the first piece of "so and so" you heard.This makes for a marvelous discussion on what were the initial indeliablemoments on one's creative life. Not everyone is gifted at interviews it isa conditioned and practiced art. This work is a great model toward thatgenre.

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Product Description:
Talking Music is comprised of substantial original conversations with seventeen American experimental composers and musicians-including Milton Babbitt, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, and John Zorn-many of whom rarely grant interviews.The author skillfully elicits candid dialogues that encompass technical explorations; questions of method, style, and influence; their personal lives and struggles to create; and their aesthetic goals and artistic declarations. Herein, John Cage recalls the turning point in his career; Ben Johnston criticizes the operas of his teacher Harry Partch; La Monte Young attributes his creative discipline to a Morman childhood; and much more. The results are revelatory conversations with some of America's most radical musical innovators.

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Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On: Observations Then and Now [Hardcover] Review

Yes, this book was a revelation to me.I am a writer wannabe, a pretender to the mantel of nonfiction writing.While I was searching blindly through the literature to find myself, my voice, perhaps an inspiration, I heard Frank Conroy interviewed on Michael Feldman's radio program on NPR.Conroy was talking about this very book.I was intrigued, I was interested.I went out, I bought the book.I read, and I learned, in the most pleasurable way possible.I was in the hands of a good writer, one that is able to carry me through his narrative and make his point with clarity and humor.
I learned about jazz, about music in general.I learned about the Iowas Writers Workshop, what they are trying to do and how they are trying to do it.It was, alas, a short book, but it made me a more knowledgable person.It made me appreciate life.It made me excited about things I never thought I would be interested in, and I am excited about writing.What more can you ask for from a book?

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Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s [Paperback] Review

I don't know why this awesome book has negative reviews here. It is a little difficult true. But for a New Yorkphile, like me, it can't be beat, if you want to know New York in the 1920's, and to a lesser degree the nation. All the familiar names are covered: Scott and Zelda, Woolcott, Parker, Gerstein Stein, Freud,Jazz and Ellington among many others. New York as a huge rush for outsiders from their first sight. The skyscraper boom, and builders and architects. The movie industry.The extreme dangers of transatlantic flights, and coast to coast mail deliveries. The Harlem Renaissance, basically the city as a reinventing, percolating tornado.FDR, Damon Runyan,Irving Berlin,WEB Dubois,Singing the Blues, Mary Pickford,Babe Ruth, Jimmy Walker (the fun loving mayor with questionable morals)the Great White Way, the Cotton Club...It is just about an endless ride thru this great town in the 1920's and beyond, including the aftershock of the 1930's...Sometimes a little difficult, but you can browse through the index too and find hundreds of worthy subjects to check out...One of the best journeys through a time and place that I know!! Also with some interesting photos too.

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Improvising Blues Piano (w/cd) (Music Sales America) [Paperback] Review

Martan Mann can most definately play piano.The accompanying CD may almost be worth the price to hear him play.However, you're looking for instruction if you're reading this.I don't want to slam his product too hard.I'll just say he doesn't teach well and there's not allot of real meat here for beginners.I've also purchased Andrew D. Gordon's 100 Ultimate Blues Riffs.Riffs in all keys with many many different basslines and virtually zero instruction.Then, finally, I got my hands on something I absolutely love and can recommend wholeheartedly to anyone without a vast musical background who wants to play the blues.Check out the book/cd combos level 1 and 2 by David Bennet Cohen.You won't be dissappointed.I just ordered "Improvising Blues Piano" by Tim Richards and am very excited about it as well.One more you might look into.

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Product Description:
Unlock the mystery of blues improvisation as you develop an understanding of different blues styles and express yourself through your music. Contains scores of exercises designed to get you playing the blues.

