Art of the Shuffle (Guitar Educational) [Paperback] Review

The Art of Shuffle by Dave Rubins is the best book on the subject I have ever come across and is a sheer delight for teachers and students alike.It realistically defines an area of study and then simply and clearlydelivers all that the printed page can.Where the printed page falls off,the information is then supported by a CD that is divided into individualtracks foreasy-find student repetition.At first the student will usethese tracks to understand what is being rhythmically and musically saidthen, later on, it is just good jam tracks to enjoy and keep your memoryand chops together.I particularly appreciate the divided tracks (thisshould be an industry standard) so you can skip over the tuning section orany part you're not focussing on instead of having to listen to the wholeCD in order to get to a specific section.I give this effort eleven stars( a perfect ten...plus) and I sincerely hope this author will do it again;I'd love to have one on turnarounds and as many other aspect of the bluesas any series could ever hold. This author makes the art of shuffle simplyirresitable.

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Product Description:
Art Of The Shuffle This method book explores shuffle, boogie and swing rhythms for guitar. Includes tab and notation, and covers Delta, country, Chicago, Kansas City, Texas, New Orleans, West Coast, and bebop blues. Also includes audio for demonstration of each style and to jam along with.

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The Definitive Dixieland Collection (Definitive Collections) [Paperback] Review

This collection of one of the earliest forms of jazz provides some ancient tunes that nevertheless keep people's feet moving decades later.Many of the 73 tunes will be familiar to those who have spent even a second in New Orleans.Scattered throughout are also some venerable blues.Anyone looking for the written notes of some of the songs featured in Ken Burns' "Jazz" can find many here, including "Livery Stable Blues" and "Maple Leaf Rag."You won't be disappointed.
Songs included: After You've Gone Ain't Misbehavin' Alexander's Ragtime Band Angry Baby, Won't You Please Come Home Ballin' the Jack Basin Street Blues Beale Street Blues Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home Black Bottom Stomp Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me Bugle Call Rag The Chant Climax Rag Copenhagen Dallas Blues Darktown Shuffle Deep Henerson Dinah Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans Doctor Jazz Everybody Loves My Baby Farewell Blues Frog-I-More Rag A Good Man is Hard to Find Grandpa's Spells High Society Honeysuckle Rose I Ain't Got Nobody I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter I've Found a New Baby Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider) Indiana (Back Home Again in Indiana) The Jazz-Me Blues Kansas City Stomp King Porter Stomp Livery Stable Blues Mahogany Hall Stomp Mama's Gone, Goodbye Maple Leaf Rag Melancholy Milenberg Joys Mississippi Mud Muskrat Ramble My Honey's Lovin' Arms Original Dixieland One-Step Ory's Creole Trombone The Pearls Rosetta Royal Garden Blues San Shreveport Stomps Sidewalk Blues Sobbin' Blues Some of these Days St. Louis Blues Struttin' with some Barbecue Sugar Blues Sugar Foot Stomp The Tailgate Ramble 'Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do That's a Plenty There'll be some Changes Made Tin Roof Blues Tishomingo Blues Walkin' the Dog 'Way Down Yonder in New Orleans Weary Blues When the Saints Go Marching In Wild Man Blues Willie the Weeper Wolverine Blues

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Product Description:
Over 70 Dixieland classics, including: Ain't Misbehavin' * Alexander's Ragtime Band * Basin Street Blues * Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home? * Dinah * Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? * I Ain't Got Nobody * King Porter Stomp * Shreveport Stomp * When the Saints Go Marching In * and more.

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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.

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Who Is Artie Shaw...and why is he following me? [Paperback] Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, since it related to other books I read about Shaw, including the books he wrote. His was a unique & interesting life story, with the flavor of the WW2 days, and the book gave some answers to his military experiences during that era.I never could understand why such a talented musician found it necessary to end his career so early, and I remember being disappointed when I heard about it in the 50's. The first recording I bought as a teenager was "Summit Ridge Drive", and today I have most of his released recordongs which I still enjoy.

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The Big Band Almanac (Da Capo Paperback) [Paperback] Review

The low-key, down home alternative to George Simon's often-lauded "Big Bands," this has a charming, almost DIY, quality to it. The graphic layout is pretty funky, but there are more and better photographs than in Simon's book. Also the writing is less jaded and more breathless, conveying the author's continued enthusiasm for his favorite artists of year gone by.Most significantly, Walker puts all the artists on an equal footing, listing them from A to Z, whereas Simon makes a big distinction between "major" artists, and lesser or non-swing musicians, shunting them to separate sections in the back of the book. Both books are informative, but I have more of a soft spot in my heart for this one -- I'd recommend it first!

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Product Description:
With more than 500 pictures, and extensive entries on more than 350 orchestras, this complete coverage of black and white bands-from the almost-forgotten Basie, Ellington, Miller, Shaw, and Dorsey-will prompt memories and establish important facts about a glorious era of jazz and popular music. Forewords by Les Brown and Harry James and an index with more than 6,000 names bracket a book that should be part of any music library.

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