Mannerisms: The Five Phases of Manfred Mann [Paperback] Review

I bought this with excitement - but the content is less than expected. I applaud the guy who wrote it - someone finally wrote a book on Mann! But his material lacks depth, staying to a general history of the band and discography without too many details or personal histories. The text is spread painfully thin on many pages (as a graphic designer, I winced at how bad the layout is). I recommend this book for anyone yearning for info on Mann and the MMEB. But if you want to know the details - for example, where did the lyrics of 'Fat Nelly' come from or what inspired them? When and where did the band tour? Any tour anecdotes? Any personal reflections by Mann (or his present or former bandmates) on his career other than general platitudes?

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Product Description:
An exclusive and fully authorized biography of MANFREDMANN written by long-time Manfred Mann fan GREG RUSSO, the 275-page"Mannerisms: The Five Phases Of Manfred Mann" guides fans on a threedecade journey through the career of one of rock's most respected songinterpreters.As with The Yardbirds, Greg has also compiled andwritten liner notes for numerous Manfred Mann CD releases.
For the first time, "Mannerisms" contains:
Numerous revealing interviews with Manfred and his band members, past and presentA personal note from Manfred to his fansManfred's full musical historySong-by-song analysesComplete discography of UK, US and other important foreign releasesOver 300 photos, including every original UK and US release

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Secrets from the Masters [Paperback] Review

This 1992 book is a collection of interviews with famous guitarists - primarily rock and jazz guitarists from the 60s, 70s and 80s. There are some big names missing, but most are there. There are some interesting insights and anecdotes, and some music history. Sometimes I wished the interviews would get more a little more technical - rather than re-hashing the stars band-hopping history. I would like to know more specifics about how these top players view the neck, how they think and how they learnt, for example. That said, the book does contains a lot of insights and variety. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Steve Morse and Howard Roberts -- guitarists that I was not previously familiar with. Les Paul is incredible. Actually - there are just too many good bits to itemize them here. A good read, and each chapter stands alone. I find that I re-read parts of this from time to time. Worth buying, for a classic rock/jazz (and possibly blues) oriented guitarist.

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Product Description:
Interviews with 50 of the worldÕs greatest guitarists spanning the past 25 years and collected into one information-packed volume. Based on articles originally published in Guitar Player, Secrets From The Masters features the most influential guitarists of our time - from legends such as Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and B.B. King to Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton, and all genres in-between. This book celebrates the guitarists who have forever altered the way we play and think about the guitar. Within these interviews you will find poetry and prophesy, the outrageous and the sublime, plus rare photos, challenging music, groovy gear, groundbreaking techniques and other glimpses into greatness. 8-1/2 inch. x 11 inch..

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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.

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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.

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Celtic Crossroads [Paperback] Review

This book is a meaty little tome, 392 pages of entertaining text with a small, b/w picture section in the middle. I got my copy two days ago andhave found it hard to put down since.Despite his PhD in poetry and myth,Hinton doesn't go for academic jargon at all. The writing is brisk anddown-to-earth. Hinton is confident not only in his literary knowledge butalso in his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, which enables him toput Van in interesting contexts at times.
Still, I've noticed a fewfactual errors and odd omissions (he doesn't know that the Bottom Line '78MC is Peter Wolf), and the writing sometimes seems rushed, especially thelast few chapters. Also, there are lapses in tone (Hinton will often jumpout of his authorial character to address the reader with a chummyquestion) and paragraphs that jump from one topic to anotherdisconcertingly.
Hinton seems to have about five main goals.
To arguethat Van Morrison is indeed a very fine poet, albeit one who's poetryrelies on its musical context. Hinton takes issue with the Johnny Rogan andJohn Collis books on this subject.To assert that VM's artistry is at itsbest during live performances. To demonstrate this, Hinton goes into greatdetail comparing the oft-booted Fillmore West 1970 show to MOONDANCE,arguing that the live versions of the MOONDANCE songs are more vital andinteresting than the studio versions. (I can't agree in this particularinstance - and *I* personally tend to feel that while the argument might betrue with Van's '90s work, the studio was where Van tended to be mostcomfortable and vital in the '70s and early '80s.)To make a strong casefor albums that critics often denigrate, such as TUPELO HONEY and COMMONONE, although he isn't afraid to come down hard on some titles (HIS BANDAND THE STREET CHOIR, A PERIOD OF TRANSITION). And he comes right out andsays that one of his primary motivations was to champion VEEDON FLEECE, analbum that he feels deserves a stronger status than that of "cultfavorite."To write a book that functions as a clearing-house of VMinformation. In this, he succeeds fairly well. There is very little Vanknowledge, lore, and minutiae that is absent. Hinton has done an amazingamount of secondary research and incorporated it generously into the book.He has even immersed himself in back issues of THE VAN MORRISON NEWSLETTERand WAVELENGTH as well as many underground tapes and boots (from thearchives of Geoff Wall), although I wish he'd taken more time to let allthe info. digest before spewing it out in the book, sometimes rathercluelessly. Overall, Hinton's use of secondary research is one of thebook's strengths. Unfortunately, there seems to be little *primary*research; most of his interview material seems gathered from the work ofhis predecessors: Ritchie Yorke, Johnny Rogan, Steve Turner, and even JohnCollis.To avoid the "wounded-journalist" bitterness thatovertook the Rogan and Collis books. Hinton doesn't stint on reporting manyinstances of VM's rude, SOB behavior, and he doesn't try to defend it, buthe also avoids moralizing about it or allowing it to (dis)color his view ofthe music.I'm sure Hinton has several other agendas in writing this book,but these are the five that stand out for me. I do recommend the book.Although the other books do more face-to- face research, and although theTurner book is the most cogent and revelatory regarding Van's spiritualconcerns, this big clearing-house project may be the most purelyentertaining volume yet written on the subject.