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The Tombstone Tourist : Musicians [Paperback] Review

Several years ago, my daughter and I went searching for Jimi Hendricks grave while we had some time to kill in Seattle waiting for a plane.I had discovered the name of the cemetery in a book I had read, but it still took us about an hour poking around before we found the actual grave.We left a couple of coins and a note that just said "Thanks Jimi". The experience was quite incredible.We both walked away feeling we had done something worthwhile.We had given something back to the music, and to the memory of a great musician.I was hooked.Since then I have made a point of looking for the graves of people who have left their mark on our culture.Last year I had two major disappointments.I spent a couple of hours early one Sunday morning searching in vain for the grave of Muddy Waters in a suburban Chicago cemetery.A few weeks ago, I spent another two hours in a cemetery in L.A.looking for Frank Zappa and Roy Orbison without success.Two nights ago Amazon.com delivered me Scott Stanton's "The Tombstone Tourist". Within ten minutes, the book had paid for itself.I discovered where all three were precisely located, and why I was unable to find Frank and Roy.They are both buried in unmarked graves, about twenty five feet apart.The book is very tastefully written. It is obvious that Scott has a great deal of respect for all the artists he has taken considerable effort to find.There are excellent bios and an incredible wealth of information and trivia on each of the hundreds of artists presented.The only error I have found is that Chet Baker died in a fall from a Paris hotel room. Actually it was Amsterdam. Close enough.I have not found a better reference book on popular culture than "The Tombstone Tourist". Those of you who feel that looking for dead celebrities is a little macabre should get the book and go out to find someone whose work you admire. You will find it a tremendously rewarding experience.Don't forget to take flowers, or an appropriate gift to leave at the grave.

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Soul Sacrifice: The Santana Story [Paperback] Review

First, I am a professional guitarist of 25 years who believes Carlos Santana has only four guitar peers:Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Benson, and John McLaughlin.So this is a biased review.And now the review:
It's about time a book attempts to document the history and significance of this important musician and band.Mr. Leng, a first-time author, has done a fine job. Here are six challenges that Mr. Leng met with impressive success:
(1) Explaining how a very specific aspect of Mexican music - playing melodies expressively - influenced Carlos's style.
(2) Explaining how each individual member influenced the band's sound.
(3) Explaining the difficulties of keeping everyone - from pop fans to jazz fans to record companies to managers to musicians - happy.
(4) Explaining Carlos's conscious recording of "corny" commercial music to finance the recording of his more adventuresome music.
(5) Explaining how Carlos is trapped (for better and for worse) in the "Santana Band."
(6) Explaining the true weight / quality / genius / level / importance / influence of Carlos and the band.
(7) Explaining the greatness (and that's an understatement) of the percussionists which have played in the band, particularly Armando Peraza.
(8) Documenting the long list of non-Santana band artists with whom Carlos has recorded.
Sooner or later a professional music historian will publish a more comprehensive book - say 1,000 pages.This book will be aimed at more serious students of music history.
The book will expand as follows:
(a) It will discuss Carlos's equipment.Carlos has influenced electric guitar and amplifier design more than any other modern guitarist except Jimi Hendrix. (b) It will explain in musical terms why Carlos's playing has so much "feeling."Put simply, Carlos uses a large variety of subtle nuances to make every note count.Like Pavarotti and Isaac Stern.
(c) It will contain hundreds of photos.
I wish I could be the author of this great book.I would title it "Espiritu - Carlos Santana."

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Monk [Paperback] Review

Obviously the reviewer for Kirkus Reviews knows nothing about jazz nor about Monk. There is very liitle biographical detail about Monk that is available because his family (particularly his wife Nellie) will not speak publicly about Thelonius. That said, de Wilde's bookis a brilliant evocation of Monk's genius as both a player and a composer. As opposed to Straight No Chaser, Monk attempts to capture the esssence of the man by a mixture of musicological study, an analysis of the recording scene and industry at the time, and a vivid, imaginative journey through a master musician's mindset. Any lover of jazz will appreciate this effort!

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Product Description:
From the stance of writer, musician, cultural critic, and jass historian, Laurent de Wilde has created a biographical tour-de-force, capturing the genius of the music and artistry of Thelonius Monk and the mid-century New York jazz scene.

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George Gershwin: His Life and Work [Hardcover] Review

Gershwin buffs, run, don't walk to get this book. Pollack has written the definitive study of both "The Life" and "The Work," as per his two fat sections.

Pollack's book is, for one, the first Gershwin bio that takes advantage of the discovery of mountains of original orchestra parts for Golden Age musical theatre scores in a Secaucus warehouse in the early eighties. As such, Pollack analyzes Gershwin's theatre scores closely just as classical music scholars can attend to Mozart or Haydn's works.

