Billy Joel: The Biography [Hardcover] Review

First of all, a little context: There have been only 2 thorough bios of Billy, both in just the last couple of years. This one, and Hank Bordowitz's "Life of an Angry Young Man." As often stated, the bios are rare because Billy and his friends wouldn't talk. Now, thanks to Billy's alienation of those friends, they're talking. Of the two, Bordowitz has the better book, but it's worth comparing the two to get the full picture.

The story of Billy's grandparents is described in detail for the first real time in print (although Bego relies heavily on a PBS documentary of the Joels), and this was good to see. Unfortunately, Bego does a much less thorough job covering Billy's early years. Not only is it covered with less detail, but he seems to rely heavily on previously published interviews with Billy. And as Bego himself references, Billy's memory is not only bad but criminally selective. For example, Bego seems to take Billy at his word surrounding the events of Billy's attempted suicide circa 1969. Hank Bordowitz has a completely different description of the incident, but Bego doesn't even mention that there's a conflict between Billy's memory and the facts. Regrettably, there is also still very little about Billy's odd jobs between Attila and his first solo album. Granted, only Billy (who won't or can't recollect these events) could fully piece together that era, and maybe it's a small point, but it's a shame that time period of Billy's life still remains vague.

The rest of the book is basically a pastiche job of Billy's interviews and other publicly known material. But Bego has two things going for him: First of all, it's a very good compendium of the info that's out there; so even if you knew all this stuff, you finally have it in one read. Secondly, the newer, most revealing things come from interviews from former band members who actually go on record and recall specifics, which gives Bego, I think, a leg up over the Bordowitz book.

Some notable downsides: Bego makes some serious, hilarious goofs. One is to quote a National Enquirer story without any comment on how dubious the source material is (maybe he thought it wasn't necessary, I don't know). He also attributes a quote of Billy's to "The Nylon Curtain," even though the quote was clearly referencing "An Innocent Man"--with hilarious results. But the biggest weakness of the book are the song analyses: Not only are they weak and redundant--most fans don't need to be told what "Piano Man" is about--but he occasionally gets them wrong. In fact, at one point, he says "Temptation" is about Christie--and then 2 pages later quotes Billy as explaining that it's about Alexa!

Now for the technical writing complaints (some will say "nitpicking," but I gotta get 'em off my chest). I don't know how Bego got this book past an editor (presumably he had one??). He often wanders into odd segues and non sequiturs. And he's CONSTANTLY misusing the word "ironically." For example, he talks about how Billy couldn't graduate high school because of a missing English credit. Bego follows this up with, "Ironically, the principal who gave Billy his diploma was his former gym teacher." WHA--? On what planet is that "ironic"?! And, someone tell Bego to stop using a comma after "and" (like I just did). Sorry, but this had to be said.

And yes, Billy comes out looking bad after this. But maybe he should. The band members' stories seem to dovetail, and Bego is gentle in his soapboxing. It's not a hatchet job; it's not investigative journalism; but it is an interesting and revealing read.

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Product Description:
Billy Joel ranks among rock'n'roll's most talented artists. This biography is the first in-depth portrait of a man who is the son of German Jews who fled the Nazi regime, including his childhood in the Bronx, his professional struggles, and his six Grammys. Billy Joel is also widely known for his professional struggles - his substance abuse problems, his marriage to Christie Brinkley, and a string of car accidents. This is a portrait of a larger-than-life figure, featuring interviews with his bandmates and representatives from Columbia Records, an extensive examination of his diverse music tastes, and never-before-seen photographs.

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George Gershwin: A New Biography [Hardcover] Review

I ordered this book because I've always liked Gershwin's music & happened to catch the last part of the film Rhapsody in Blue on Turner Movie Classics recently. The book does an adequate job of covering Gershwin's composing career, and indeed most of the chapters are titled according to the major composition discussed. If one is looking for in-depth information about Gershwin himself, his relationships, his family & his interests & activities outside music, the book is less satisfying. For example, one might assume from reading this book that his younger brother Arthur died in infancy as he is not mentioned except for his birthdate. Arthur actually lived to an old age, married, had kids & composed music himself. What relationship he & George had is unknown. Similarly, while Ira's wife Leonore had a part in George's life, she appears haphazardly throughout the book and little about her relationship with George is explored. George was also a painter but that is only tangentially mentioned. There is so much more that could fill out a broader, more in-depth picture of Gershwin. One could also wish for better editing to remove grammar errors & smooth out the repetitious use of some phrases as well as the jerky transitions from one subject to the next. The author's extensive research is evident & the endnotes at each chapter useful. For someone interested in Gershwin's growth as a composer, the book does a creditable job of documenting the major compositions & music events in the composer's life. For more about the man himself, readers must look elsewhere.

