American Rock and the Classical Music Tradition: A special issue of the journal Contemporary Music Review [Paperback] Review

First of all: I am not dealing professionally in any way with music and I am not a music theory student either. However, I find the article 'Listening to Zappa' by Professor Jonathan W. Bernard (which takes circa one third of this volume) as much entertaining as insightful. Like me, Mr. Bernard is a Zappa fan from his early youth on, and in spite of all the theoretical analysis, one can feel that the author truly likes Zappa's music and even appreciates his sense of (often purely musically expressed) absurd humour.
So if you are seriously into Frank Zappa and his music (and his musical parody, of course), this book is a must!

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Product Description:
This issue explores the often uneasy relationship betwen rock and classical music by presenting a range of essays on the composers, performers, theorists, historians, critics and listeners who welcome the difficult but fruitful intercourse between classical and popular culture.Fascinating philosophical and analytical issues arise as a picture of the rich historical relationship between the two media emerges.
John Covach is associate professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.He has published numerous articles on rock music, twelve-tone music and theory, and the philosophy of music.He is co-editor, with Graeme Boone, of Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis (Oxford UP, 1997).
Walter Everett is associate professor of music of Music at the University of Michigan.He has published numerous articles on rock music, art song, opera, Schenkerian theory, and other topics.He is author of The Beatles as Musicans: Revolver through the Anthology (O

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The Encyclopedia of the History of Broadway, Hollywood, Swing, and Pop Singers, and Vocal Musical Arrangers [Paperback] Review

Harvy Sheldon has an obvious love for music, comedy, show and style that literally jumps off of the pages.His insight's into stars like Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Vaughn Monroe, Mel Torme and nearly 200 others is mind boggling. He made me smile ear to ear when he included my favorites "Dino" and The Mills Brothers...man could they swing.
When I read about the author I soon relalized the years he spent as leader of his own bandstand and meeting many of these "musical legends" personally, gave him an in-depth grasp of the artists lives and what they were about.That is what makes these stories not just the some old tabloid gossip... they are more...they sparkle!
I would like to have seen the names alphabetized for easier reference, but that is a selfish observation.My family and friends keep this on the table during an evening of fun to settle many trivia questions about the stars we all love.
Thanks Harvey, you brought it all together, in one book, a true "encyclopedia" of magical people from a magical time.
J. P. "Gus" Godsey
Selected "The Happiest Man in America" by USA Weekend Magazine
[...]

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The world of showbiz, including Jazz, Pop, Rock N" Roll, Hollywood and Broadway is unmerciful. How easy it is to forget the music, entertainment giants and pioneers of yesteryears! Time erases the glory, the memory, and accomplishments of past stars and legends, most cherished musical treasures, lost or forgotten for lack of scholarly research or because of changes in musical taste and preference of a generation that lost interest in the music of the golden years of Broadway, Hollywood, Swing and Pop music. I know this is the best of any book you will find, of singers. .It is without any hesitation one of the best books ever published on Broadway, Hollywood, Swing, Pop and beloved stars who entertained us for generations. This book is a must read,HARVEY SHELDON HE KNOWS ALL - TELLS ALL - TELLS EVERYTHING - of all the questions and the history of Broadway, Hollywood, Swing and Pop music and the biographies of the ground breakingsingers, and vocal arrangers.

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How to Play Guitar in a Big Band [Paperback] Review

I love this book! It goes into different style, voicings, gear, musicianship, and other topics that I always thought about and to see it in a book is just great! The best part is the psychology of the big band guitarist, amazing! A must have for the student/teacher/guitarists! Good information even if not into big band, but into jazz guitar.

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Ragtime Gems: Original Sheet Music for 25 Ragtime Classics [Paperback] Review

The first follow up to the three larger Dover editions of collected ragtime, this is the one that really smokes, and has rags that simply will not be ignored. Not only are three Joplin greats part of the package, but the well known Dill Pickles, Wild Cherries, Temptation Rag, the incomparable Entertainer's Rag, and Scott's masterpiece, Grace and Beauty. You can find many of them on my site as well, if you want to hear them first. The three Joplin pieces alone would run in the hundreds of dollars in today's thriving collectible sheet music market. So if you can deal with the covers not printed in color, you'll be duly entertained, and hopefully entertaining, when perusing the contents of this book that you should be buying instead of just reading this rambling review!!!