Earlier bios could only address the scores largely on the basis of the songs from each score that happened to be published as sheet music, with only a handful of the scores then existing as full piano-vocal scores or as latter-day abridged and heavily adapted recordings. But over the past two decades, most of Gershwin's significant scores have been recorded in full from the discovered materials, such that via these recordings as well as examining the original materials himself, Pollack can address the work as it was presented when it was new, i.e. chorus numbers, character songs not published as sheets, incidental music, etc. Given that musicals constituted the bulk of Gershwin's output in his short life, this alone makes Pollack's book invaluable.

In addition, some Gershwin bios have been written by people focused on pulling him down, devoted to revealing him as an undereducated, boorish parvenu (i.e. the ones by Charles Schwartz and Joan Peyser). Pollack's sleuthing and interviews conclusively demonstrate that these evaluations were incorrect: Gershwin pursued serious musical training throughout his life, it shows in his work, and socially, he was a beloved, charming person who was deeply mourned at his death.

Pollack has truly done his homework, such that just about any question one might have about Gershwin is exhaustively answered. For each show he chronicles not only the score and its critical reception in New York, but also its London and even Australian versions if there were any, all of the revivals across the US, and its recordings -- and he does this even starting with the obscure early efforts. He is equally thorough re Gershwin's concert music.

It should be said that those seeking further engagement with the raison d'etre of Joan Peyser's THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT, the story that Gershwin fathered a love child with a chorus girl and paid him and his mother off to keep it quiet, will not be satisfied. Pollack briefly addresses objections to that thesis from some quarters since Peyser's book was published -- but, in my view, neglects the rather damning facts that 1) said love child looks exactly like Gershwin and 2)was supported in his claim to have made regular visits to Gershwin's apartment by none other than Gershwin's valet. As such, one must consult various sources pre- and post-Peyser to come to conclusions about that issue. One suspects that Pollack, having been granted interviews from surviving keepers of the Gershwin flame, opted on that particular subject to step around giving offense. He is not to be faulted for this.

It should also be said, however, that inevitably of a work so dazzlingly complete, this book is not one most people would want to read from front to back. It is, in its way, a reference book set in prose. There are times when Pollack seems almost obsessive -- such as bringing vast study to bear upon locating the purchase by Gershwin's parents of a piano in precisely late 1910, or letting us know (based on a chance message from abroad) that OH, KAY played in translation in Sweden, or informing us via close examination of the original arrangement of RHAPSODY IN BLUE -- not later arrangements, but the original one, mind you -- that one player doubled on bass and tuba.

But this degree of obsession is what real scholarship is, and though for most it will be a book to jump around in than to read page for page, Pollack has given us an authoritative masterpiece. I am in awe of the man, and happy to have this one on my shelves forever.

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Duets I & II: Piano/Vocals/Cords [Sheet music] Review

Some books with mousic score and lyrics are not available in other countries except the land of their authors. It's difficult situation for those, who are studying jazz in Europe, for example. That's why Internetshopping make impossible things possible. That's why I'm so happy, that Ican listen beautiful jazz standards performed by unforgettable FrankSinatra and guests and now I can see the lyrics, notes and I can learnthem. It's amazing. This book will help me learn more american jazzstandards, more english, and give me lots of satisfaction singing them withmy jazz band.

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Product Description:
Here's Both sets of DUETS in their entirety-- a total of 27 classic songs with the Sinatra signature. Titles include: The Lady Is A Tramp * I've Got a Crush on You * New York, New York * Witchcraft * I've Got You Under My Skin * For Once in My Life * Luck be a Lady * Embraceable You * Mack the Knife and more.

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Steely Dan's Aja (33 1/3) [Paperback] Review

Finally, a piece of writing worthy of Steely Dan.Don Breithaupt, himself a Juno-nominated musician, tells the inside story of the making of this classic through exclusive interviews with Fagen and many of the major players.He places Aja in the context of the Dan catalogue, of pop culture, even song-writing history.He expertly deconstructs lyrics, chord patterns, instrumentation, gives us insider-studio details, making-of stories, and does it in engaging -- often hilarious -- language.Casual readers will be engrossed.Serious musicians will reference it over and over.And Becker & Fagen fanatics will get the answer to the question so many of them ask:How the hell did they DO that?