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Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life [Paperback] Review

This biography of Louis Armstrong presents the rich mosaic that was the life of one of the greatest musicians and entertainers of the 20th Century.It uses his life story to describe the history of early jazz--from hischildhood on the streets of New Orleans, his move to Chicago where he madehis famous recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven, and on to New Yorkand Europe.I was surprized to learn that in many ways his charismaticstage persona was his real personality.But at the same time he was quitea complex character (four marriages, daily marijuana use, managers with mobconnections, laxative proselytizations).Aside from his musical genius, hewas a cultural icon--the first African American entertainer to cross overto broad popularity throughout America.The story is often told in Louis'sown words, making it easier to get to know him.I loved the story abouthis first trip back to New Orleans after he spent nearly a decade goingfrom being a local talent to an international star.When I got to the lastchapter I put the book aside for a little while--I didn't want the book orLouis's life to end.

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Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece [Paperback] Review

A surprisingly brisk read for a book of such ambitious scope, the author begins a full decade before the recording it chronicles. A wide range of subject matter - the evolution of jazz, Miles as an artist and creative voice, recording techniques, even the business of jazz marketing - are covered engagingly, intelligently and leave the reader with a better context in which to place this seminal recording.
Long-time fans, who know the music and the myths inside out, will marvel anew at the dedication Miles showed not only to his music, but in what can only be called his sentimentality in working with the other artists on the dates. His relationship with pianist Bill Evans is especially poignant.
The rise of modal jazz and its off-shoot from bop, along with the impact on the post-war generation of players is juxtaposed against a record label system willing to actually bid for jazz artists(!) and put real thought and resources into promoting their works. There is a tinge of nostalgia to the writing, though the author is not a contemporary of the original recording's release. This tone is far out-weighed by the realization that Kind of Blue really did mark a second (or third) Golden Age in jazz and that men the likes of Miles Davis - or Babe Ruth or Marlon Brando - seem not to walk among us much anymore.
In an age of celebrity profiles and Behind the Music "documentaries", Kahn's book shows us that every story has many stories, and he tells each with a respectful touch.

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Product Description:
Now in paperback: "A small treasure" (The New Yorker) and the best-selling account of the creation of a jazz classic.
This critically and commercially acclaimed tribute to the most popular jazz album of all time is now available in paperback. With transcriptions of the unedited session tapes; in-depth interviews with musicians; freshly discovered Columbia Records files; never-before-seen photographs; and a foreword by the last surviving member of the band, drummer Jimmy Cobb, Kind of Blue is a vital piece of music history-and will be essential for fans and scholars for years to come.

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So What: The Life of Miles Davis [Hardcover] Review

