Stardust Melodies [Hardcover] Review

Did you know that Evelyn Walsh McLean, owner of the Hope Diamond and a backer of the production of 'Show Boat', was so aghast when its creators wanted to take 'Ol' Man River' out of the show during out-of-town tryouts that she bet them the Diamond that it would be the hit of the show? She didn't have to give up her gem, and this gem of a song was saved. Did you know that Stan Freberg recorded his own politically correct version of the song, retitling it 'Elderly Man River'? Or did you know that Herman Hupfeld, the writer of both the words and music for 'As Time Goes By' had only one other hit in his long career, and that was 'When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba'?
This book is not just a collection of trivia about twelve popular American songs, but it is filled with such oddball facts as these. Will Friedwald starts each chapter with the story of how the song came to be writen, gives a neat analysis of the technical details of the song, and then describes the major recorded versions of each song. This is indeed a treasure trove of information about these songs, and if nothing else, reminds us of the long and rich history of American popular song.
The twelve songs, each with its own chapter, are, in chronological order, 'Star Dust', 'The St. Louis Blues', 'Mack the Knife', 'Ol' Man River', 'Body and Soul', 'I Got Rhythm', 'As Time Goes By', 'Night and Day', 'Stormy Weather', 'Summertime', 'My Funny Valentine', and 'Lush Life.'

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Stevie Wonder - A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums (Book) [Paperback] Review

Stevie Wonder deserves to be treated as he is here, an important classic composer.His music from the 1970s will be listened to longer than most of the music that has been produced during our life times.Ignore the author's downplaying of Secret Life of Plants and even Songs in the Key of Life.I don't know what he was thinking there, especially because his insight on Where I'm Coming From through Innervisions is usually right on.I disagree with him, however, when he seems to imply that Stevie would not have made great albums without the production of Margouleff and Cecil.With those songs and his talent, he would have made great albums no matter what.The synthesizers just wouldn't have sounded as great.

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Stevie Wonder, winner of 19 Grammy Awards and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of soul and rhythm and blues, but also popular music in general. Author Steve Lodder tells Wonder's story from a fresh musical perspective, concentrating on his most productive period, 1971-1981. After an in-depth look at Wonder's background and his early history with Motown, Lodder explores in detail the musical characteristics and influences found on the classic albums from the '70s: Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life. Taking full advantage of the new opportunities afforded by synthesizer technology and multitracking, and inspired by the lyrical depth of Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone, Wonder created a series of albums as popular as they are acclaimed. The book features 80 color and B&W photos - many never before published.

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Giant Steps: The Story of Bebop (Scene) [Paperback] Review

