Musica!: The Rhythm of Latin America - Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More [Paperback] Review

It is hard to imagine that "Hall of Famer" Willie Colon, who wrote the foreword to this book, actually read it and gave it anendorsement.He writes, "...this book has helped put a face on someof my heroes".What Mr. Colon should have written was that this bookhas helped to distort the truth and put a mask on some of hisheroes.
Musica is a book full of misinformation.Someexamples:
Musician turned dance promoter Federico Pagani was not italian,he was Puertorican.Chick Webb did not die in 1932, he died on June 6,1939."Hall of Famer" Mario Bauza and Dizzy Gillespie did notmove together into Cab Calloway's orchestra, nor did they played withCalloway in 1932.It was in 1938 that Bauza joined Calloway's band. Pretending to be sick, and without warning to Calloway, he sent Gillespieto play in his place...that is how the great Gillespie got into Calloway'sband.
On page 41 a huge blunder is committed.Here it is stated that"Hall of Famer" Maria Teresa Vera was the first Cuban woman onrecord.Her suppose debut recording was in New York with Sexteto Habaneroin 1918.Nothing could be further from the truth.The facts are that thefirst Cuban singer on record was "Hall of Famer" Rosalia"Chalia" Herrera Diaz. Not only was she the first singer of Latinorigen on record, she is also the very first to record a"habanera".She manages to do all this with the famous"Habanera Tu" in New York in 1901!
I doubt very much that MariaTeresa Vera did any recordings with the Sexteto Habanero in 1918...first,this is the year in which the Sexteto Habanero was formed and secondly,those who have done their research indicate that the Sexteto Habanero'sfirst recording was realized on October 29, 1925 with a tune titled"Maldita Timidez"...Maria Teresa Vera was not part of thisrecording.However, Maria Teresa Vera was probably the first female todirect a group in Cuba and probably in South America.She did this withthe famous Sexteto Occidente that did recordings for Columbia Recordsaround 1925 in New York.She also recorded for the Brunswick and Odeonlabels.She later sold the group to "Hall of Famer" IgnacioPineiro who renamed the group Sexteto Nacional.
The book goes on and onwith countless errors.It is a shame, Because Sue Steward is a very goodwriter and the book has a great colorful layout, with dozens of greatphotos.It also has a good amount of solid information.But how is thereader suppose to decipher fact from fiction?You can see the confusion bythe reviews written on this book.People who have no knowledge about thehistory of Latin music gave this book good reviews...they assumedeverything was true and they enjoyed and believed that its content wasaccurate.That's the sad part of this book...people are going to read itand be persuaded that it is accurate and perpetuate the misinformation onto others.
I do believe that all is not lost...perhaps Sue Steward wouldtake the responsible high-road and issue a revised accurate edition. Careful and meticulous research can make this book a winner.In themeantime I would hope that Sue Steward does not attempt to produce atelevision program based on the information in this book...that would be agreat diservice to those who contributed so much to this great music and tothose who work so hard at researching the truth.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Musica: The Rhythm of Latin America - Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More [Paperback]

Product Description:
Salsa, the irresistible dance music of the Spanish-speaking world, has made its way into the lives of millions around the globe. But salsa is only one of many popular Latin rhythms. The first comprehensive guide to the music, its history, and its legends, Musica! charts the vast territory of this lively Latin heritage, which began in Cuba and spread throughout the Caribbean and into North and South America. Illustrated with contemporary and vintage photos, Musica! features a gallery of legendary musical performers, plus sections on the musical styles and dances including the rumba, mambo, cha-cha, and merengue. A discography and bibliography complete this comprehensive story of Latin America's extraordinary rhythmic tradition.

Buy cheap Musica: The Rhythm of Latin America - Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More [Paperback] now

Blues: An Anthology [Paperback] Review

I have to admit that when I received this book it wasn't everything I expected, but I take the full blame. I made assumptions and put it on my wishlist without really reading the description fully. I felt I didn't need to know anything more than that it had illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias and that it was by Handy.

I expected more history and stories rather than actual songs with music, and I expected illustrations throughout.

After receiving it I know now that it is mainly an anthology of songs, and the illustrations are limited to the introduction.

This does nothing to diminish this book as a treasure in my eyes.

Though the Covarubbias illustrations are much fewer than I'd imagined, they still make me breathless to look at them. Truly gorgeous. The music provided by W C Handy is itself history to me. It's just a beautiful book to own.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Blues: An Anthology [Paperback]

Product Description:
Originally published in 1926, a classic collection of great blues songs arranged for piano and voice--the most famous blues collection in history.Among the first black men to write and publish blues music, Handy did more than anyone else to make blues popular and accepted. Includes historical notes, tunes and arrangements, notes for each song, a bibliography, and a chart of guitar chords.Illustrated by reknowned Mexican illustrator Miguel Covarrubias.