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Includes original sheet music and covers for 25 rags, including three of Scott Joplin's finest: Searchlight Rag, Rose Leaf Rag and Fig Leaf Rag.


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Complete Fingerstyle Guitar [Library Binding] Review

I have received a request to review this book from Amazon.
Unfortunately, Amazon never delivered this book.
After about month wait, they sent me a message that the book was unavialble.
I gave three stars, because I am sure that one of Stefan Grossman's books, of which I have several, would have deserved 4-5 star, and Amazon derserves 0.

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Product Description:
This comprehensive text covers the spectrum of fingerpicking technique and styles. Preformance and stylistic notes, fingerstyle guitar solos and a listening guide are presented for each section of the book. Sections include; Gospel Songs; Country Blues; Ragtime Blues; Rags and Dances; Appalachian Fiddle Tunes; Celtic Airs; Jigs and Reels; Classic Rags; Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar and Fingerstyle Guitar Duets. All solos are in notation and tablature and are written by noted fingerpicking guitarists Stefan Grossman, Elizabeth Cotten, Dean Sires, Ton Van Bergeyk, David Laibman, Rev. Gary Davis, Duck Baker, Seth Austen, Steve Tilston, John Morris, Sid Percy, Tom O'Farrell, Jim McLennan, Leo Wijnkamp Jr., Lasse Johansson, and Claes Palmqvist. 237 pages. The 2-CD's contain 43 of the 60 songs in this book.

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Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass (Music in the Twentieth Century) [Hardcover] Review

Potter's book will be best appreciated by those with a much better understanding of music theory than I.However, I learned something about the personal and musical history of so-called "minimalism."(Potter falls prey to some extent to the problem of reifying an abstraction -- having first grouped some things together into a category, then searching for the true meaning of the category.)Is there a torch passed, so to speak, from Young to Riley to Reich to Glass?Glass is the only one to adamantly deny it, but Potter documents the basis for seeing it just that way (including Reich's influence on Glass).

One aspect I am keen to know more about, but which Potter doesn't stress overly much, is the striking confluence of non-Western influences.Young and Riley are both disciples of the North Indian master singer, Pandit Pran Nath, who died in 1996.Reich studied both African drumming as well as the gamelan music of Bali.Glass studied Indian music, after being immersed in serialism.With the European "classical" tradition at an impasse at the turn of the millennium, it seems only natural that the future would lie in creative fusions and combinationswith other traditions.(Not a very original idea, I realize, as evidenced by the recent emphasis of the Kronos Quartet among others.)Minimalism seems by now to be another style that passed into history and critical assessments -- is there an opening there that is being missed?

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This book offers the most detailed account so far of the early works of these four minimalist composers, putting extensive discussion of the music into a biographical perspective. The true musical minimalism of the 1960s and early 1970s is placed in the wider context of their music as a whole, and considered within the cultural conditions of the period, which saw not only the rise of minimalism in the fine arts but also crucial changes in the theory and practice of musical composition in the Western cultivated tradition.

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The Great American Songbook: Stories of the Standards [Paperback] Review

I was really disappointed with the book.I am an aspiring performer, and have been doing a lot of research on the standards.I thought this book would same me a lot of time. The great american songbook includes hundreds of standards -- this book covers only about 30 of them.You can get all of this information on the internet.Save the $9+.

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Intriguing, Inspiring and Entertaining Stories of the Songs, the Singers and the ComposersFrom Tin Pan Alley to Broadway and Hollywood, THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK: The Stories Behind the Standards tells the stories of our most popular songs with humor, drama and insight. This is timeless music written in unique ways that is constantly being reinterpreted by each generation. Isaac Stern made this distinction between talent and genius: "A person possesses talent; genius possesses the person." This is a book about singers, musicians, lyricists and composers taking their talent into the atmosphere of immortality. They are fascinating, and they set the standards by which popular music is measured. They may not have lived easy lives, but their creativity drove them to new heights and they changed the face of American music forever.
Music by a wide variety of artists is covered, including: George Gershwin, Billie Holiday, Cole Porter, Rogers & Hart, Paul McCartney, Dave Brubeck, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, John Coltrane and many others. Some chapters tell the story of just one song; others sketch the life stories of the artists. Music lovers will find new facts and deeper understanding about old friends in THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK The Stories Behind the Standards, and readers unfamiliar with the standards will find the book accessible, easy to read, and delightfully entertaining and informative.

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