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Product Description:
Aja was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago. A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. Odd, then, that its creators saw it as an "ambitious, extended" work, the apotheosis of their anti-rock, anti-band, anti-glamour aesthetic. Populated by thirty-five mostly jazz session players, Aja served up prewar song forms, mixed meters and extended solos to a generation whose idea of pop daring was Paul letting Linda sing lead once in a while. And, impossibly, it sold. Including an in-depth interview with Donald Fagen, this book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.

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The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader [Paperback] Review

Buy this book. It's that simple. This book provides the reader with a developmental history of one of the greatest LIVING revolutionary minds this country has ever produced. He hits you in the heart without bashing you over the head. You may not agree with everything he says, or how he may have lived portions of his life, but you will be affected (in some capacity) by his wit, intelligence and the fierceness of his conventions. A must for anyone who thinks that they are " a radical" or "an activist."
This book is rated UR and may not be suitable for un-realistic audiences.

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Touched by Jazz: Gospel Favorites for Piano [Paperback] Review

I consider myself to be a late-intermediate pianist.I can't memorize to save my life, but I pride myself in my sight reading ability.With other piano jazz books that I have purchased, I have been able to sit down and read through the book with few hiccups.However, this book is definitely the most challenging I have in my collection.I am not rating it as a three simply because I can't play it as well as I would like to, but because even when I do take the time and effort to get all the notes, I don't likethe arrangements.Some of they are simply beautiful, and then some are less so.

I would recommend this book to an advanced accompanist.The hymns that Paxton arranges in this book are difficult to find elsewhere as piano solos, so if you're looking for good old favorites and can devote the time to learning them, get this book.

However, if you are interested in getting some easier jazz piano pieces for performing in church, I would highly recommend the Phillip Kevern series.

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Product Description:
Touched by the warm, lush harmonies of the jazz idiom, these ten gospel gems are given an endearing new sparkle by the deft compositional hand of David Paxton. Improvisatory in nature, fresh in spirit, and imbued with many "oh, that's nice" moments, these tastefully crafted settings are a joy to play and hear.

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Mel Bay Ensenate a Tocar el Piano (You Can Teach Yourself) (You Can Teach Yourself) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback] Review

I have considerable musical background (I have played trumpet for 15 years, guitar for 6, and numerous other instruments) but never really sat down to master the mechanics of keyboard playing.This book was exactly what I was looking for because it starts from the basics of two-handed fingerings, and takes the player all the way to chord playing, etc., which is what I will focus on as a worship leader and musician.While this book moves quickly through theory and does not hand-hold, it does still cover a lot of ground from the basics to more complex concepts in music.The complete novice will probably not feel comfortable with this, but I still have to say that I am pleased and impressed with the scope of this book.If you have some musical background and are looking to cross over into piano as a second (or third or more) instrument, you will most likely appreciate this book because it does not dwell on the elementary concepts you are already familiar with.

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Product Description:
You Can Teach Yourself Piano is a revolutionary concept in piano instruction. No other method comes close to matching this book's scope in teaching not only basic music reading skills, but also the essential technique and theory for playing in all contemporary keyboard styles. Central to the philosophy of the You Can Teach Yourself series, this beginner's book is written to give the serious adult student a solid foundation while studying on their own without the advantage of having a private teacher; it will show you all you need to know to get an authoritative start on the instrument, presenting technical and theoretical concepts as needed while offering carefully graded, challenging material to hold your interest. In addition to the incalculable assets of ear training and development of taste in modern harmony, upon completion of this method the student will be fully prepared to handle the demands of modern piano music.

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African American Music: An Introduction [Hardcover] Review

Co-edited by Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby for a college-level introduction perfect for classroom text use or library reference, you can't go wrong with African American Music: An Introduction - it gathers thirty essays by leading scholars to survey major Afro-American musical genres both sacred and secular over the extent of American history, uses studies from both ethnographic fieldwork and recordings, and adds biography, photos and illustrations, and references which bring the scholarly focus to life. The blend of scholarly research, field research and cultural observation makes African American Music: An Introduction the perfect text for study.

