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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Contemporary popular music > Jazz
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Crazeology
(Hardcover)
Roger Wolf; Bud Freeman
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R2,657
R2,302
Discovery Miles 23 020
Save R355 (13%)
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It is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age,
is walking on a taut wire strung between the Twin Towers of New
York's World Trade centre, almost fourteen hundred feet above the
city. Far below him in the gaping crowd stands his wife, Anna, to
whom he has made a solemn promise: This wire walk will end his
career. In this daring moment, Steven Galloway opens his riveting
novel about Salvo Ursari, whose life begins in 1919 amid a
Transylvanian boyhood inhabited by gypsy folklore and inspired by
the bravery of his persecuted people. Salvo's story moves
irresistibly from a tragic fire that envelops his family, to street
life in Budapest, where he learns the skills of a wire walker, to
the carnivals of Europe and the competitive world of the American
circus. Most fulfilled when living with paradox, Salvo feels safest
while performing startling feats of balance on a wire high above
the dangerous world and most endangered if performing above a net.
With compassion, warmth, and blazing originality, Ascension
combines jaw-dropping storytelling, and fantastical symbolism with
mesmerizing detail of Romany and circus culture, and an
unforgettable walk with the amazing Salvo Ursari.
Hailed as a classic in music studies when it was first published in
1977, Early Downhome Blues is a detailed look at traditional
country blues artists and their work. Combining musical analysis
and cultural history approaches, Titon examines the origins of
downhome blues in African American society. He also explores what
happened to the art form when the blues were commercially recorded
and became part of the larger American culture. From forty-seven
musical transcriptions, Titon derives a grammar of early downhome
blues melody. His book is enriched with the recollections of blues
performers, audience members, and those working in the recording
industry. In a new afterword, Titon reflects on the genesis of this
book in the blues revival of the 1960s and the politics of tourism
in the current revival under way. |Kalman examines the crucial
period of 1967-1970 at Yale Law School, when the mainstream liberal
faculty was challenged by left-liberal students who aimed to unlock
the democratic visions of law and social change they associated
with Yale's legal realists of the 1930s. Law students during this
phase of the school's history included Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, and Clarence Thomas.
In the 1920s, many black regional jazz bands were recorded and
became products of the entertainment industry, which was altering
the face of America from the handmade, homemade, homemade society
of the ninteenth century to the mass-produced, mass-consumed
technological culture of the twentieth century. Making use of the
files of African American newspapers, such as the Chicago Defender,
as well as published and archival oral history interviews,
Hennessey explores the contradictions that musicians often faced as
African Americans, as trained professional musicians, and as the
products of differing regional experiences. From Jazz to Swing
follows jazz from its beginnings in the regional black musics of
the turn of the century in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and the
territories that make up the rest of the country.
(Limelight). ..".his economical writing style ... manages to pack
lots of information and opinion into a few carefully chosen words
... Besides detail work well-grounded in scholarship...the author
isn't afraid to interpolate such generalizations and speculations
as he sees fit; he may be the Stephen Hawking of jazz criticism."
Bob Tarte, The Beat
Has jazz become a white invention, "neutralized" by the attempts of
white critics to describe, define, and even defend a black form of
expression? Such is the provocative argument that emerges from
David Meltzer's compilation of controversial and thought-provoking
writings on jazz from the early decades of this century to the
present. This diverse anthology of writings on jazz not only charts
the evolution of a musical form, it also reflects evolving racial
and cultural conflicts and stereotypes. An unusual source book of
jazz history, Reading Jazz examines its roots and its future as
well as its links to and influence on other forms of modern
cultural expression. David Meltzer artfully juxtaposes a variety of
texts to explore the paradox of jazz as an art form perceived as
both primitive and modern, to consider the use of jazz as a
metaphor for new attitudes, to show how it was mythopoeticized and
demonized, to view jazz as a focus for a variety of cultural
attitudes, and to probe its relation to other aspects of modern
culture. Arranged historically, both literary and popular texts are
included, reflecting the interplay of jazz with both high and low
culture, from such contributors as Hoagy Carmichael, Artie Shaw,
Norman Mailer, Art Pepper, Simone de Beauvoir, Julio Cortazar,
William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley, and many more. Reading
Jazz will be indispensable not only for jazz enthusiasts but also
for anyone interested in the evolution of modern culture.