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Product Description:
Containing a host of new stories and personal accounts and interviews with those who know him, this new edition fully updates Van's tours, albums, top 40 single and musical collaborations.

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Soul Sacrifice: The Santana Story [Paperback] Review

First, I am a professional guitarist of 25 years who believes Carlos Santana has only four guitar peers:Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Benson, and John McLaughlin.So this is a biased review.And now the review:
It's about time a book attempts to document the history and significance of this important musician and band.Mr. Leng, a first-time author, has done a fine job. Here are six challenges that Mr. Leng met with impressive success:
(1) Explaining how a very specific aspect of Mexican music - playing melodies expressively - influenced Carlos's style.
(2) Explaining how each individual member influenced the band's sound.
(3) Explaining the difficulties of keeping everyone - from pop fans to jazz fans to record companies to managers to musicians - happy.
(4) Explaining Carlos's conscious recording of "corny" commercial music to finance the recording of his more adventuresome music.
(5) Explaining how Carlos is trapped (for better and for worse) in the "Santana Band."
(6) Explaining the true weight / quality / genius / level / importance / influence of Carlos and the band.
(7) Explaining the greatness (and that's an understatement) of the percussionists which have played in the band, particularly Armando Peraza.
(8) Documenting the long list of non-Santana band artists with whom Carlos has recorded.
Sooner or later a professional music historian will publish a more comprehensive book - say 1,000 pages.This book will be aimed at more serious students of music history.
The book will expand as follows:
(a) It will discuss Carlos's equipment.Carlos has influenced electric guitar and amplifier design more than any other modern guitarist except Jimi Hendrix. (b) It will explain in musical terms why Carlos's playing has so much "feeling."Put simply, Carlos uses a large variety of subtle nuances to make every note count.Like Pavarotti and Isaac Stern.
(c) It will contain hundreds of photos.
I wish I could be the author of this great book.I would title it "Espiritu - Carlos Santana."

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Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta [Paperback] Review

Palmer's love of the blues shines through in this exceptional book. He's not interested in showing off his knowledge of the form (although that knowledge is exceptional); he's interested in illuminating for the readerthe roots of a great indigenous art form and how that form developed in the20th century. In that effort, he succeeds masterfully.
A fine earlysection explores how the music that we call the blues was seeded in N.America by African music. That chapter is a mini-history lesson in itself;Palmer shows how the music of slaves from W. Africa was viewed assubversive and dangerous by whites in the new land.
The remainder of thebook is chock full of portraits of the heroes of early blues in theMississippi Delta, from Charley Patton to Son House to Robert Johnson toLittle Walter to Muddy Waters and beyond. Palmer shows how these mendeveloped a music that grew directly out of the soil of the Delta, makingdo with the instruments they had and often living itinerant lives, movingfrom tiny town to tiny town to play dances and juke joints to keep themusic alive.
The book also describes the historic migration ofAfrican-Americans from the Deep South to the industrial cities of theNorth, most importantly, of course, Chicago, where the musicianstransformed the blues again, creating the electrified sounds that exertedsuch a powerful influence on white rock musicians from London to Liverpoolto La Jolla, California.
Palmer has given us a great work with "DeepBlues," one that should be read by students of music and socialhistory alike. It deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of anyserious lover of music.

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Dead Man Blues: Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West [Paperback] Review

Jelly Roll Morton, the self proclaimed "inventor of Jazz," remains one of the most complex figures in American music.Largely forgotten by the time of his death, Morton had pioneered the early New Orleans style jazz on record and seemed to be on the comeback trail and to be experimenting with the dominant swing style of the 1930s.Pastras provides an insight into Morton by examining his years on the West Coast(roughly the late teens to early twenties and then again in the early 1940s).The first period was among Morton's most satisfying both musically and personally, and the second seems to indicate an attempt at a comeback.Pastras sheds light on Morton's relationships with his godmother and his long time companaion Anita Gonzales and in the process examines the roles played by voodoo and "passing for white" among the Creole community.While the contributions of this book are many, one of the main thrusts is the often conflicting and, at times untrustworthy, nature of oral history as evidenced by Alan Lomax's previous oral history biography of Morton.In the end Lomax's book is more folklore than history.However this does not negate Lomax's contribution, but rather illuminates the pitfalls of not balancing oral history with other evidence if such evidence exists.It is Morton as he wished to present himself to the world. Pastras' text is not only interesting but instructive to those dealing with oral history, but the average reader may want to start with Lomax's book and then move to Pastras' more compelling investigation.

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