Book Review
Ray Brown: His Life and Music
by Andrew Hunter
Ray Brown: His Life and Music Jay Sweet 310 Pages ISBN: # 9781800505353 Equinox Publishing2025 It is such a common occurrence in life that bad things happen to good people, and conversely that good things happen to bad people, that there is a branch of theology given to the question of how and why God allows such injustice to occur. It is called theodicy. Given the frequency with which people ...
Continue ReadingBangkok After Dark: Maurice Rocco, Transnational Nightlife, and the Making of Cold War Intimacies
by Katchie Cartwright
Bangkok After Dark: Maurice Rocco, Transnational Nightlife, and the Making of Cold War Intimacies Benjamin Tausig 264 Pages ISBN: 978-1-4780-3170-3 Duke University Press 2025 You may have seen pianist-singer and entertainer Maurice Rocco in Incendiary Blonde (Paramount, 1945), the rags-to-riches story of Texas Guinan, the Waco-born daughter of immigrants who became a New York nightclub tycoon during Prohibition, starring Betty Hutton. No? Then check the extraordinary clip (below). He sings, dances ...
Continue ReadingJohn & Paul: A Love Story in Songs
by Doug Collette
John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs Ian Leslie 448 Pages ISBN: # 9781250869548 Celadon Books 2025 Considering the reams of research and writing devoted to the Beatles since their monumental success in the early '60s, it seems almost implausible any writer could find a fresh perspective on the British group and their work. But Ian Leslie has done just that with John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs.
Continue ReadingThe Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties
by Doug Collette
The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties Dennis McNally 432 Pages ISBN: #978-0306835667 Da Capo 2025 Dennis McNally knows whereof and whenof he speaks. On The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties, the author of books about beat icon Jack Kerouac (Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation And America (McGraw-Hill, 1980)) and those psychedelic warriors known as Grateful Dead (A Long ...
Continue ReadingElla Fitzgerald: The Official Graphic Novel
by Nenad Georgievski
Ella Fitzgerald: The Official Graphic Novel Ngozi Nwadiogbu 112 Pages ISBN: 978-1970047295 Fantoons 2025 There are few voices in jazz, and perhaps in all of music, that carry the warmth, depth and precision of Ella Fitzgerald's. Her effortless swing, her impeccable phrasing, her ability to transform even the simplest melody into something transcendent--these qualities made her the undisputed “First Lady of Song." Capturing such a luminous career in any medium is a challenge, ...
Continue ReadingA Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music
by Jack Kenny
A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man In The Music Jack Chambers 259 Pages ISBN: # 9781496855756 University Press Of Mississippi2025 There are rare insights into Duke Ellington in this book from Jack Chambers, his second on Duke Ellington. Chambers has also written important books on Miles Davis and Richard Twardzik. He is predisposed to enjoy Ellington's music, can see the flaws in Ellington's personality and throughout the book he describes the ...
Continue ReadingThe Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music He Gave The World
by Richard J Salvucci
The Master of Drums Elizabeth J Rosenthal 320 Pages ISBN: 978-0-8065-4320 Kensington Publishing Company 2025 In the interests of full disclosure, I spent an extended period with Gene Krupa as an adolescent. Relatives were friends of Krupa's. All the nice things Elizabeth J. Rosenthal says about Krupa as a human being were their constant refrain. If you think maybe Krupa, in Rosenthal's handling, sounds to good-to-be-true, well, maybe he was. Not a saint, ...
Continue ReadingHeartbreaker: A Memoir by Mike Campbell
by Doug Collette
Heartbreaker: A Memoir Mike Campbell with Ari Surdoval 464 Pages ISBN: #978-0306833199 Grand Central Publishing2025 In what may be the sole expression of explicit ego he ever really displayed during his history with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mike Campbell has written A Memoir describing his time as guitarist, record producer and regular songwriting partner of the late bandleader for the archetypal American rock and roll band. The author's greatest accomplishment ...
Continue ReadingDon Byas: Sax Expat
by Richard J Salvucci
Don Byas: Sax Expat Con Chapman 233 Pages ISBN: 9781496856081 University Press of Mississippi2025 Don Byas, a tenor saxophonist, who was regarded with great respect in his day, is, unfortunately, now not much more than a name. In part, it is because he has been gone for half a century. Yet that hardly is a sufficient explanation for neglect. Others of his cohort, like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young or Ben Webster, are hardly ...
Continue ReadingSong For Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler
by Ian Patterson
Song For Someone The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler Brian Shaw and Nick Smart 509 Pages ISBN: # ISBN-13-978-178179 Equinox Publishing 2025 If only for his trumpet and flugelhorn playing Kenny Wheeler stands as one of the modern greats, marrying linear lyricism and free-jazz expression like no-one else. But as a composer, Wheeler was just as innovative, developing harmonic and melodic language in new ways, and bringing together musicians from very different ...
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