Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac [Hardcover] Review

Dave Amram passionately evokes in his newest book the rhythms and poetic vibes of his life all the while casting to the four winds the much misaligned "beatnik myth" that plagued Jack Kerouac's life and stigmatized his art.Through Amram's sound recollections, Kerouac's legacy as an artist resounds with the exclusive atmosphere that is also conducive, even to this day, to the heart and soul of Amram's classical compositions and world-wide performances.It is a testament written from a contemporary of Kerouac's that celebrates the efforts of those fascinating artists of the post-WWII years consisting of Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank, Philip Lamantia and Dody Muller (as well as a host of others).We are there at the first jazz/poetry reading in NYC in 1956, the filming of Pull My Daisy in 1959, the last years of Jack Kerouac's life in the late 1960s until the posthumous aftermath that gradually began to realize the literary merit of Kerouac's art that today firmly places him within the canon of American Literature along side Hemingway, Poe, Melville and Twain.Kerouac is not so much eulogized in this memoir as he ispainted humanly as the soulful cat he was celebrating life the best way he knew how, in his books.Despite telling Amram in July 1968 that "fame is a drag to anybody who wants new work done", Kerouac intuitively sensed the longevity of his life's work would outlast his own years dogged by the fame he no longer wanted.The same can be said for David Amram whose own art is vital to the understanding and appreciation of post-WWII American culture in symphonic, jazz, global and folk music.Pick up this book today for a breath of fresh Kerouacian air . . . .

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Billy Joel: The Biography [Hardcover] Review

First of all, a little context: There have been only 2 thorough bios of Billy, both in just the last couple of years. This one, and Hank Bordowitz's "Life of an Angry Young Man." As often stated, the bios are rare because Billy and his friends wouldn't talk. Now, thanks to Billy's alienation of those friends, they're talking. Of the two, Bordowitz has the better book, but it's worth comparing the two to get the full picture.

The story of Billy's grandparents is described in detail for the first real time in print (although Bego relies heavily on a PBS documentary of the Joels), and this was good to see. Unfortunately, Bego does a much less thorough job covering Billy's early years. Not only is it covered with less detail, but he seems to rely heavily on previously published interviews with Billy. And as Bego himself references, Billy's memory is not only bad but criminally selective. For example, Bego seems to take Billy at his word surrounding the events of Billy's attempted suicide circa 1969. Hank Bordowitz has a completely different description of the incident, but Bego doesn't even mention that there's a conflict between Billy's memory and the facts. Regrettably, there is also still very little about Billy's odd jobs between Attila and his first solo album. Granted, only Billy (who won't or can't recollect these events) could fully piece together that era, and maybe it's a small point, but it's a shame that time period of Billy's life still remains vague.

The rest of the book is basically a pastiche job of Billy's interviews and other publicly known material. But Bego has two things going for him: First of all, it's a very good compendium of the info that's out there; so even if you knew all this stuff, you finally have it in one read. Secondly, the newer, most revealing things come from interviews from former band members who actually go on record and recall specifics, which gives Bego, I think, a leg up over the Bordowitz book.

Some notable downsides: Bego makes some serious, hilarious goofs. One is to quote a National Enquirer story without any comment on how dubious the source material is (maybe he thought it wasn't necessary, I don't know). He also attributes a quote of Billy's to "The Nylon Curtain," even though the quote was clearly referencing "An Innocent Man"--with hilarious results. But the biggest weakness of the book are the song analyses: Not only are they weak and redundant--most fans don't need to be told what "Piano Man" is about--but he occasionally gets them wrong. In fact, at one point, he says "Temptation" is about Christie--and then 2 pages later quotes Billy as explaining that it's about Alexa!

Now for the technical writing complaints (some will say "nitpicking," but I gotta get 'em off my chest). I don't know how Bego got this book past an editor (presumably he had one??). He often wanders into odd segues and non sequiturs. And he's CONSTANTLY misusing the word "ironically." For example, he talks about how Billy couldn't graduate high school because of a missing English credit. Bego follows this up with, "Ironically, the principal who gave Billy his diploma was his former gym teacher." WHA--? On what planet is that "ironic"?! And, someone tell Bego to stop using a comma after "and" (like I just did). Sorry, but this had to be said.

And yes, Billy comes out looking bad after this. But maybe he should. The band members' stories seem to dovetail, and Bego is gentle in his soapboxing. It's not a hatchet job; it's not investigative journalism; but it is an interesting and revealing read.

