Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn [Hardcover] Review

Billy Strayhorn'scontribution to the work of Duke Ellington is immeasurable--at last he is given his full due in David Hajdu's perceptive and insightful portrait of this largely unsung genius of 20th centurymusic. Hajdu's sensitive biography, derived from countless interviewswith friends, family and fellow musicians, reveals Strayhorn as a complex,creative individual who preferred to stay discreetly in Ellington's shadow throughout much of his life.It also provides a telling portrait of a manwho lived his life as a gay African-American musician completely out in the open during a time in this country when it was both difficult anddangerous to do so.Hajdu has givenus telling portraits as well of manyof Strayhorn's contemporaries such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, JohnnyHodges, Ray Nance and the Duke himself who loved "Swea-Pea"(Strayhorn's nickname) as a part of himself.Not only a portrait of acreative, intellectual genius, "Lush Life"also gives us aninsightful look into the world of jazz and African-american popular musicthat grew out of an age of racism and discrimination.The concludingchapters that chronicle Strayhorn's involvement inthe civil rightsmovement of the early '60's andhis friendships with Martin Luther Kingand Medgar Evans and his own battle with the throat cancer that cut hislife short (at age fifty-one) areespecially powerful.Throughout thebook, Hajduprovides lively anecdotal writing while remaining a respectfuljournalist and chronicler of his subject.I highly recommend this book toanyone interested in jazz history, popular culture, orpurely for aportrait of an understated genius.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn [Hardcover]



Buy cheap Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn [Hardcover] now

Stardust-The Big Band Bible [Perfect Paperback] Review

This is the quintessential book on the Big Band era.I have read many, many books on the subject, including large, fancy, hard cover books, but none compares with this. Every other book seems to be more a list of statistics compared with the life that Richard Grudens has breathed into this exciting, informative work.I have had the good fortune to have met many of the players, and been friends with some of the leaders and arrangers, and yet I have gleaned a wealth of knowledge I did not have. Do not fail to get this book.
Dr. Irwin C. Shiell

Click Here to see more reviews about: Stardust-The Big Band Bible [Perfect Paperback]

Product Description:
The complete Big Band Bible covering the Bands, the bandleaders, the musicians, the vocalists, the arrangers, the singing groups of most of the previous century told through a collection of personal profiles featuring the twentieth century's greatest musical stars with a foreword by Frankie Laine and an introduction by Kathryn Crosby, Mrs. Bing Crosby. The book will include the history of the song Stardust, bandleader Van Alexander's 'So You Want to Lead a Band.' The lists will document every known band and its theme song, as well as two lists documenting every girl and boy singer who ever sang with a band or bands. Features: Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The Cotton Club, Big Band Million sellers, Presentation of the First Gold Record, Great Moments in Big Band History, WNEW radio polls, the Recording Ban, Anecdotes and Fables, interviews with almost every Big Band Leaders and their vocalists. Vignettes of every known singing group, Big Band Associates like Mitch Miller and John Hammond, a chapter on the songwriters, the arrangers, the broadcasters, the Ghost-tribute bands and their tours of today, a list and interviews with the current crop of singers, The Music of Your Life story, 50 pages devoted to the bands of England and Europe, the complete alphabetical list of all known bands 1920-1980's, Big Band organiztions, clubs, and publications. Big Band Anecdotes and Non de Plumes; the performers real names, and much more. The book has over 300 photos, many never before published.

Buy cheap Stardust-The Big Band Bible [Perfect Paperback] now

Three Chords for Beauty's Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw [Hardcover] Review

In 1985, in what I now view as a life event, my wife and I saw Artie Shaw perform at the Blue Note in New York. I passed the 75 year-old jazz star in the hallway, and I was about to approach him, but his manner said stay away. It wasn't personal. Shaw disliked fans; in fact, he said, "Keep `em all away from me," that very night. So I never talked to Artie Shaw. Still, I felt I knew him, having read his memoir, "The Trouble With Cinderella," several times. And now I know him even better, thanks to "Three Chords for Beauty's Sake,The Life of Artie Shaw," an excellent new book by Tom Nolan. It's the tale of how Arthur Arshawsky, a Jewish kid from the Lower East Side, became a popular band leader and great jazz clarinetist almost by force of will. Nolan has all: The childhood anti-Semitism; the long musical apprenticeship; the breakthrough to stardom in 1938 with "Begin the Beguine;" Shaw's walkout from the music business a year later; his return with the mega-hit, "Frenesi;" his breaking of the color line by hiring Billie Holiday, Roy Eldridge and Hot Lips Page; the exquisite tone he drew from the clarinet. The women are here (Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Betty Grable, Lena Horne), and the war (fighting men cried when Navy Chief Shaw and his Rangers played in jungle outposts or on the decks of aircraft carriers). Here, too, are Shaw's postwar depression, his emergence with a new band, his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his struggle to write. The book is well-documented, for Shaw lived until 2004 and was always ready to talk about himself to journalists. And it's well-written. But there are two vast holes at the center of it, neither of them Nolan's fault. For one, we never find out why Shaw gave up the clarinet in 1954 after doing some of his best work with a small jazz combo. (He didn't play the night I saw him--he conducted, and shared memories in his gruff way). Shaw's own answers are unsatisfying. And how is it that a flawed human being like Shaw, who rejected his sons and was cruel to his wives, could produce some of the most romantic and lyrical recordings ever made, like "Star Dust," "Dancing in the Dark," "Alone Together" and "Summertime?" I've accepted the fact that I know very little about Artie Shaw.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Three Chords for Beauty's Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw [Hardcover]



Buy cheap Three Chords for Beauty's Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw [Hardcover] now Get 34% OFF

Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way, A Biography [Paperback] Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this well researched and well written book, as I did the two previous efforts by this writer on Harry James and Nelson Riddle.It is a fascinating account of the life and times of the big touring bands in the swing era.I found it very hard to put down but sorry when I finished it.A very fine piece of work in my opinion.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way, A Biography [Paperback]



Buy cheap Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way, A Biography [Paperback] now Get 22% OFF