Prior to SO WHAT I felt that, as revealing as many prior Davis bios were (including Miles' own book), their sum was somehow less than the parts.That is, there was more to understand about Miles Davis than what was collectively written.Along comes SO WHAT, the most balanced and coherent one-stop source yet for getting to know about the entirety of Miles Davis' life.As much as Miles urged us to let the music speak for itself, the context and environment in which Davis' art was created is important, and author John Szwed is up to the challenge to walk down the many paths that lead to and from Davis' music and life (e.g., discussing the aesthetics of artists as wide-ranging as Stockhausen and Sly Stone, both of whom impacted Miles' musical vision in the 1970s).Szwed doesn't attempt to cram every interesting, revealing, or just plain provocative story from prior books into his bio.Still, his research does come up with some errors previously presented as facts, and there are plently of newfound "Miles Davis stories" to amuse and/or amaze the reader, for better and worse.
What the author seems to do is pick and choose among the previously-revealed tidbits about Miles and use them as supplements to 1) his open-minded knowledge about the entirety of Davis' music (as well as the cultural and commercial environment in which it was created), and 2) fresh, revealing interviews he conducted with family members and others close to the subject at key points in his life.Having unprecedented access to Davis' family was possibly the missing piece of the puzzle needed to really reconcile what was already known about Miles with the many contradictions that sat unresolved for decades (e.g., tough exterior, insecure interior).Even as Szwed stays in tune with Davis' music from beginning to end, he reveals with unprecedented detail just how chaotic his personal life was.Previously I thought Davis was unlucky to have died so relatively young...albeit at age 65.Given all of the substance abuse and other problems he faced (and created for himself), I'm now amazed that Miles lasted so long, and how he could--with a bare minimum of lulls over nearly a half-century--be artistically creative right up to his final hospitalization in 1991.
Being that Miles' life was often sensationalistic to begin with, Szwed plays it cool with this hot topic, writing the way that Davis played, sans ornamentation.SO WHAT stays focused on the big picture...with details that dip beneath the surface throughout Miles' entire life.The information seems mostly accurate; among the errors that I caught were that Szwed states the 1985 Artists United vs. Apartheid SUN CITY project in which Davis participated was a Quincy Jones production (in reality it was led by Little Steven and Arthur Baker). The author is confusing that benefit recording with WE ARE THE WORLD from the same year which Jones did direct (this error undermines Szwed's critique of the SUN CITY album).Also, it's unfortunate that the 20-CD COMPLETE MONTREUX boxed set came along too late to be included here, because the high quality of that music is the best evidence yet that Miles' final years were musically-productive ones.However, all this means is that understanding Davis remains an ongoing process.Even with its few minor flaws, no oneto date has better unraveled the enigmatic genius of Miles Davis than Szwed.I recommended this book first, with Paul Tingen's MILES BEYOND next in line.

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City Limits [Paperback] Review

I enjoyed Terry Teachout's book of autobiographical essays "City Limits". There is nothing terribly important in the book, but its tone and pace are leisurely & enjoyable and his stories reveal interesting details about an important cultural critic whose influence is rising each year through his books and articles in "Commentary", "The Wall Street Journal" and other influential conservative journals of opinion. Teachout's writing reminds me of my favorite writer, Joseph Epstein (it is probably no coincidence that you often find their pieces in the same issues of publications). Both writers are extremely culturally fluent with a lot of interesting things to say. Their writing is also very accessable to the average, educated person who is looking to learn more about literature, music, theater, art, and the good life in general.

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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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To Be, or Not . . . to Bop [Paperback] Review

Jazz has been a lifelong love of mine, and Dizzy is at the top of the heap! Have always loved his music, and in this book,he gives us a generous lesson on jazz from beginning to end.He lets us in onhow he got the name "Dizzy", as well as other interesting peeks into his life- always with humour and an upbeat attitude.From Page 1 onward, you can visualize Mr. G.,----body keeping timeto the beat in his head, those rubber cheeks expanded, his admirers ... male and female, musicians and non-musicians... listening and swaying and tapping with admiration and awe.

This book is a lesson in music.I used to wonder why the drummers from America sounded so different from the drummers in other countries, say the Caribbean. Why is itthat acertain soundsets Americanmusicapart from all the music elsewhere in the world.Well, Dizzy explains all of this in his down-to-earth and charming manner.Reading this book is almost like getting a degree in musicology....except it's a lot more fun. He sugarcoats nothing, and puts everything out there for you to see.

Well written, informative, great fun, and a lot of history too.To repeat myself, I loved it!

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Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael [Paperback] Review

We owe Richard Sudhalter for preserving the often-forgotten history of America's early jazz pioneers and composers. His subjects are white musicians, but he doesn't write about them with a nasty political agenda. He just doesn't want their contributions to be forgotten. Along the way, he pays warm tribute to the black musicians who led the musical revolution. Unfortunately, politically-charged reviewers refuse to see this.
I especially love this Sudhalter work. Sadly, Hoagy is becoming a forgotten genius of American song. Duke Ellington once called him America's greatest songwriter, and Sudhalter goes a long way in providing the evidence to such a claim. I especially enjoyed the focus on Hoagy's home state of Indiana, which was an amazing hotbed for jazz in the 1920s. One should take this book and drive around Bloomington, Indiana, and find all of the haunts described in rich detail by Sudhalter. Then go to Indianapolis, and Richmond, Indiana. Sudhalter really did us all a huge favor in providing such a wonderful document.

