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.

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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.

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No Matter How Much You Promise . . .: A Symphonic Novel [Hardcover] Review

This is the most personal review I've ever written, and I'm somewhat embarrassed, but I don't think I care, because I can't talk about this book "objectively" anyway -- whatever that means.It has changed my life and will haunt me for a long time!The context is important to my reaction, but first . . .
Other reviewers are all over the place, and that's fine.I love differences of opinion.One talks about contrivance, and I don't see it.(Is Cliff really supposed to go after Fawn on his own?Doesn't calling 911 make better sense?)One talks about lack of control in style and structure, and I'm not convinced.Pop Butterworth's closing scene is a stupendous aria in rondo form, equal to Mozart's "Deh, perdono," no less.Think about it!OK, I grant this novel MAY have problems here and there, but that's not exactly what it's about.Here's a comparison, one I can't validate.People who read Russian tell me that Dostoyevsky is an awkward stylist, clumsy and sloppy in many places.And I treasure elegance and polish.How I admire James and Herzmanovsky-Orlando for those qualities.How I babble with delight at Wallace Stevens and Lampedusa.But isn't there a sheer overwhelming greatness about Dostoyevsky that more than compensates?That said, I don't think Yunque is sloppy or clumsy.I can't find anything wrong beyond a couple of minor points.
Anyway, I never thought I would wail and sob like a baby, ever again.For God's sake, I'm 61 years old!Thank God I was alone when I read what really happened to Billy in Vietnam, especially the circumstances under which his memory is activated.I felt like Macbeth -- "I have supped full of horrors" -- but oh man, what a scene.It was totally earned; every part of this novel makes a contribution, nothing is expendable, everything supports the four-movement structure, and I think I can prove it.I was absolutely shattered, broken to pieces and put together again in a way that makes me understand and accept life better.Any other criticism feels like a picayune quibble compared to the staggering success of weaving together all these themes on an emotional level hardly ever to be experienced.A great, great achievement.
I teach literature and hold it sacred that characters in fiction should never be treated as if they were real people.Still, these characters have so much "realness" it will always make me ache that Elsa, Lurleen, the children, and everyone who cared about Billy will never be able to know what a true hero he was in Vietnam, how completely he really was his father's son, how he achieved in the moral sphere the breakthrough he was once afraid to make in the artistic realm.
I read this novel while on retreat at a Cistercian monastery deep in the Vienna Woods.The concentration I was able to give it heightened the whole experience, as did moments during my week there.The day I finished Yunque's novel, I went to the evening service of Compline.It's all about the music, too -- at the end of Compline, the monks put out all the lights except for one candle and sing that magnificent hymn of pain and comfort crying out in the dark, the "Salve Regina," voices soaring in heartbreaking melisma.The snow was falling, the wind was going through the pine trees, and the music had me weeping like a baby again.I hope nobody saw me.
I've always known that pain is part of the deal and that joy means nothing except for the pain.Yet this book brought alive that truth as I have never felt it before.Here's what I'm risking now -- I've read novels before that blew me away, only to wonder on a second reading what I thought I saw.Maybe someday I'll be of a totally different opinion.But here and now, I will give Yunque and this book a shoutout like I've never given before.A great work!Do not miss this one, but be brave!

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Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography [Hardcover] Review

What is Ragtime? David A. Jasen gives the definitive musical definition as well as the history of Ragtime from it's beginning to the present day in his latest book "Ragtime An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography" published by Routledge. It's 550 pages, hardcover, 8 ½" X 11".

Jasen describes in detail the categories of Ragtime. From the Early Folk Rags, The Joplin Tradition or Classic Ragtime, Popular Ragtime, Advanced Ragtime, Novelty Ragtime, Stride Ragtime, and Jelly Roll Morton's Ragtime. Ragtime's original heyday as well as its Revivals are covered up to the present day.

The book is divided into 4 primary sections. The first section contains the Encyclopedia entries. You can look up Composer, Performer, and Publisher Profiles, Ragtime Compositions with musical descriptions and other interesting related facts. There are over 100 images of rare photos and artifacts from the Ragtime era. Including a signed contract between Scott Joplin and his publisher John Stark for his landmark composition "The Maple Leaf Rag". There are images of Sheet Music, Record and Piano Roll Labels, Period Advertising, Composers, Performers, and Places of historical interest.

As a serious collector of Ragtime Sheet Music, Piano Rolls and Records, I really appreciate the next three sections of the book. The perennial question for the collector is "What's out there to collect?"For the performer it might be "What tune can I perform that nobody else has done or may even know about?" Stamp collectors have their Scott's Catalog to see what's possible to collect. We Ragtimers have a Discography, Ragtime Piano Rollography, and Sheetography, thanks to Professor Jasen, the first to have published them. I check off the items I own, and then I can see the items I need.