If you have trouble differentiating among Chocolate Williams, Rubberlegs Williams and Horsecollar Williams, here's a volume to straighten you out.In profiling eleven musical thinkers who've helped to shape today's music, Kenny Mathieson enlivens his text with numerous references to other peripheral characters hovering around the scene during the 40s and 50s - for example, "...an unshakably persistent black saxophonist from Newark known as The Demon, whom Dizzy dubbed `the first freedom player - freedom from harmony, freedom from rhythm, freedom from anything.'"
Since I've always been intrigued to learn exactly where this music took shape, I was pleased to find references to a long-gone New York club called Snookie's (in which Dizzy's horn was famously bent during a birthday celebration), to the old McKinley Theater in the Bronx (where Bird sat in with the Gillespie big band) and to The Finale, a short-lived spot in LA's Little Tokyo district that Ross Russell termed "a West Coast Minton's".Mathieson even identifies the location of that Harlem chili parlor where Bird had his celebrated epiphany.
Hey, did you know that James P. Johnson lived in Manhattan's San Juan Hill near the home where Monk grew up?That Blue Note first recorded Monk at Ike Quebec's urging?That one of Bud Powell's earliest piano heroes was Billy Kyle?That Max Roach served as house drummer at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach for six months during the early 50s?That Fats Navarro was Charlie Shavers' third cousin?Or that Chano Pozo's cousin was Chino Pozo?Me, either.
Yet despite these fascinating digressions, Mathieson's principal focus remains the recorded output on the eleven players he's elected to spotlight:Gillespie, Parker, Navarro, Powell, Roach, Monk, Mingus, Rollins, Davis, Herbie Nichols and Coltrane.He's chosen this order deliberately - and does manage to provide substantial amounts of information on other key players throughout (for example, on Clifford Brown in the chapter on Roach and on Tadd Dameron in the section on Navarro).
As Mathieson notes, no one much under seventy is likely to have heard Parker during his peak years - and no one much under fifty will have experienced Coltrane live.Consequently, the recordings left by these prime movers is the closest most of us can ever get to them.His stress, therefore, is on those recordings, with enlightening reference to the circumstances surrounding them.
Mathieson says that the last roughly comparable venture he's aware of was the Jazz Masters series originally published by Macmillan in the mid-60s.His aim, he adds, was to make this volume accessible to readers with no technical knowledge of music.Still, I doubt that Giant Steps would serve as a good introduction to jazz for someone who hasn't already listened carefully to lots of it.
Salted throughout are aptly chosen quotes from other jazz writers.But I found many of the author's own observations on these players, their recordings and their legacies especially thought-provoking.
For example:"As a musical process, bebop is a curious mixture of macho display and infinitely subtle musicality, of rote playing (all players have their melodic cliches, their little phrases which will always work when run over a particular given sequence of chord changes) and inspirational improvisation."
And elsewhere:"The environment which forged bebop was a tough one, but it meant that the music evolved as a meritocracy rather than a closed shop.That element of competitive muscle-flexing probably played its part in determining both the strengths and weaknesses of the emerging form, with its emphasis on virtuoso soloing, advanced harmonic understanding and crackling tempos, and its underlying structural paucity."
Noting that unlike Miles or Mingus, whose compositions tended to evolve over the years, Mathieson observes that Monk kept the form of his tunes pretty much intact.Then he quotes Charlie Rouse stressing that Monk "...wanted you to play the melody just the way he created it, but with the chords, he wanted you to know them, but he didn't want to hear you just play them in that way, he wanted to hear you experiment with them, not be confined by them."
Later in his chapter on Thelonious, the author observes,"As many musicians have discovered to their cost, the kind of harmonic fudging which can carry a player through a bop structure without a precise knowledge of the underlying harmonies does not work with Monk's music, where it is not only essential to know the melody and the harmony intimately but also comprehend fully the way in which they relate to each other and to the essential rhythmic scheme which fits them."
As I read, I jotted down references to numerous recordings I've never heard but would like to (for example, a late-40s aircheck that included Navarro, Parker and Lennie Tristano, four 1949 Navarro sides pairing him with Sonny Stitt - who was, Mathieson reports, Miles' original first choice on alto for his "Birth of the Cool" nonet! - and a 1963 Powell session for Reprise actually supervised by Ellington) and to others that no one will likely ever get a chance to hear (e.g. an abortive 1953 studio date for Norman Granz that had Parker playing Gil Evans arrangements; Dizzy making a few gigs with the Kenton band).
Mathieson envisions Giant Steps as the first in a series of similar studies.The next, he says, will be entitled Cookin':Hard Bop and Soul Jazz and focus on such figures as Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Booker Ervin, Elmo Hope, Tina Brooks and Gigi Gryce.
Except for a puzzling reference to "Senator Adam Powell" and an assertion that Miles' "Budo" is a contrafact of Bud Powell's "Hallucinations" (wait, aren't they the same tune, as the author himself indicates elsewhere?), I have no quibbles concerning factual statements, artistic judgment or style.
I hope that the next edition of Giant Steps boasts a far more attractive cover plus an index (crucial for those who'll use this book as a reference).And since readers will doubtless want to know something about Kenny Mathieson himself, how about a bio page?

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Product Description:
Examining the most important figures in the creation of modern jazz, this book details the emergence of bebop through the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, and Thelonious Monk. It then delves into the developments of jazz composition through the likes of Miles Davis.

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Blues for Dummies [Paperback] Review

Includes a very good music CD (34 min. 27 sec.) (All music, no commentary). CONTENTS: I'm your hoochie coochie man / Muddy Waters -- Juke / Little Walter -- Sweet little angel (live version) / B.B. King -- Killingfloor / Howlin' Wolf -- First time I met the blues / Buddy Guy -- Frosty /Albert Collins -- I pity the fool / Boddy Bland -- Okie dokie stomp /Clarence `Gatemouth' Brown -- Rooster Blues / Lightnin' Slim -- Walkin' theboogie (alternate take) / John Lee Hooker -- I'm wild about you baby /Lightnin' Hopkins -- Let the good times roll / Louis Jordan & hisTympany Five.