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Product Description:
Billy Joel ranks among rock'n'roll's most talented artists. This biography is the first in-depth portrait of a man who is the son of German Jews who fled the Nazi regime, including his childhood in the Bronx, his professional struggles, and his six Grammys. Billy Joel is also widely known for his professional struggles - his substance abuse problems, his marriage to Christie Brinkley, and a string of car accidents. This is a portrait of a larger-than-life figure, featuring interviews with his bandmates and representatives from Columbia Records, an extensive examination of his diverse music tastes, and never-before-seen photographs.

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The History of Hollywood Musical Bio Pics [Paperback] Review

I love reviewing Harvey Sheldon books because he knows it all and tells it all. Again I ask, how does he do it? He covers so much ground and brings to life once again all those great movies they don't make anymore. I remember the Jolson Story, a movie that brought the great Jolson back into our lives again. He sang all the songs and Larry Parks did the acting, and boy did it work. It brought Columbia out of financial ruin and spawned a batch of very entertaining biographical films that were just wonderful film fair.From the bios of Jolson - to Gershwin-to Benny Goodman ( with Steve Allen as Benny) all the films are gathered here in one fat book and worth every cent. If you are interested in these films from The Great Ziegfeld to George M. Cohan's Yankee Doodle Dandy ( played by Jimmy Cagney) then buy this book and have a happy time reading it. Sheldon, you have done it again and again. A definite 5 stars. Richard Grudens

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Because of the cultural centrality of music, music history films constitute something of an informal chronicle of American popular culture from vaudeville, Broadway, Hollywood, Swing and Pop era. Considered in their historical context, these musical biographicals also disclose remarkable changes in cultural taste and temperament over the last 100 years.Not coincidentally, the first musical bio pic ever made The Jolson Story in 1946-created a white Jewish singer famous for his performances in black face. Likewise, several post World War II musical bio pics focused on white swing era band leaders and musicians (Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, The Fabulous Dorsey's and Red Nichols) There have been a slew of biopics in recent years, although its history dates back to 1900 with Cyrano de Bergerac. I guess the old adage that "truth is stranger than fiction" has been taken to heart by Hollywood. The music biopic has been around a while too. The first one I could find was 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy, about the life of Broadway impresario George M. Cohan, with James Cagney in the lead role. Since then the silver screen has been filled with films about musicians of all stripes: vaudeville entertainers (The Jolson Story), big band jazz leaders (The Glenn Miller Story Gene Krupa Story, Benny Goodman Story, Red Nichols), Frank Sinatra (Sinatra) Bobby Darin (Beyond the Sea), and to name a few. While these music biopics have the advantage of often colorful personalities and great soundtracks, many of them fall victim to the boring conventions of formula. Oftentimes it goes something like this: hardships early in life, usually stemming from poverty, abusive parents or tragic accident meteoric rise to fame fall from grace, usually brought on by drugs, alcohol, or divorce (sometimes all three - see Ray and Walk the Line) redemption and comeback or early, tragic death. Despite these filmic trappings, there have been some amazing biopics favorites

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Dvorák to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America's Music and Its African American Roots [Hardcover] Review

Maurice Peress is an inspiring guide to the main roads and byways of American music. A conductor of distinction and a writer, scholar and thinker of substance, he offers a combination of personal reminiscences and exciting historical discoveries. He is a leading expert on Dvorak and his time, and offers fresh new insights into the material. His original research on Dvorak's American years has been quite influential in the development of this field more broadly and thus he may be considered the "Dean" of American Dvorak scholarship.

This is a splendid book to read straight through, or to browse and enjoy.

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In From Dvorak to Duke Ellington the prominent symphony conductor Maurice Peress describes his career and experiences with American music and musicians. Peress conducted the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, worked with Duke Ellington on the Suite from Black Brown and Beige and Queenie Pie, and reconstructed and recreated historic American concerts at which Antheil's Ballet Mecanique, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige were first presented. Peress also revisits Dvorak's three year residency in 1892-95, the controversy that greeted his radical notion that composers turn to Negro music for inspiration, and the careers of his students who went on to teach Copeland, Gershwin, and Ellington.

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Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s [Hardcover] Review