Buy cheap Blues: An Anthology [Paperback] now Get 22% OFF

Blues People: Negro Music in White America [Paperback] Review

This book is probably the greatest ever written on the early history of black music in America. With rare clarity and glowing intensity, Baraka traces the evolution of black forms such as blues and jazz back to Africa,and presents the reader with genuine insight into the world of the creatorsof these important 20th century art forms. The book is as gripping as anynovel you will ever read, and also crammed with facts and mindbogglinglines of thought. Anybody with even the slightest interest in modern blackmusic needs to read this book, and consider its contents thoroughly.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Blues People: Negro Music in White America [Paperback]

Product Description:
"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's music -- through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel development, jazz... [If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music."
So says Amiri Baraka in the Introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. From the music of African slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960's, Baraka traces the influence of what he calls "negro music" on white America -- not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history.

Buy cheap Blues People: Negro Music in White America [Paperback] now Get 29% OFF

Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) [Paperback] Review

Ingrid Monson's volume, "Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction" is a somewhat lesser known work following in the shadow of Paul Berliner, whom Monson pays ample tribute to. Her volume is intended to say something to all of its overlapping audiences, and it succeeds well, using interviews and close musical readings of very important pieces. There is much to say about the musical analyses, but I choose here to concentrate on the less formalistic aspects. That job will remain for another reviewer.

Monson claims that when "a musician successfully reaches a discerning audience, moves it members to applaud or shout praises, raises the energy to dramatic proportions, and leaves a sonorous memory that lingers long after, he or she has moved beyond technical experiences....and into the realm of 'saying something.'" But what does this mean? For Monson, this means to make discourse, and multivalently, to make community.

Monson moves towards thinking of music making as a community-building function, rather than communities organized by race, class, geography, or gender. In fact, those categories are attended to in terms of music, rather than the other way around. Music performance, and well as repetoire, promotion, and booking agents, create imagined communities between performers. Her approach to community-building is based in Anthony Giddens (1984) rather than Benedict Anderson (1991).

In outlining the special contributions of the rhythmic and accompaniment sections of the jazz ensemble, Monson draws special attention not only to the specifics of drum, piano, and bass, but also to the word "listening." For her, listening means "being able to respond to musical opportunities or to correct mistakes." It is an active term. Musicians must pay attention to what is going on if they "expect to say things that make sense to the other participants." Moreover, since improvisation is key to jazz performance, listening is a prerequisite for playing to the moment within a musical narrative. In the free play of conversation/improvisation, the discursive conditions may change spontaenously and unexpectedly from moment to moment, since no one person authors the narrative alone. In addition, to be told that one "doesn't listen" is a paramount challenge and insult in jazz performance. It means the performer isn't communicating with other performers, but ineptly (at best) or arrogantly (at worst) attempting to control the entire parameters of the discourse. Sociability and interaction is at the core of collective improvisation, and if it is denied, the conversation is foreclosed.

But what of the statements themselves? How do jazz phrases and sentences work in what we might call improvisation/conversation? Monson takes a page from Bakhtin (1981), discussing the notion of internal dialogism, in two aspects: 1) multiple semantic meanings that change and are changed according to the shifting demands of the relationship between the meanings and the cultural context that makes meaning sensible. 2) the "temporal context" in which things are expressed in relation to the history of other discourses.Statements are caught between two different forces of language (centripetal and centrifugal forces) Utterances are caught signifying towards the unitary center (centripetal) and away from it in their particularity (centrifugal). Thus each statement is a torn contradiction inside, and also most meaningful at the same time. A "tension-filled unity." Others have race-d and extended this concept, such as African-American poet Elizabeth Alexander, who contend for a space that moves away from bifucated division and towards an space of "myriad particulars of identity."(1992) Notice how compatible this dualistic tension formula is with W.E.B Dubois's notion of the African-American "double consciousness." These racial aspects of hegemony in both in the history of jazz reception and in the interactions of jazz musicians with others who talk about jazz and "music" are highlighted in Monson's work.

