Is jazz a universal idiom or is it an African-American art form? Although whites have been playing jazz almost since it first developed, the history of jazz has been forged by a series of African-American artists whose styles caught the interest of their musical generation--masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker. Whether or not white musicians deserve their secondary status in jazz history, one thing is clear: developments in jazz have been a result of black people's search for a meaningful identity as Americans and members of the African diaspora. Blacks are not alone in being deeply affected by these shifts in African-American racial attitudes and cultural strategies. Historically in closer contact with blacks than nearly any other group of white Americans, white jazz musicians have also felt these shifts. More importantly, their careers and musical interests have been deeply affected by them. The author, an active participant in the jazz world as composer, performer, and author of several books on jazz and Latin music, hopes that this book will encourage jazz lovers to take a rhetoric-free look at the charged issue of race as has affected the world of jazz.

A work about the formulation of identity in the face of racial difference, the book considers topics such as the promotion of black Southern culture and inner-city styles like rhythm and blues and rap as a means of achieving black racial solidarity. It discusses the body of music fostered by an identification to Africa, the conversion of black jazz musicians to Islam and other Eastern religions, and the impact of a jazz community united by heroin use. White jazz musicians who identify with black culture in an unsettling form by speaking black dialect and calling themselves African-American is examined, as is the assimilation of jazz into the wider American culture.

A dual biography of two great innovators in the history of jazz. One was black, one was white-one is now legendary, the other nearly forgotten. In Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman thejazz scholar Joshua Berrett offers a provocative revision of the history of early jazz by focusing on two of its most notable practitioners-Whiteman, legendary in his day, and Armstrong, a legend ever since. Paul Whiteman's fame was unmatched throughout the twenties. Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby, and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey honed their craft on his bandstand. Celebrated as the "King of Jazz" in 1930 in a Universal Studios feature film, Whiteman's imperium has declined considerably since. The legend of Louis Armstrong, in contrast, grows ever more lustrous: for decades it has been Armstrong, not Whiteman, who has worn the king's crown. This dual biography explores these diverging legacies in the context of race, commerce, and the history of early jazz. Early jazz, Berrett argues, was not a story of black innovators and white usurpers. In this book, a much richer, more complicated story emerges-a story of cross-influences, sidemen, sundry movers and shakers who were all part of a collective experience that transcended the category of race. In the world of early jazz, Berrett contends, kingdoms had no borders.

Each year over 7,000,000 visitors come to Branson, Missouri. The town is home to over 100 shows and attractions ranging from country to pop, big band to magic. This book takes a look at a cross section of people who make Branson's entertainment community unique, from its pioneer entertainers to the superstars who've made the town their home to the performers who delight visitors day and night in theaters, restaurants and theme parks. It tells the story of a fruit truck driver who turned a vacant piece of land into a multi-million dollar entertainment mecca, a truck stop waitress from South Dakota who found the perfect place to wait tables while pursuing a singing and recording career, a country music superstar who tried to avoid Branson but eventually opened his own theater on the city's 76 Country Boulevard and others who have helped make the music show capital unique in all the world. Their stories are seen through the eyes of a veteran broadcaster who has spent thousands of hours over three decades interviewing hundreds of artists, business leaders and fans. His unique insights give an intimate account of the lives of these fascinating personalities.

The story goes that under the influence of blues and rock and roll, Britain suddenly started making spectacularly great music in the 1960s like some clever, quick learning cultural satellite of America. But Britain's mid twentieth-century pop music explosion didn't happen from a standing start. The reasons something so dazzling and multifaceted appeareed lie deeper than those legendary deliveries of blues records to Liverpool's port and the legacy of music halls. Featuring new discoveries and original insights, Why Britain Rocked: How Rock became Roll and Took over the World argues the Beatles' arrival, which stunned the world, really shouldn't have been surprising at all. From the Celts, Henry VIII, and the Quakers to Ira Aldridge and Paul Robeson, Why Britain Rocked uncovers the unique events and unexpected influences that encouraged British pop to be glorious, crazy, luminous, joyous, profound, melancholic, ferocious, anarchic, witty, smart and wonderful in all its ways.

Albert provides a survey of the impact of jazz on both American and foreign fiction, along with an annotated listing of almost 400 short stories, novels, plays, and jazz fiction criticism. Access is augmented by an index of novels, plays, and short stories and by a general index. Albert examines the strong impact jazz and the blues have had on fiction. The annotated listing of 400 novels, short stories, and jazz fiction criticism will serve as a resource for those doing research in both music and literature, as well as serving as a reading guide for jazz devotees who are looking for literature with a jazz motif. Access is augmented by an index of novels, plays, and short stories and by a general index.