Innovations in postbop jazz compositions of the 1960s occurred in
several dimensions, including harmony, form, and melody. Postbop
jazz composers such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Chick
Corea broke with earlier tonal jazz traditions. Their compositions
marked a departure from the techniques of jazz standards and
original compositions that defined small-group repertory through
the 1950s: single-key orientation, schematic 32-bar frameworks (in
AABA or ABAC forms), and tonal harmonic progressions. The book
develops analytical pathways through a number of compositions,
including "El Gaucho," "Penelope," "Pinocchio," "Face of the Deep"
(Shorter); "King Cobra," "Dolphin Dance," "Jessica" (Hancock);
"Windows," "Inner Space," "Song of the Wind" (Corea); as well as
"We Speak" (Little); "Punjab" (Henderson); "Beyond All Limits"
(Shaw). These case studies offer ways to understand their harmonic
syntax, melodic and formal designs, and general principles of
harmonic substitution. By locating points of contact among these
postbop techniques-and by describing their evolution from previous
tonal jazz practices-the book illustrates the syntactic changes
that emerged during the 1960s.
These are just a few of Willie Dixon's contributions to blues,
R&B, and rock'n'roll,songs performed by artists as varied as
the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, ZZ Top, the Doors,
Sonny Boy Williamson, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Megadeth,
Eric Clapton, Let Zepplin, Tesla, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jeff Healey. I Am the Blues captures Willie
Dixon's inimitable voice and character as he tells his life story:
the segregation of Visksburg Mississippi, where Dixon grew up the
prison farm from which he escaped and then hoboed his way north as
a teenager his equal-rights-based draft refusal in 1942 his work,as
songwriter bassist, producer, and arranger,with Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry which
shaped the definitive Chicago blues sound of Chess Records and his
legal battles to recapture the rights to his historic catalogue of
songs.
Beginning with the emergence of commercial American music in the
nineteenth century, Volume 1 includes essays on the major
performers, composers, media, and movements that shaped our musical
culture before rock and roll. Articles explore the theoretical
dimensions of popular music studies; the music of the nineteenth
century; and the role of black Americans in the evolution of
popular music. Also included--the music of Tin Pan Alley, ragtime,
swing, the blues, the influences of W. S. Gilbert and Rodgers and
Hammerstein, and changes in lyric writing styles from the
nineteenth century to the rock era.
Beginning with the emergence of commercial American music in the
nineteenth century, Volume 1 includes essays on the major
performers, composers, media, and movements that shaped our musical
culture before rock and roll. Articles explore the theoretical
dimensions of popular music studies; the music of the nineteenth
century; and the role of black Americans in the evolution of
popular music. Also included--the music of Tin Pan Alley, ragtime,
swing, the blues, the influences of W. S. Gilbert and Rodgers and
Hammerstein, and changes in lyric writing styles from the
nineteenth century to the rock era.
Improvising Jazz gives the beginning performer and the curious
listener alike insights into the art of jazz improvisation. Jerry
Coker, teacher and noted jazz saxophonist, explains the major
concepts of jazz, including blues, harmony, swing, and the
characteristic chord progressions. An easy-to-follow self-teaching
guide, Improvising Jazz contains practical exercises and musical
examples. Its step-by-step presentation shows the aspiring jazz
improviser how to employ fundamental musical and theoretical tools,
such as melody, rhythm, and superimposed chords, to develop an
individual melodic style.
Breaking down walls between genres that are usually discussed
separately - classical, jazz, and popular - this highly engaging
book offers a compelling new integrated view of twentieth-century
music. Placing Duke Ellington (1899-1974) at the center of the
story, David Schiff explores music written during the composer's
lifetime in terms of broad ideas such as rhythm, melody, and
harmony. He shows how composers and performers across genres shared
the common pursuit of representing the rapidly changing conditions
of modern life. "The Ellington Century" demonstrates how Duke
Ellington's music is as vital to musical modernism as anything by
Stravinsky, more influential than anything by Schoenberg, and has
had a lasting impact on jazz and pop that reaches from Gershwin to
contemporary R&B.
Jazz Theory Workbook accompanies the second edition of the
successful Jazz Theory-From Basic to Advanced Study textbook
designed for undergraduate and graduate students studying jazz. The
overall pedagogy bridges theory and practice, combining theory,
aural skills, keyboard skills, and improvisation into a
comprehensive whole. While the Companion Website for the textbook
features aural and play-along exercises, along with some written
exercises and the answer key, this workbook contains brand-new
written exercises, as well as as well as four appendices: (1)
Rhythmic Exercises, (2) Common-Practice Harmony at the Keyboard,
(3) Jazz Harmony at the Keyboard, and (4) Patterns for Jazz
Improvisaton. Jazz Theory Workbook works in tandem with its
associated textbook in the same format as the 27-chapter book, yet
is also designed to be used on its own, providing students and
readers with quick access to all relevant exercises without the
need to download or print pages that inevitably must be written
out. The workbook is sold both on its own as well as discounted in
a package with the textbook. Jazz Theory Workbook particularly
serves the ever-increasing population of classical students
interested in jazz theory or improvisation. This WORKBOOK is
available for individual sale in various formats: Print Paperback:
9781138334250 Print Hardback: 9781138334243 eBook: 9780429445477
The paperback WORKBOOK is also paired with the corresponding
paperback TEXTBOOK in a discounted PACKAGE (9780367321963).
