Book / Magazine News

License to Lie - What Made Music Magazines Great

Source: HypeBot
March 11, 2011

It is no secret that music magazines, like many publications, are in decline. Part of the reason for this appears to be straightforward—information on artists and their music is now abundant. From music blogs to Wikipedia to an artist's Twitter account, fans now have unlimited access to the updates of an artist and will likely hear their new music weeks before a magazine can write about it. So, why subscribe to a publication that aims to update you about things ...

Continue Reading

Enter Music Publishing Presents: The 16th Annual Drummies With Voting Now Open

Source: JCM Media
March 10, 2011

San Jose, Calif.,—It's that time of year, yep, Enter Music Publishing's Annual Drummies Awards/Poll programs is now officially open for voting. Having gained respect from the drum/music industry as the most comprehensive Award/Polling events, drummers, fans and anybody else interested can now cast their votes online until May 1 at drummagazine.com. Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip, drum percussion magazines, worldwide and online, expects very strong voting returns as was experienced last year. In 2010, approximately 6500 drummers participated in ...

Continue Reading

Creative Music Studio Book Reissue to Coincide with CMS Day at Columbia

Source: Bob Sweet
March 6, 2011

Creative Music Studio Book Reissue to Coincide with CMS Day at Columbia The book that tells the story of the legendary Creative Music Studio—Music Universe, Music Mind: Revisiting the Creative Music Studio, Woodstock, New York (Ann Arbor: Arborville Publishing, ISBN 0-9650438-4-3)—is being reissued. The reissue coincides with events in 2011 designed to help cement the legacy of CMS as the twentieth century's premiere study center for creative, improvised music. Music Universe, Music Mind is a fascinating account of the opportunities ...

Continue Reading

Mickey Hart & Bill Kreutzmann Discuss Forty Years Of Collaboration In DRUM! Magazine

Source: JCM Media
March 3, 2011

San Jose, Calif., The editors of DRUM! Magazine are a patient bunch. After all, they've tried for the past two decades to secure a cover story on Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, the former drummers for The Grateful Dead. But while Hart always seemed game to talk about drums and drumming, and was over the years featured in many DRUM! articles, Kreutzmann proved far more elusive about granting a dual interview. Until today. The March 2011 issue of DRUM! Magazine ...

Continue Reading

Books - Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
February 24, 2011

Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal My rating: 4 of 5 stars The great saxophonist Sonny Rollins has been an iconic figure in jazz for nearly sixty years but has never been the subject of a proper biography. This book does not fill that void either but is a very worthy volume regardless, featuring the amazing photography of John Abbott who captured Rollins in public performance and private moments for the past several decades. Abbott's photography ...

Continue Reading

Herb Snitzer: Glorious Days and Nights

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 15, 2011

I don't think of Herb Snitzer as a photographer, although that's exactly what he is. Herb to me is a sculptor, someone who uses his hands to preserve the souls of his jazz subjects. His images offer textured revelations and make me feel as though I've just run my own hands slowly across his subjects' faces. All of his photos seize fleeting moments that provide a window into who these musicians were as people and how they felt about life ...

Continue Reading

A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers

Source: Suzanne Cloud
February 11, 2011

By Suzanne Cloud Let there be no doubt that Will Friedwald loves singers and the context from within which they sing—the songs of the great American songbook. In A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Friedwald, a respected jazz writer with seven previous books on music and popular culture, has written an encyclopedically structured book of some of the best singers America has produced—but with an exciting twist. He's rearranged all of the clinical (read boring) stuff ...

Continue Reading

Iverson on Sandke and Race in Jazz

Source: Jazz Loft Project by Sam Stephenson
February 1, 2011

Recently my friend who shares a Hall Overton jones, Ethan Iverson, posted two long blog entries about race and jazz, based on Randy Sandke's recent book.

I'll let Ethan's pieces speak for themselves. The discussion is important. I admire Ethan's willingness to stick his neck out. I don't know Sandke—I've enjoyed his trumpet work on a number of records—and I haven't read his book. So I'll make only a couple of comments here:

1) I wouldn't mind taking a stab ...

Continue Reading