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Get your mojo working as you take a musical trip from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago's gritty South Side and points beyond with Blues For Dummies, an insightful, toe-tappin', music lovers' guide to the blues. Popular blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks serves as your tour guide through the life and times of the blues, from the acoustic mystique of Robert Johnson and Son House to the urban blues men and women of today: John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Etta James, Koko Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and, of course, Brooks himself.
Blues For Dummies travels from sad to glad, with stops along the way at heartache and despair, hope and joy, on the road to great music. Get hip to the different styles and eras of the blues; discover what makes the blues so blue; find out "Who's Who" among four generations of blues musicians; and make tracks to the best blues clubs on the planet with this great, easygoing reference. Plus, take a listen to some of the greatest blues recordings of all time (from Muddy Waters and Little Walter to Bobby "Blue" Bland, Buddy Guy, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown) on the exclusive audio CD that comes with Blues For Dummies.

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What to Listen For in Music [Paperback] Review

THIS IS A BOOK FOR PEOPLE AT ALL LEVELS - LAYMAN, COMPOSER, OR ADVANCED MUSIC LOVER."Why should one have to learn or need guidance on how to listen to what one is hearing?" is the question that William Schuman asks in his Preface."The answer is simple.Listening to music is a skill that is acquired through experience and learning.Knowledge enhances enjoyment."
What makes What to Listen for in Music so invaluable is that it is the ONLY book on musical appreciation written by a GREAT COMPOSER."This is a composer's book," Aaron Copland states."Given the chance, every composer would like to know two very important things about anyone who takes himself seriously as a music lover...1. Are you hearing everything that is going on? [and] 2. Are you really being sensitive to it?"
The only shortcoming of this book is that it should be taken as part of a class to make sure that one gets everything out of it.It would be great if it came with a CD of all the examples to which Copland makes reference.However, each chapter does end with a list of "recommended listening."To make specific points, Copland does include sheet music (but I didn't read this book sitting next to my piano).However, these problems are minimal, considering we live in an age of the cheap CDs and music downloads.
Copland covers EVERY aspect of music, starting with "how we listen," - on the sensuous plane, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane.He then goes on to explain to us the Four Elements of Music - Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, and Tone Color.We find out about all the musical instruments, their history and classifications.We find out about all the genres in music - Sectional Form, Variation Form, Fugal Form, Sonata Form, Free Form.Did you know that Sonata Form includes symphonies as well?And that symphonies grew out of operatic overtures?
This is a book that bears re-reading.A lot of technical jargon gets bandied about and, although Copland does his best to explain it all, it still gets a tad confusing.I advise reading this book, listening to a LOT of music, and then reading it again.I know my own knowledge and appreciation of music has grown from reading it.Now I DO have an idea of the nuances I should be listening for in a Mozart piano concerto.

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Define "Normal" [Paperback] Review

Antonia, a straight-A student, a teacher-pleaser, and a "priss," is assigned Jasmine, a punker, a "in-your-face" non-conformist, for peer counseling in their middle school.Both are certain that the counseling is a waste of their time.But as Antonia's home life disintegrates, she finds she looks forward to meeting with Jazz.And Jazz likes talking with Antonia about her family life as well.The two slowly form a bond.

This is much more than a book about two girls in middle school.It's about the effects that both "good" and "bad" parents have on their children, it's about deciding what is, and isn't, normal, and it's about accepting the non-conformists in our midst.

This is an excellent book for all ages (even though it is about 8th graders, high schoolers can get something from it).Parents, too, should read it - it might help them understand what - and more importantly why - their children are revolting.

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Afro-Cuban Keyboard Grooves (Afro-Cuban Grooves) [Paperback] Review

I purchased thiscollection of Afro Cuban grooves because I visited Cuba, loved the sound of the music , wanted to play it but didn't understand the form. I absolutely love the book. The explanations are clear, and the Cd makes it so easy.Now, as a composer, I am inserting Cuban grooves in my music....great!

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Product Description:
This book will help any musician unlock the secrets of the Afro-Cuban rhythmic feel. By clearly demonstrating the underlying pattern called the Clave and the comping patterns called Tumbaos which are played over the Clave, every keyboard player can learn these fundamental Latin rhythms. (Matching bass book (EL9707CD) also available.) Includes accompanying CD.

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