When jazz musicians talk about music departments, they recognize that the words "music department" means "Western Classical Music department." Western Classical form has been anointed at the recognized highest status, and therefore stands for (and crowding out) the space in which the term music has institutional meaning. So when jazz musicians request not to be pigeonholed by the term "jazz," we must recognize that they are speaking to the cultural politics of labeling, or naming..of telling, and of listening. Musicians recognize Foucault's truth that 'discourses construct the objects of which they speak', rather than represent them in some naive, simplistic way. At the same time, Monson is careful not to overstate the case of cultural theory in explaining or explicating the 'meaning of music.' If we leave the realm of the musician too often or too long, we are no longer listening--no longer able to respond in the free play of conversation/improvisation.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) [Paperback]

Product Description:
This fresh look at the neglected rhythm section in jazz ensembles shows that the improvisational interplay among drums, bass, and piano is just as innovative, complex, and spontaneous as the solo. Ingrid Monson juxtaposes musicians' talk and musical examples to ask how musicians go about "saying something" through music in a way that articulates identity, politics, and race. Through interviews with Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, Sir Roland Hanna, Billy Higgins, Cecil McBee, and others, she develops a perspective on jazz improvisation that has "interactiveness" at its core, in the creation of music through improvisational interaction, in the shaping of social communities and networks through music, and in the development of cultural meanings and ideologies that inform the interpretation of jazz in twentieth-century American cultural life.

Replete with original musical transcriptions, this broad view of jazz improvisation and its emotional and cultural power will have a wide audience among jazz fans, ethnomusicologists, and anthropologists.

Buy cheap Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) [Paperback] now

What to Listen For in Jazz [Paperback] Review

There is some valuable stuff in Kernfeld's book; I enjoyed particularly the section on the historical evolution of jazz styles.Kernfeld obviously knows his subject well.However, I found his organization lacking.Including a CD with selections by jazz greats to illustrate his points wasa fine idea; but the text should have been divided up so that the cuts onthe CD could be listened to in conjunction with full text descriptions inthe same order -- something about the personnel playing, why the cut issignificant historically, and comments on what we're listening to. Instead, Kernfeld scatters the references to the different tracksthroughout the text and this makes it much more laborious for thelistener/reader.My second gripe is with the idiot at the publishing house(I presume it wasn't Kernfeld) who thought it would be cute to use a tiny(maybe ten point) pseudo-artsy type face for the entire text.Come onfolks -- not every book has to be set in Times Roman, but this isn't evenremotely a book face.It gave me a headache after three pages.

Click Here to see more reviews about: What to Listen For in Jazz [Paperback]

Product Description:
This new book from the editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz offers a unique way of approaching and understanding jazz. Drawing on twenty-one historic jazz recordings, reproduced on a compact disc that accompanies the book, Barry Kernfeld illustrates jazz rhythm, forms, arrangement, composition, improvisation, style, and sound.

Buy cheap What to Listen For in Jazz [Paperback] now

Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making (Roth Family Foundation Music in America Imprint) [Paperback] Review

Monk's Music is a fine read that will repay your attention.It will appeal to you if you are interested in music, especially jazz, and the way it interacts with and is given context by the culture it exists in.Jazz fans, Monk fans, music fans, and anyone with an itnterest in music and culture will want to read this book.

This is a book grounded in the academic tradition--yes, it uses big words and knotty concepts.It requires focus and attention to read.On the other hand, if you are willing to put in a bit of effort, the average music fan will find much of interest, and your effort will be repaid amply.

Solis sets about examining some very interesting questions, like "how does someone become a Jazz icon?""In an evolving musical genre, where slavish reproduction of a musical work is not valued and is indeed a source of disrespect, how does the ongoing evolution of a set of musical works take life and substance?"

If you are expecting a biography of Monk, or a simple analysis of his music, you will be disappointed--although the book does provide an excellent synopsis of Mon's life to provide contest, and also provides lucid analysis and commentary on the music.

Solis gives life and context to his discussion by incorporating the results of extensive interviews with musicians who played with Monk, a primary resource that has depth.

A unique and interesting book, I recommend it to anyone interested in jazz, music, and culture, and of course anyone interested in Monk and his music.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making (Roth Family Foundation Music in America Imprint) [Paperback]

Product Description:
Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) was one of jazz's greatest and most enigmatic figures. As a composer, pianist, and bandleader, Monk both extended the piano tradition known as Harlem stride and was at the center of modern jazz's creation during the 1940s, setting the stage for the experimentalism of the 1960s and '70s. This pathbreaking study combines cultural theory, biography, and musical analysis to shed new light on Monk's music and on the jazz canon itself. Gabriel Solis shows how the work of this stubbornly nonconformist composer emerged from the jazz world's fringes to find a central place in its canon. Solis reaches well beyond the usual life-and-times biography to address larger issues in jazz scholarship--ethnography and the role of memory in history's construction. He considers how Monk's stature has grown, from the narrowly focused wing of the avant-garde in the 1960s and '70s to the present, where he is claimed as an influence by musicians of all kinds. He looks at the ways musical lineages are created in the jazz world and, in the process, addresses the question of how musicians use performance itself to maintain, interpret, and debate the history of the musical tradition we call jazz.

Buy cheap Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making (Roth Family Foundation Music in America Imprint) [Paperback] now Get 32% OFF