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Product Description:

African American Music: An Introduction is a collection of thirty essays by leading scholars whch survey major African American musical genres, both sacred and secular, from slavery to the present. The work brings together, in a single volume, treatments of African American music that have existed largely independent of each other. The research is based in large part on ethnographic fieldwork, which privileges the voices of the music-makers themselves, while interpreting their narratives through a richly textured mosaic of history and culture. The book is replete with references to seminal recordings and recording artists, musical transcriptions, photographs, and illustrations that bring the music to life as expressions of human beings. At the same time, it includes the kind of musical specificity that brings clarity to the structural, melodic, and rhythmic characteristics that both distinguish and unify the music of African-Americans.



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Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon [Paperback] Review

This was the best Bio I have read on Billie. Previous Bios never were clear on how many times she was married. Actually she was only married twice. There was also quite a bit of detail on her growing up in Baltimore. I always thought that Billie was from the Pennsylvania Ave. section of West Baltimore. But she actually grew up near Fells Point. LATER she movednear to the Royale Theatre in West Baltimore. Also there is clarification of the relationship between her Mother and Father.
HOWEVER there was too much description of her later drug use. (If you have read one Junkies life (as in John Belushi) you don't need to read about the drug use in another Junkie.) BUT there was also clarification that her addiction didn't start because of a white Band Member (which was shown in the movie).
Of the 4 books that I have read on Billie this was the best.

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Based on unrivaled access to archival interviews with those who knew her at every stage of her life, the most revealing biography of the incomparable Lady Day.
Certainly no singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself with her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. "Now, finally, we have a definitive biography," said Booklist of Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday, "by a deeply compassionate, respectful, and open-minded biographer [whose] portrait embraces every facet of Holiday's paradoxical nature, from her fierceness to her vulnerability, her childlikeness to her innate elegance and amazing strength." Clarke was given unrivaled access to a treasure trove of interviews from the 1970's--interviews with those who knew Lady Day from her childhood in the streets and good-time houses of Baltimore through the early days of success in New York and into the years of fame, right up to her tragic decline and death at the age of forty-four. Clarke uses these interviews to separate fact from fiction and, in the words of the Seattle Times, "finally sets us straight...evoking her world in all its anguish, triumph, force and irony." Newsday called this "a thoroughly riveting account of Holiday and her milieu." The New York Times raved that it "may be the most thoroughly valuable of the many books on Holiday," and Helen Oakley Dance in JazzTimes said, "We should probably have to wait a long time for another life of Billie Holiday to supersede Donald Clarke's achievement."

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The Artistry of Bill Evans Vol.2 [Paperback] Review

This is actually Volume 2 (1995), and contains EIGHT (not eighty) transcriptions of Bill Evans piano parts off the recordings. This collection is better than Vol. 1.First, vol. 1 did not transcribe thecomping behind the bass solos.Second, vol. 1 focused on the late Fantasy& early Warner Bros. recordings (1970s), while this collection rangesfrom the first trio on Riverside, some Verve solo and trio sides, and solosides from Fantasy. Gripe: when transcribing trio recordings, is it toomuch to ask that the bass part also be transcribed? Songs: "AutumnLeaves" (mono version), "Spring is Here," and "What isThis Thing Called Love" from PORTRAIT IN JAZZ; "Here's That RainyDay" from ALONE; "I Should Care" and "Make SomeoneHappy" from TOWN HALL; "The Touch of Your Lips" and"What Kind of Fool am I" from ALONE (AGAIN). No extras (vol. 1had a short essay and photos).

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Product Description:
Eighty transcriptions from the late, great jazz master Bill Evans. Titles are: Autumn LeavesHere's That Rainy DayI Should CareMake Someone HappySpring is HereThe Touch of Your LipsWhat Is This Thing Called Love?What Kind of Fool Am I?

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The African-American Century : How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country [Paperback] Review

Even though this book gives brief biographical sketches ofsignificant African Americans, I still give it five stars for the following reasons:
1) It is a very neatly organized resource for notable African-Americans, that can give quick and accurate information about these people and their times.I like that each page clearly shows the decade during which that person made major accomplishments. For each person profiled, there is at least onephoto, and a provocative, "boxed" quote.
2) This kind of book is desperately needed by most of America's schoolteachers. Many are not well-informed about the achievements of African-Americans, and here they get a quick, clear, and stimulating profile of many who made major contributions.Further, Professors Gates and West provide a bibliography that leads the reader to at least one significant in-depth work about each person profiled, so those who want to know more are "pointed in the right direction."
3) While there are some sports and entertainment figures, I don't think there is any bias in that direction. With personages like Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron, you MUST include them in a work like this because they really transcended sports, and became larger-than-life symbols of social issues.
4) Professors Cornel West and Henry Gates Jr. write in a very clear manner, and don't candy-coat their subject manner.They point out the contradictions in many of these peoples' lives, mention their social critics, and demonstrate that meaningful lives are seldom neat and tidy ones.To professors Gates and West, I say "Thanks, fellas, for not coming across like the stereotypical "stuffy Harvard scholars!"