Prince's early albums Dirty Mind, 1999, and Purple Rain, established him as a major force in American pop music. His combination of rock and funk was unique, and drew both critical praise and commercial attention. The 1990s found Prince forming a new group, moving back in the direction of R&B, and eventually adopting an unpronounceable symbol as his moniker. By the end of the millennium, he was again exploring an eclectic collection of musical styles and enjoying a resurgence of interest in his well-known song "1999." Prince is one of the few artists of the entire rock era who successfully bridged the gap between traditional R&B and rock audiences with his musical eclecticism. He now stands among the best-selling pop musicians of the rock era. In this revealing study, author James Perone highlights the complexities and ambiguities of Prince's life work, while at the same time clarifying why it is that Prince remains such a widely popular figure in American music. After a brief introductory biographical treatment, Perone goes on to analyze all of Prince's musical output-both as specific pieces, and as part of a larger body of work. Perone doesn't allow any of the elements of Prince's entertainment career (including his early contractual problems, his series of proteges, his name change, and his views on gender and race) to pass without reflection. As a result The Words and Music of Prince operates as a sort of creative biography for both the man and the artist. The work also includes six illustrations, a bibliography, a discography, and an index.

Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (b. 1973) is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines his aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright's life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis with such varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike.

Fueled to the max by bubblegum power chords, skyscraper backcombed hairdos, eyeliner, and spandex, artists such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Dokken, Guns N' Roses, Warrant, Slaughter, L.A. Guns, Great White, W.A.S.P., and Bon Jovi reigned supreme in the 1980s. Established bands too fully embraced the "image is everything" culture and Kiss, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, and Heart all enjoyed renewed flushes of success. This book chronicles every cheap thrill and maps out every mascara-caked moment. Each and every band, whether able to pack out Wembley or Wigan, is documented with full biographies and global discographies direct from the world's biggest rock-devoted database--Rockdetector.

A tour-de-force history of Jews, blues, and the birth of a new industry. On the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrants, one a Jew born in Russia, the other a black blues singer from Mississippi met and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soon Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that, too. Rock & roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Leonard Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar business aggressively acquiring artists, hard-selling distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. Full of absorbing lore and animated by a deep love for popular music, Machers and Rockers is a smash hit.

'WHICH IS THE BEST BAND I'VE BEEN IN? THE SMALL FACES WERE THE MOST CREATIVE, THE FACES WERE THE MOST FUN,THE WHO WERE THE MOST EXCITING. THESE WERE ELECTRIFYING DAYS IN MUSIC. WE WERE ALL UNTRIED, UNTESTED. WHAT WAS STOPPING US? NOTHING.' As drummer with the Small Faces, Faces and later The Who, Kenney Jones' unique sense of rhythm was the heartbeat that powered three of the most influential rock bands of all time. Beginning in London's post-war East End, Kenney's story takes us through the birth of the Mod revolution, the mind-bending days of the late-1960s and the raucous excesses of the '70s and '80s. In a career spanning six decades, Kenney was at the epicentre of many of the most exciting moments in music history and has experienced everything the industry has to offer. He jointly created some of the world's most-loved records, hung out with the Stones, Beatles, David Bowie, Keith Moon and Rod Stewart, and suffered the loss of close friends to rock 'n' roll excess and success. The legacy created by Kenney and his band mates has influenced acts as diverse as Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols and Oasis. Now, for the very first time, Kenney tells the full story of how a young Cockney Herbert played his part in the biggest social transformation in living memory - the people, the parties, the friendships, the fall-outs, the laughter, the sadness, the sex, drugs, and a lot of rock 'n' roll, while also opening up about his own deeply personal battles and passions, too. This is a vivid and breath-taking immersion into the most exciting era of music history and beyond.

Pianists will delight in this updated songbook, in which the piano/vocal arrangements have been notably improved (compared to older published sheet music renditions) to accurately reflect what was played on the band's original hit recordings. Basic guitar chord grids are also included. (A note-for-note guitar tablature edition is also available; sold separately.) Titles: Only the Young * Don't Stop Believin' * Wheel in the Sky * Faithfully * I'll Be Alright Without You * Any Way You Want It * Ask the Lonely * Who's Crying Now * Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) * Lights * Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' * Open Arms * Girl Can't Help It * Send Her My Love * Be Good to Yourself.

At Home in Our Sounds illustrates the effect jazz music had on the enormous social challenges Europe faced in the aftermath of World War I. Examining the ways African American, French Antillean, and French West African artists reacted to the heightened visibility of racial difference in Paris during this era, author Rachel Anne Gillett addresses fundamental cultural questions that continue to resonate today: Could one be both black and French? Was black solidarity more important than national and colonial identity? How could French culture include the experiences and contributions of Africans and Antilleans? Providing a well-rounded view of black reactions to jazz in interwar Paris, At Home in Our Sounds deals with artists from highly educated women like the Nardal sisters of Martinique, to the working black musicians performing at all hours throughout the city. In so doing, the book places this phenomenon in its historical and political context and shows how music and music-making constituted a vital terrain of cultural politics-one that brought people together around pianos and on the dancefloor, but that did not erase the political, regional, and national differences between them.