Appendix 1Rags On Record: A Discography

"The intention of this discography is to identify all commercially released discs of 78s, 45s, and LPs throughout the world since the beginning of Ragtime recording in 1897." The discography lists the Compositions alphabetically with the Composer, followed by Performers, Record Speeds, Record Companies and Number, and Year of release.

Appendix 2Ragtime Piano Rollography

There are Ragtime Compositions that were never published in sheet music form, or recorded on disc, as you will note from the entries in the encyclopedia. However, some compositions do turn up on Piano Roll. Some of the performances are truly extraordinary. The Rollography lists the Compositions with Composers alphabetically, then the Roll Companies and Number. If the roll is an early 65-note type it's indicated. The performer is listed if the roll is hand played.

Appendix 3Published Rags In America

There's an alphabetical list of over 2000 Published Instrumental Ragtime compositions. It lists the Composition followed by the Composer, Date, Publisher, City and State of Publication.

David A Jasen is internationally recognized as a leading authority and collector of American Popular Music. He's authored many well-received reference books on Ragtime, Early Jazz and Popular Music. He produced many sheet music folios and Records. As a Composer and Performer, The Professor captures the true essence of Ragtime. He is Professor of Media Arts at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, where he has been teaching for the past 35 years.

Joel@sheetmusiccenter.com
www.sheetmusiccenter.com

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Product Description:

Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography is the definitive reference work for this important popular form of music that flourished from the 1890s through the 1920s, and was one of the key predecessors of jazz. It collects for the first time entries on all the important composers and performers, and descriptions of their works; a complete listing of all known published ragtime compositions, even those self-published and known only in single copies; and a complete discography from the cylinder era to today. It also represents the culmination of a lifetime's research for its author, considered to be the foremost scholar of ragtime and early 20^th century popular music.Rare photographs accompany most entries, taken from the original sheets, newspapers, and other archival sources. Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography will be a standard reference for anyone interested in the history of jazz.

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Cafe Society: The Wrong Place for the Right People (Music in American Life) [Hardcover] Review

The following is a review I have submitted to Jazz & Blues Report which hopefully will appear in its september issue.

I remember going to The Cookery when I was living in New York between 1978 and 1983 and having the privilege of seeing Alberta Hunter, Helen Humes and others perform there. What an experience and to hear its proprietor, one Barney Josephson introduce the performers before getting to listen to some American originals. I also remember reading about Cafe Society, legendary night clubs that Josephson operated from the late 1930s until they closed as a result because of Red Scare witch-hunt of the post-war World War II era. I knew that Cafe Society was where Big Joe Turner and the Boogie Woogie Trio played after their success at the legendary Spirituals to Swing Concert and that Billie Holiday had started singing "Strange Fruit" there. But there is much more to the club's (and Josephson's) story than that. While Barney Josephson died in 1988, his widow, Terry Trilling-Josephson had taped his recollections as well as written down some remembrances when tape was not available. As she notes in her preface, she then conducted interviews with some of those who had played important roles in Barney's life or performed at his clubs. She supplemented her interviews when necessary (she was unable to interview Lena Horne for example) with existing printed materials such as published interviews and contemporary press coverage of both Cafe Society and the Cookery. The result is "Cafe Society: The Wrong Place For The Right People," part of the University of Illinois Press' "Music in American Life" series.

Cafe Society pioneered as a night club admitting persons of all ethnic and racial backgrounds without preference to any particular group based on class or status, as opposed to the segregation that marked almost all other night clubs. It also presented a diverse group of performers in a dignified fashion. Blacks for example were not presented in a stereotypical role such as a Jungle Band or in mythical idyllic southern pastoral setting shows that bands played in while performing in shows at clubs like Cotton Club. This reflected Josephson's egalitarian values when he grew up. He was the youngest of six children born to the widow who had emigrated from Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire). His mother worked as a seamstress to support her family in Trenton, New Jersey. He graduated high school but did not go to college, rather working in the show store of one of his brothers who was a Hoover republican.Another brother went to law school and became a communist although not a Communist Party member. Through his brother he was receptive to socialist ideas, especially those relating to the equality of people, and became friends with the one black student at his school. He developed a love of literature, theater and the arts as a child and continued while helping his brother's shoe business. Somehow, he ended up opening Cafe Society in Greenwich Village with his friend John Hammond suggesting most of the musical talent such as the Boogie Woogie Trio, Billie Holiday and others while he himself decided on some of the other talent including the comedian, Jack Gilford, who was the initial emcee at the venue in addition to providing a comedy routine.