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Goodbye: In Search Of Gordon Jenkins [Hardcover] Review

. . . is what I told the author by e-mail:

Dear Mr. Jenkins,

I just finished Goodbye, and I wanted you to know how glad I am you wrote it. I got it through Rick Apt; it is a copy you signed.

I love your father's music and have for a long time, but I had little idea just how comprehensive his talent was. Your book deepened my admiration for his work. I'll appreciate it even more now.

As someone who makes a living as an editor, I have pretty high
standards. Your writing is clear, your passion is evident, your style is rewarding on many levels, and the book is whole: nothing need be added or taken away, as I see it.

Beyond that, as a dilettante baritone in a few big band style ensembles, I've got a new, higher standard to shoot for just knowing what a man like Gordon Jenkins expected of others. And when I sing a ballad, I'll damn sure never trust a leader who keeps his eye on the band instead of me.

Thank you for writing a great book about a great man.

Yours truly,

Bill Fisher

(By the way, the author was gracious enough to reply to my e-mail--a class act.)

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Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton [Paperback] Review

When Billy Tipton died in 1989, the world rushed in and gave him, briefly, the larger fame he had once nibbled at as a jazz musician and entertainer.But in June of 1958, after 20 years of chasing the brass ring, when the door to the big time world of popular music opened and beckoned Billy in, he backed away from the spotlight, settling for playing the hotel ballrooms and clubs of greater Spokane, Washington. In Suits Me, Stanford University English professor Diane Wood Middlebrook explores both the geography of jazz and swing in the heartland of America, and the geography of gender in the middle of the 20th century.Because underneath his dapper suits and corny comedy routines, Mr. Billy Tipton concealed the body of a woman, and when he died, his sex revealed by paramedics and the coroner's report, he left hundreds of people who knew him, and millions more who heard the news, astounded by his "deception..."
Professor Middlebrook's research has been thorough, and she has spoken with most of Tipton's living relatives, former wives, business partners and many other musicians of the era.What she reveals to her readers is a fully textured portrait of an era and a man who worked hard and earned every privilege he received.She lets us almost hear the music, taste the dust from the roads Billy and his bandmates and partners traveled.She lets the people who knew him comment on whether they thought he was a man or a woman.She lays out the mystery of how others perceived and ignored or challenged Billy's gender presentation, and the l! engths to which Billy went to protect his secret, which sometimes wasn't all that hidden.
Suits Me is an amazing story filled with strange reversals: Billy had a male cousin named Bonnie, his mother's nickname was Reggie, his first "wife" had left her husband, Earl, for a life on the road and was known as Non Earl.And there were enough female musicians on the circuit in those days that cross-dressing to the extent that Billy did should not have been necessary to maintain a career, as many people have conjectured to justify Billy's behavior.
Billy's death and the revelation of his "true sex" led various groups to claim his memory as a symbol of their own cause: lesbians said he lived as a man to safely love women; feminists said he lived as a man in order to have a career; transsexuals said he lived as a man because he was a man-he just didn't avail himself of the medical technology to make himself legal.Because Billy never declared himself any of these things (although he did declare himself a man), it seems presumptuous for any group to claim such an independent spirit as their own.But Billy also acknowledged to some family members that he remained a woman in body; to one female cousin he intimated he would one day go back to living as a woman once the kids he had adopted with his last wife, Kitty, were grown and out on their own, and to another female cousin he declared that he had made a conscious choice to live as a man and that he was a normal person.It is only respectful to refer to Billy with masculine pronouns, using the male gender he so completely inhabited.Middlebrook skillfully interweaves masculine and feminine pronouns to reflect the understanding of the people Billy interacts with, and to acknowledge the reality of Billy's body.In this way, she creates a striking sense of the incongruity of gender and body that Billy lived with, and others like him still live with every day.
There is only one point of contention where I take exception to Middlebrook's analysis of Tipton'! s motivations. She assumes that the absence of breast bindings or genital prosthetics (pants stuffers) from Billy's body at his death, and from his personal effects, was an indication that he was anticipating discovery.I contend this can't be known.He may have simply grown weary of the apparatus, seeing no need for it since he had retired from public life. Perhaps he felt he had earned the right to be a man in his own skin, regardless of its shape.Perhaps it was with relief that he discarded those accoutrements years earlier.And I suspect that, unless diagnosed with a terminal illness, most of us don't realize the finality of our own death even when the moment is upon us.It is dramatic and appealing to conjecture that he staged the conditions of his discovery as consciously as he had staged the presentation of his gender identity, but I contend that the simple reality of Billy's life is more appealing: he was socially a man and physically a woman.That dichotomy fascinates us, and we struggle to rationalize it, to explain it, to defend it or to tear it apart. Depending on our allegiances, we rush to invalidate either the body or the soul that informed it.But I think both are real and valid, and that Billy Tipton's life simply illustrates one person's adaptation to his situation.Without a definitive statement from Tipton, which he never gave, his life is open to any interpretation, whether insensitive or informed.In spite of this one logical flaw in her analysis, I think Middlebrook has composed a fine portrait of an artist, one that will ultimately give readers some insight to the reality of what we now call the transgendered experience as it was lived before the modern transgender movement had established itself.
This is an important book, both for the history in it, and for its vivid depiction of the brave determination of Billy Tipton that his talent, energy and love sustained.Some transpeople may be put off by the pronoun inconsistency, feeling that the only way to treat Billy i! s as the man he wanted to be and was-the way others perceived him, for the most part, in his vibrant life.Some transpeople may find the reflection of the very real challenges Billy struggled with in his female body to be a welcome reality check for their own experience with incongruous gender and bodies.Non-trans people should find this study a stimulating, evocative read, one that pulls back the curtain just enough to expose the tantalizing mystery of a very American life.