Heralded by Tony Bennett as "the Madonna of the 1950s," Rosemary Clooney first came to national prominence when, guided by record producer Mitch Miller, she topped the Hit Parade with songs such as "Come On-a My House" and "Half As Much". Today, the name "Clooney" is synonymous with superstardom, with George Clooney, her nephew, fittingly regarded as one of Hollywood's most notable aristocrats. Few realize, however, that it was originally Rosemary's hit records that brought the surname to achieve worldwide fame and which ultimately landed her a starring role in the immortal "White Christmas", alongside Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen. By the time the Sixties arrived however, personal turmoil, fueled by an addiction to prescription medication, almost destroyed her life and her career. Rosemary endured a long period of mental therapy before she was able to resume her singing career in the early 1970s. Few expected her to be anything more than a nostalgia baroness. Rosemary had other ideas. Stimulated by a series of concerts alongside her friend and mentor, Bing Crosby, Rosemary found a new medium in the midst of America's finest jazz musicians, building a second career and with it, a reputation one of - some would say, the - finest interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Late Life Jazz is the story of the rise, fall and rise again of Clooney the First, Aunt Rose, a singer par excellence.

From 1970 to 1973 Underground Press rock critic Rick McGrath interviewed, reviewed and photographed many of the musicians who visited or lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the alternate newspapers The Georgia Straight, The Grape and The Terminal City Express. In Straight Man Rick revisits those days of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll with interviews with the likes of Led Zeppelin (1971) Van Morrison (1971) Elton John (1971) Fleetwood Mac (1971) Jeremy Spencer's last interview Captain Beefheart (1971, 1973) Chicago (1970) Pentangle (1970) Mitch Ryder (1970) Kim Simmonds (1970) Gordon Lightfoot (1970) Luke Gibson (1972), Crowbar (1971 2X), Al Neil (1972) and Hall of Fame DJ Red Robinson (1972). Straight Man also includes articles of the Rolling Stones' movies Gimme Shelter and C**ksucker Blues, the complete Prisoner TV series and Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor Plus unpublished photographs of Bob Dylan and The Band, Van Morrison, Larry Coryell, Tim Buckley and The Tubes. Straight Man is a revealing, informative and fun trip back to the early formative years of many of today's Rock superstars."

What is experimental music today? This book offers an up to date survey of this field for anyone with an interest, from seasoned practitioners to curious readers. This book takes the stance that experimental music is not a limited historical event, but is a proliferation of approaches to sound that reveals much about present-day experience. An experimental work is not identifiable by its sound alone, but by the nature of the questions it poses and its openness to the sounding event. Experimentation is a way of working. It pushes past that which is known to discover what lies beyond it, finding new knowledge, forms, and relationships, or accepting a state of uncertainty. For each of these composers and sound artists, craft is developed and transformed in response to the questions they bring to their work. Scientific, perceptual, or social phenomena become catalysts in the operation of the work. These practices are not presented according to a chronology, a set of techniques, or social groupings. Instead, they are organized according to the content areas that are their subjects, including resonance, harmony, objects, shapes, perception, language, interaction, sites, and histories. Musical materials may be subject, among other treatments, to systemization, observation, examination, magnification, fragmentation, translation, or destabilization. These restless and exploratory modes of engagement have continued to develop over recent decades, expanding the scope of both musical practice and listening.

The evidence of death and dying has been removed from the everyday lives of most Westerners. Yet we constantly live with the awareness of our vulnerability as mortals. Drawing on a range of genres, bands and artists, Mortality and Music examines the ways in which popular music has responded to our awareness of the inevitability of death and the anxiety it can evoke. Exploring bereavement, depression, suicide, violence, gore, and fans' responses to the deaths of musicians, it argues for the social and cultural significance of popular music's treatment of mortality and the apparent absurdity of existence.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance. He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse and the infamous deaths of both Keith Moon and Mama Cass in his London flat. His music remains prevalent today, through the 1995 tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson (featuring performances of Nilsson's hits by Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Fred Schneider and others) and recent covers, such as Aimee Mann's recording of "One" (popularized as the main track on the Magnolia soundtrack) and Neko Case's arrangement of "Don't Forget Me" on her album, Middle Cyclone. In this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and thereby reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.

A favorite country music artist, Eddy Arnold has been recording since 1944. This work details each recording session, as well as the records on which each song appeared, and includes 104 songs that were never released. An appendix lists basic biographical information. Of interest to music historians, discographers, and fans, this is the most comprehensive discography available on Eddy Arnold, whose career spans six decades.

Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) is a foundational keystone of the musical and aesthetic vision of the notorious Norwegian black metal scene and one of the most beloved albums of the genre. Its mysterious artwork and raw sound continue to captivate and inspire black metal fans and musicians worldwide. This book explores the album in the context of exoticism and musical geography, examining how black metal music has come to conjure images of untamed Nordic wildernesses for fans worldwide. In doing so, it analyzes aspects of musical style and production that created the distinctly "grim" sound of Darkthrone and Norwegian black metal.