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Book Reviews
Ziga Koritnik: Cloud Arrangers
Cloud Arrangers Ziga Koritnik 376 Pages ISBN: 978-961-288-626-4 Drustvo Pega 2019 Most of the music we experience today is heard removed from the presence of the performers. That is the result of the invention of the phonograph and every other invention to date following in its footsteps. The invention of this apparatus has had the same effect as the printing press had on literature i.e., it allowed numerous people who otherwise wouldn't have ...
read moreRicochet: David Bowie 1983
Ricochet: David Bowie 1983 Denis O'Regan 328 pages ISBN: 9781846149726 Particular Books 2018 1983 was a great year for David Bowie. In the previous two years he bowed out of music for a spell in order to act, debuting on Broadway as The Elephant Man and on television in Bertolt Brecht's play Baal. This move culminated in 1983, when he landed leading roles in two movies. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, directed ...
read moreShake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story by Randy Fox
Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story Randy Fox 170 Pages ISBN: # 9781947026223 BMG 2018 As almost a vital act of nature, three books that would make a tidy trilogy in any musical world, were recently released independently. These are: Blues From The Bayou: The Rhythms Of Baton Rouge (Pelican Publishing Press, 2018), Martin HawkinsSlim Harpo: Blues King Bee Of Baton Rouge (LSU Press, 2016), and the present Shake Your Hips: The ...
read moreBillie Holiday: Lady Sings The Blues
Lady Sings The Blues Billie Holiday/William Dufty 180 Pages ISBN: 978-0-241-35129-1 Penguin Modern Classics 2018 For many, Billie Holiday was the greatest of all the jazz singers, while her emotive delivery and tragic persona seemed to embody the early jazz life in all its boho chic and with all its dark undertones. Six decades after her death from alcohol-related illness at the age of forty four, Holiday remains a hugely admired and somewhat ...
read moreTracy Fessenden: Religion Around Billie Holiday
Religion Around Billie Holiday Tracy Fessenden 280 pages ISBN: #9780271080956 Cambridge University Press 2018 This is one of the most unusual books about a jazz figure that I've encountered in a long time. The premise, as spelled out in this interview with author Fessenden, is fascinating. She is the Steve and Margaret Forster Professor and interim Director of the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Her previous ...
read moreSonny Rollins: Meditating on a Riff
Sonny Rollins--Meditating on a Riff Hugh Wyatt 304 Pages ISBN: #978-0-9981219-2-5 Kamama Books 2018 Author Hugh Wyatt doesn't hide his friendship with Sonny Rollins-Rollins is his daughter's godfather-he has written a spiritual biography of saxophone great Sonny Rollins which is perilously close to hagiography. He says in the intro that he doesn't want to avoid the dark incidents in Sonny's life and he doesn't. However, whether describing Rollins' involvement in heroin, his ...
read moreDexter Gordon: Portrait of a Sophisticated Giant
Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon Maxine Gordon 261 Pages ISBN: #9780520280649 University of California Press 2018 Maxine Gordon was the last of Dexter Gordon's several wives and she has written a biography of Gordon, a task with which he charged her before he died in 1990. The saxophonist had actually done some writing on an autobiography before he died and Maxine Gordon was able to use this material in ...
read moreThe History Of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians And Audience in Context
The History Of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians And Audience In Context Various authors/Edited by Francesco Martinelli 741 Pages ISBN: 13 978 1 78179 446 3 Equinox Publishing 2018 It's taken some time, about a century in fact, but finally, thanks chiefly to editor and jazz historian Francesco Martinelli of Siena Jazz, the first comprehensive, pan-European history of jazz sees the light of day. And what stories they are too -complex, colorful ...
read moreDreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob
Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob Mary Lee Kortes 160 Pages ISBN: #978-1947026179 BMG Books 2018 Considering the subject of Mary Lee Kortes' Dreaming of Dylan, it may sound implausible to suggest the cover reminds of nothing so much as books of Shel Silverstein such as The Giving Tree (Harper & Row, 1964). But that implicit connection, intentional or not, is wholly appropriate: all three writers invoke the whimsical side of their ...
read moreTom Petty And Me: My Rock 'n' Roll Adventures with Tom Petty
Tom Petty And Me: My Rock 'n' Roll Adventures with Tom Petty Jon Scott 190 Pages ISBN: #978-0692091197 Chickasaw Buddy Publishing, INC. 2018 Tom Petty And Me has a most interesting premise, its effect heightened when considering the late musician's tumultuous history with his record label(s). In My Rock 'n' Roll Adventures with..., a company promo man, Jon Scott, recounts his collaboration(s) with and on behalf of an artist he came to deeply ...
read moreLeaps & Sounds: 12 Contemporary Etudes for Jazz Saxophone
Leaps & Sounds: 12 Contemporary Etudes For Jazz Saxophone by Adam Larson17 Pages ISBN: #978-1724613059 Self Published 2018 The educational market is saturated with printed materials that regurgitate the same concepts with slight-to-little-to-no variation, playing--or preying, perhaps--on everything from foundational needs to grasps at virtuosity. Truly novel concepts are, sadly, few and far between, but sometimes a book comes along that finds new angles and conceptual footholds. Enter Adam Larson's Leaps & ...
read moreRoger Daltrey: Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite - My Story
Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite Roger Daltrey 272 Pages ISBN: #978-1250296030 Henry Holt and Co. 2018 Unlike most rock and roll memoirs, Roger Daltrey's is not a tell-all. Far from it, because, like most interviews the author conducts, Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite is based on the 'less said the better' premise. In two-hundred-forty some pages, the lead vocalist of the Who is terse and to-the point, perhaps too much so for some ...
read moreAlbum Showcase
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Trio Tapestry by Joe Lovano
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Imaginary Friends by Ralph Alessi
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Swallows & Swans by Florian Ross
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Crosswinds by Christoph Irniger
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East Of The Sun by Michael Kocour
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Jazz Story
Jazz combines creativity from the mind, heart, and the gut. It flourishes through structure and uses melody and rhythm to bridge the musician's creativity and the listener's imagination. I try to appreciate all forms of music and styles of jazz but find myself drawn to the “hot music” of the twenties through the early thirties, including its many contemporary incarnations
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By Andrew J. Sammut
Member since: 2010