Finally, if you know of a school teacher who is well-intended about teaching more about African American history, but maybecan benefit from an attractively presented and easily accessible resource book, think of this as a thoughtful gift to that person.Next time February (Black History Month) rolls around, they will have lots of suggestions for class projects and pupil reports.

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The American Songbook: The Singers, Songwriters & The Songs [Hardcover] Review

"Ken Bloom's superb The American Songbook has the unique quality of service to two distinct audiences. Readers of a certain age will enjoy hours of pleasure recalling the music of their lives and responding to the inevitable impulse to listen to records they haven't played for years. Young people like those in my university musical theater courses will encounter the music and the people who made it- in their historical contexts- and will be led maze-like to new experiences as they seek out films and recordings in libraries and nostalgia bins. And not least, The American Songbook will help extend the great contributions of Bloom's subjects into the new century."

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Product Description:
Presented in the striking format of Ken Bloom's successful Broadway Musicals, this rich visual history of popular song covers all of the prominent figures behind the music, in front of the bandstand, and on top of the piano. "The Singers" includes Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, and dozens more; " The Songwriters" features Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, Stephen Foster, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and a host of others; a lively section discusses the Big Bands; and a decade-by-decade insert puts the entire history of popular music in perspective through words and pictures.

Each one of the more than 200 listings in the book features the artist's personal and professional history, great songs, and important contributions, plus photos (many rare), record covers, anecdotes, quotes, and more. Sidebars and features throughout cover topics of interest-everything from Arrangers, Vocal Groups, and Keepers of the Flame to Tin Pan Alley, Parodists, and Classical Crossovers-making this the most thorough survey of its kind. Throughout, all of the great songs are discussed-literally hundreds of songs, from "Stardust" to "My Funny Valentine" to "White Christmas." Illustrated biographies, discographies, chronologies, and indices make The American Songbook a full-fledged reference as well as a pictorial feast.

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Pictures of an Exhibitionist: From the Nice to Emerson Lake and Palmer - The True Story of the Man Who Changed the Sound of Rock [Paperback] Review

Like the other reviewers here, I was and am a big ELP fan. As soon I heard Keith Emerson's playing, I was dumb-struck by his virtuosity and musical vision, one that, alas, did not play out too well over the years. I eagerly awaited this book, mainly because I wanted to hear what Keith Emerson had to say about his music.
There's a scene in "Spinal Tap" when David St. Hubbins is playing a beautiful piano piece and Rob Reiner asks him what the music is called . St. Hubbins replies "Lift my Love Pump." Well, I think that might sum up this book, and I can't say I wasn't warned by the title.
There are virtues here, however. Emerson has a breezy, conversational writing style that goes down easy, and he doesn't write a self-serving book in the least. The first part of the book, from his childhood to his breaking up the Nice is the best part, funny, and heartwarming. It struck me how much Emerson loved Lee Jackson and Brian Davidson, and the affection for his once and future bandmates mixed well with the stories. I often found myself laughing out loud.
The ELP and after sections are troubled. It's clear Emerson never liked Lake, and had a brotherly and patronizing attitude towards Palmer. But love between bandmates doesn't necessarily make great music, however, after reading this book and listening to the ELP oveure, I finally sensed the coldness that so many critics complained about.
The descent into drugs, the sadness of an abortion caused by miscommunication, the wrecking of Emerson's hand and the subsequent operations all make the second half of the book more than a bit sad. Emerson might have toned his words for this part of the book, but it continues in a breakneck and breezy manner, giving the impression (false I'm sure) that Emerson didn't care about these things.
My biggest complaint, however, is that he hardly discusses the music at all.I would have put up with hijinx and lines of coke with Bonzo better if he had talked about composing Tarkus more.
Still, for a proghead and synthfool like me, Pics of Ex is worth reading, even if the God of the Moog diminishes himself.

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