Opening between Christmas and New Year with the United States not out of the Depression was not the expected recipe for success, a point that Gilford would remind Josephson regularly. He would send Josephson a letter every year timed to arrive at the anniversary of Cafe Society's opening in December 28. The text of one letter is given in the memoir:

"Dear Barney

I keep telling you if you open a nightclub in New York City three days before New Year's Eve you will fail. I warn you three fat piano players will not attract business. Also a female black singer with a gardenia in her hair, a blues shouter singing about a sheik in any key, and a curly haired white comedian trying to convince audiences he looks and acts like a golf ball, will get you run out of town on a rail. Take my advice and go back to Trenton and open a shoe store that sells health shoes.

Yours, Jack. December 28, 1977."

It was not simply having someone like Hammond to suggest talent. Josephson had been to enough night clubs to know what he did not want. He did not want Blacks being in servant rolls. As far as the decor, he has a number of artists, including cartoonists for the New Yorker, do a mural for the walls, most of which spoofed high society. And there was the talent. So many famous performers were there. Teddy Wilson led a band, the great Mary Lou Williams performed there while the appearances by Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, Mildred Bailey, the Golden gate Quartet, and Zero Mostel (and how Sam Mostel got to be called Zero is told here) were crucial in their careers. Sometimes someone would audition and he trusted his instinct in hiring them and then making suggestions as to repertoire, often buying outfits for them. He suggested "Strange Fruit" to Billie Holiday, which led to one of her signature numbers as well as recounts how the song got to be recorded.. After all, what could follow that. Even later at the Cookery when he hired Susan McCorkle who was singing mostly unknown songs, he had here concentrate on better known songs and she became recognized as a song interpreter). Josephson also hired performers for extended stays, months, even years at a time. He also provided management services for some. He was a man of his word and even when he had a management contract, he did not take any money from his performers. for example he managed Hazel Scott early in her career including handling her money which enabled her to have quite some assets which she married Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and then hosted the reception for at Cafe Society.

Cafe Society with its mix of entertainment was quite successful even though its booking policy defied what was viewed as common sense at the time. a second venue opened, Cafe Society Uptown. His clubs were trailblazing in how they presented music and as his memoir makes clear, what he did in booking unknown artists and how he had an open, diverse audience broke many rules on how night clubs operated. Its fascinating to hear his account of the two venues, and the fascinating stories of the performers.

What caused Cafe Society to shut its doors was the Post-World War 11 Red Sacre. His brother Leon had been arrested in the mid-1930s in Denmark as an alleged participant in a plan to assassinate Hitler. He was exonerated but when he returned to the United States his passport was taken and even though a Communist, the Communist Party USA wanted nothing to do with him. He still worked as a lawyer for progressive courses but after World War II the House Committee of Unamerican Activities, subpoenaed him to testify which he refused, citing the 1st Amendment. He was eventually convicted which was affirmed by the 2nd Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals (Justice Tom Clark dissenting) and the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. He was sentenced to a year in prison. After his brother is to jail, smears about Josephson and Cafe Society started, press coverage almost completely ceased and various licensing and regulatory agencies started harassing him and the clientele. It was only a matter of time until he was forced to close first Cafe Society Uptown and then the original venue.

He gives his own overview of the Red Scare, which saw many writers, performers and artists blacklisted while others betrayed their friends. Hazel Scott, then married to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, testified that she only performed at certain benefits because Josephson directed her to. Josephson flat out contradicts this, stating he always left it to the performer. whether to perform for a cause. He was often asked him years later why he did not hire her for the Cookery, and here he cites her `false' testimony. It was not the innuendo of being a communist or a fellow traveler. There was an undercurrent of racism. He was accused of being a red, but even worse encouraging race mixing. How dare he treat Blacks as good as Whites. It is telling that he was harassed at a time when mob-owned clubs were left alone.

After Cafe Society closed, Josephson opened an eatery called The Cookery around 1955 which expanded to three locations. However, by 1972 only one remained open, the largest one in Greenwich Village. He started presenting music there by happenstance. One day pianist Mary Lou Williams came by and mentioned to Barney how hard it was to find a place to work. She had tried to get booked at the Village Gate and was turned down. Somehow she convinced Barney to hire her and a bassist. While the Cookery lacked a cabaret license, he was still able to present a drummer-less entertainment without one. What started as an experiment, led to another decade of him presenting some of the musicians and singers who had played Cafe Society like Helen Humes, Big Joe Turner, Eddie Heywood as well as others of a similar vein like Ruth Brown and the marvelous jazz singer Susan McCorkle. Of course, there was one singer most identified with The Cookery, and that was Alberta Hunter. Josephson recounts how he came to meet and have her perform, and have a relationship that would lead to her touring around the world as well as visiting the White House and her perform at the Kennedy Center Honors for an old friend, Marian Anderson. As good as the music Josephson continued to present, she became so identified with the Cookery, that when she passed away, a void could not be filled. This and some personal issues led to the closing of that establishment

Barney Josephson was a remarkable man. Being true to his values and his instincts, he operated night clubs that...Read more›

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