Carol Oja's 'Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s' is an important book for those of us who want to know more about the historical development of 'modern' music in the US. Her main thesis is that it was during the latter part of the 1910s and the whole of the 1920s, and particularly in New York, that American composers developed a modernity that was wholly theirs, not something borrowed from Europe. Of course, there were predecessors--giants like Charles Ives--but they were still largely being ignored. It wasn't until a nucleus of composers, patrons, and fledgling arts organizations began coalescing in New York that the American voice finally emerged and was being heard. Beginning with visionaries like Leo Ornstein in the 1910s, this group soon included such rugged individualists as Dane Rudhyar, Edgard Varèse, Carl Ruggles, Henry Cowell, George Antheil, Roger Sessions, Aaron Copland. And individual voices they were, but they recognized, or at least some of them did, that they needed to band together in a sort of artistic and political brotherhood to get their works performed and published. Such efforts as 'Musical Quarterly,' the League of Composers, 'Musical Review,' 'Modern Music,' the Copland-Sessions Concerts and many more came into being. Music journalists (and promoters) like Carl van Vechten and Paul Rosenfield called wider attention to this new music.
This was a heady time. Of course, not all of the excitement was in New York. But many musicians from outside New York were attracted there. For instance, Ruth Crawford, later Ruth Crawford Seeger and one of the most original voices of all, came from Chicago late in the 1920s. Artistic ferment, not only in music but in all the arts, made New York THE place to be.
The book mentions and discusses the works of many composers that are not very well remembered today--but whose music may be due some sort of revival of interest--like Marion Bauer, Louis Gruenberg, William Grant Still, Emerson Whithorne, Frederick Jacobi. And of course composers now very well-known are discussed: Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, Carlos Chávez, Walter Piston.
There is a chapter on the widening influence of jazz on American concert music and a description of the famous Aeolian Hall concert in 1924 that introduced Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' (and Zez Confrey's 'Kitten on the Keys,' as well!).
A good deal of engaging prose is written about the wealthy and fiercely devoted women who were important, even crucial, patrons of modern music: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Blanche Walton, Alma Morgenthau Wertheim.
There are many illustrations--concert programs, pictures of musicians and the like. Particularly interesting are reproductions of literally dozens of pages from musical scores, as from Varèse's 'Octandre,' Antheil's 'Ballet mécanique,' Ruggles's 'Vox clamans in deserto,' Cowell's 'The Voice of Lir,' Copland's 'Piano Variations,' Crawford's 'String Quartet' and many others.
A valuable and fascinating 40-page appendix lists all the pieces played on most of the new music series in New York during the period under discussion.
Oja has obviously done her research meticulously and the book is written in a lively, engaging style. It is not aimed at the scholarly audience, although surely musicologists can find plenty to marvel at here, but would be, I suspect, fascinating for the curious general reader.
Recommended.
Review by Scott Morrison.

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The Invisible Art of Film Music [Paperback] Review

For one who collects, listens and enjoys film music, this tome is the best available in the market. It is a wonderfully comprehensive reference guide to the best film scores from the early twenties up to almost the nineties. Eminent composers are given adequate biographies. The salient highlights of the scores are reviewed by decade. The golden age of hollywood is represented by Korngold, Steiner, Tiomkin, Newman, Waxman. One can actually feel the development of film music techniques from the silents to the talkies and the sophistication of today`s electronic scores. The rise, decline and revival of this art form is well documented and one can compare different periods in terms of orchestration, styles, audience tastes and composer standards. The composer, arranger, conductor, songwriter were sometimes one person for example, Alfred Newman. The death of the studio system also spelt the end of the road for studio orchestras which employed hundreds of emigrants from Europe. Also, the predominance of Jewish composers and musicians is keenly felt even today. A good investment for any film music lover, it will pay dividends many times over. High readable and highly recommended.

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A comprehensive introduction to film music for the general student, the film historian, and the aspiring cinematographer. It is a historically structured account of the evolution of music in films. The book is arranged as a chronological survey and includes biographical sketches on many important film composers in addition to the development of the films themselves.

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Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn [Hardcover] Review

Billy Strayhorn'scontribution to the work of Duke Ellington is immeasurable--at last he is given his full due in David Hajdu's perceptive and insightful portrait of this largely unsung genius of 20th centurymusic. Hajdu's sensitive biography, derived from countless interviewswith friends, family and fellow musicians, reveals Strayhorn as a complex,creative individual who preferred to stay discreetly in Ellington's shadow throughout much of his life.It also provides a telling portrait of a manwho lived his life as a gay African-American musician completely out in the open during a time in this country when it was both difficult anddangerous to do so.Hajdu has givenus telling portraits as well of manyof Strayhorn's contemporaries such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, JohnnyHodges, Ray Nance and the Duke himself who loved "Swea-Pea"(Strayhorn's nickname) as a part of himself.Not only a portrait of acreative, intellectual genius, "Lush Life"also gives us aninsightful look into the world of jazz and African-american popular musicthat grew out of an age of racism and discrimination.The concludingchapters that chronicle Strayhorn's involvement inthe civil rightsmovement of the early '60's andhis friendships with Martin Luther Kingand Medgar Evans and his own battle with the throat cancer that cut hislife short (at age fifty-one) areespecially powerful.Throughout thebook, Hajduprovides lively anecdotal writing while remaining a respectfuljournalist and chronicler of his subject.I highly recommend this book toanyone interested in jazz history, popular culture, orpurely for aportrait of an understated genius.

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