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"Stereotypes in Black Music" by Alan Kurtz, Reviewed by Steve Provizer
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Author Alan Kurtz's thesis is: since at least the turn of the 20th century, African-American performers have been fulfilling and/or re-inforcing stereotypes of the naturally-rhythmic primitive savage-i.e., sustaining “white ethnocentric fantasies"-to advance their careers. Episodes include: Minstrelsy, the “coon song" craze, vaudeville, popular black theater ("In Dahomey," Shuffle Along," etc), Ellington's “Jungle Music," Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway, bebop, R&B, the jazz avant-garde of the 60's, disco and rap/hip hop. Mr. Kurtz says he wants the book to ...
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Bill Bruford Autobiography: It's the book everyone's talking about...
Source:
Lori Hehr Public Relations
Bill Bruford, the Godfather of progressive rock drumming, has produced a short video (below) about the origins and aims of his Autobiography, the book everyone's talking about. It's a memoir of life at the heart of progressive rock and electric and acoustic jazz. It's an honest, entertaining, and brilliantly-written account of Bill's 40 years on the road and in the studio. Whether you are a starry-eyed beginner, an inquisitive fan, or a seasoned professional, you'll be intrigued as Bill lifts ...
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CD Baby Starts New Book-Selling Division, Targets Indie Authors and Imprints [launch]
![CD Baby Starts New Book-Selling Division, Targets Indie Authors and Imprints [launch]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/logo/hypebotlogo2015.jpg){kind=logo}
Source:
HypeBot
CD Baby had a baby. BookBaby, to be precise, is their new venture that focuses on indie authors. After a decade in the music business and paying out $120 million to indie artists, the company has decided to level the playing field between professional and amateur authors in the same way it did with musicians. Authors distributed through BookBaby will receive 100% of their net sales revenue—paid weekly—generated through all their retailer network, including retailers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & ...
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Book Review: The Penguin Jazz Guide by Brian Morton
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
The Penguin Jazz Guide by Brian Morton My rating: 5 of 5 stars After many iterations going back to the ancient Penguin Guide to Jazz on LP, Cassette and Compact Disc (written in Cuneiform script on clay tablets) the venerable guide has changed its format. Gone are the star ratings and the oft-argued about crowns that sparked so much discussion on the jazz world. The new guide exists in a chronological format, decade by decade, akin to the popular “1,001 ...
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Pele-Mele Works Releases “Intervallic Fretboard - Towards Improvising on the Guitar,” and Offers Guitar Players a Novel Approach to the Instrument
Source:
bridgepin
Pêle-Mêle Works releases a new instructional book offering guitarists a different take on the fingerboard, with improvisation as the underlying motivation: “Intervallic Fretboard Towards improvising on the Guitar," by Ashkan Mashhour and Dave Murdy. Whether in jazz, blues, rock, fusion, etc., shapes and patterns are widely used in teaching the guitar, be it for scales, chords, or arpeggios. Intervallic Fretboard takes a novel and different approach to the guitar fretboard, emphasising an intervallic thought process. Moving away from shapes, patterns, ...
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Book Review: White Jazz by James Ellroy
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
The fourth and final installment in James Ellroy's epic L.A. Quartet is one of his bleakest titles (and that is really saying something) but overcomes this with a rollicking and jittery energy that never lets up. Police lieutenant Dave Klein is stuck between a rock and a hard place: he's murdered a suspect, one of many crimes he has committed in the line of duty. The federal prosecutor is bearing down, threatening to prosecute him unless he rolls over on ...
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The Story Behind the Smile: Terry Teachout's "Pops"
Source:
Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
I just finished reading Terry Teachout's biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops, which is now out in paperback, and can recommend it wholeheartedly. Teachout, the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal, had access to a lot of previously unavailable material on Armstrong, including over 650 reels of tape recordings made by “Satchmo" during the last two decades of his life. This provides a very intimate and fascinating look at the man behind the very public persona: his dope smoking, his ...
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Jazz and Drugs in 1960
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
For the November 1960 issue of Playboy, the magazine assembled a panel of musicians to discuss drug addiction in the jazz world and the public's perception of jazz as a result. The topic was a hot one back then, coming off the 1950s. And yet in historical perspective, the topic's urgency seems somewhat ludicrous. Within seven years, drugs would become an integral part of the rock and youth culture, resulting in psychedelic album covers, masses of stoned concertgoers and rock-star ...
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