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Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro (North Texas Lives of Musician Series) [Hardcover] Review

Jade Visions is the first and only biography devoted to the too-brief life and meteoric career of jazz bassist Scott LaFaro. Known best as a member of pianist Bill Evans' dream trio, which included the still-vital drummer Paul Motian, LaFaro also performed across the entire spectrum of jazz in the '50s and early '60s, from the big bands of Benny Goodman and Stan Kenton, to romantic balladeer-trumpeter Chet Baker, to the free jazz adventures of Ornette Coleman and Gunther Schuller.

Little has been known about LaFaro's life off-stage until now. A private person, judged as aloof and even unlikeable by some who encountered him casually, he was already obsessed by music and the uncompromising pursuit of excellence by the time he reached high school. Jade Visions, written by his sister Helene LaFaro Fernandez, tells an engaging tale of their unconventional upbringing, along with their three younger sisters, by rather free-thinking parents in a large and affectionate Italian-American family.

LaFaro's short life was not dramatic compared to the well-chronicled meltdowns and often self-inflicted health problems of similarly gifted artists. He did not face racial discrimination, as did so many jazz stars of the era. He helped watch over his four sisters and mother after the premature death of his father. He sent playful postcards to his family from the road, and checked out his kid sister Helene's dates to make sure they measured up to his expectations. But on stage and in the practice room, he was, to sum up in a single word, intense.

Passages by the author describing their family life alternate with insights into LaFaro's prodigious musical gifts by Gene Lees, Eddie Gomez, Gary Peacock, Marc Johnson, Rufus Reid, Stanley Clarke, Herb Mickman, Jeff Campbell, Phil Palombi and dozens of others. The great classical soloist Gary Karr was also aware of LaFaro as he was launching his own fabled career, and relates how he was inspired to continue pushing the boundaries of what was considered possible on the double bass in part due to the example of LaFaro's innovations.

The book is written in an enjoyable, conversational style, and a number of never before published photos are included, as well as a complete discography, bibliography and archival magazine articles. Jade Visions is not only a snapshot of life as a working musician in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but also the intimate story of a single-minded young musician who transformed himself in seven short years from high school band student to DownBeat magazine rising star.

History has already passed judgment on his accomplishments and declared him a superstar for the ages. Christian McBride observes, "Scotty's playing was the bible for bass players...Jimmy Blanton the old testament, Scotty, the new." Almost a half century after his death, LaFaro's photo recently graced the cover of Bass Player magazine, along with a feature length essay on LaFaro's continuing relevance today by jazz historian and bassist John Goldsby. By the time you read this review, Jade Visions will be back on the presses for a second printing, less than six months after its release. Read it to the soundtrack of Pieces of Jade, a companion CD that includes rehearsal tape of Evans and LaFaro working out the changes to My Foolish Heart.

Jazz fans around the world owe Helene LaFaro Fernandez a huge debt of gratitude for sharing the personal story of her brother Scotty, whose artistry remains timeless.

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