Born in 1905, Bill Russell demonstrated diverse musical interests
from an early age. A contemporary of John Cage, Henry Cowell and
Lou Harrison, his significance as a percussion composer is well
known among aficionados and his work as a musicologist of New
Orleans jazz music is equally acclaimed. He was a major figure in
the revival of interest in the music of that city, notably from his
recordings of trumpet player Bunk Johnson in the 1940s. He became
the first curator of the Tulane Jazz Archives when they were
established in 1958. This is the first full-length book about Bill
Russell's life that is largely 'in his own words'. It is based on
personal interviews conducted with Russell about the diversity of
his life's work, interspersed with views and anecdotes from his
friends and associates written especially for the book, together
with archive material and a wealth of photos. These sources are
woven together to give a portrait of an extremely talented, modest
man who forsook an academic career to become a champion of the
music and musicians of New Orleans.
The guitarist and composer Pat Metheny ranks among the most popular
and innovative jazz musicians of all time. In Pat Metheny: The ECM
Years, 1975-1984, Mervyn Cooke offers the first in-depth account of
Metheny's early creative period, during which he recorded eleven
stunningly varied albums for the pioneering European record label
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). This impressive body of
recordings encompasses both straight-ahead jazz playing with
virtuosic small ensembles and the increasingly complex textures and
structures of the Pat Metheny Group, a hugely successful band also
notable for its creative exploration of advanced music technologies
which were state-of-the-art at the time. Metheny's music in all its
shapes and forms broke major new ground in its refusal to subscribe
to either of the stylistic poles of bebop and jazz-rock fusion
which prevailed in the late 1970s. Through a series of detailed
analyses based on a substantial body of new transcriptions from the
recordings, this study reveals the close interrelationship of
improvisation and pre-composition which lies at the very heart of
the music. Furthermore, these analyses vividly demonstrate how
Metheny's music is often conditioned by a strongly linear narrative
model: both its story-telling characteristics and atmospheric
suggestiveness have sometimes been compared to those of film music,
a genre in which the guitarist also became active during this early
period. The melodic memorability for which Metheny's compositions
and improvisations have long been world-renowned is shown to be
just one important element in an unusually rich and flexible
musical language that embraces influences as diverse as bebop, free
jazz, rock, pop, country & western, Brazilian music, classical
music, minimalism, and the avant-garde. These elements are melded
into a uniquely distinctive soundworld which, above all, directly
reflects Metheny's passionate belief in the need to refashion jazz
in ways which can allow it to speak powerfully to each new
generation of youthful listeners.
This is the first-ever historical study across all musical genres
in any American metropolis. Detroit in the 1940s-60s was not just
"the capital of the twentieth century" for industry and the war
effort, but also for the quantity and extremely high quality of its
musicians, from jazz to classical to ethnic. The author, a
Detroiter from 1943, begins with a reflection of his early life
with his family and others, then weaves through the music traffic
of all the sectors of a dynamic and volatile city. Looking first at
the crucial role of the public schools in fostering talent, Motor
City Music surveys the neighborhoods of older European immigrants
and of the later huge waves of black and white southerners who
migrated to Detroit to serve the auto and defense industries. Jazz
stars, polka band leaders, Jewish violinists, and figures like Lily
Tomlin emerge in the spotlight. Shaping institutions, from the Ford
Motor Company and the United Auto Workers through radio stations
and Motown, all deployed music to bring together a city rent by
relentless segregation, policing, and spasms of violence. The
voices of Detroit's poets, writers, and artists round out the
chorus.
What, where, and when is jazz? To most of us jazz means small
combos, made up mostly of men, performing improvisationally in
urban club venues. But jazz has been through many changes in the
decades since World War II, emerging in unexpected places and
incorporating a wide range of new styles. In this engrossing new
book, David Ake expands on the discussion he began in "Jazz
Cultures," lending his engaging, thoughtful, and stimulating
perspective to post-1940s jazz. Ake investigates such issues as
improvisational analysis, pedagogy, American exceptionalism, and
sense of place in jazz. He uses provocative case studies to
illustrate how some of the values ascribed to the postwar jazz
culture are reflected in and fundamentally shaped by aspects of
sound, location, and time.
If you ever needed proof that a magazine can have a love affair
with a musician you're holding it in your hands. For EDownBeatE the
preeminent publication of the jazz world Miles Dewey Davis was one
of its most cherished subjects. Since it began covering the jazz
scene in 1939 no other artist has been more diligently chronicled
in its pages than Davis.THThe beauty of this collection is seeing
the development of an artist over time. The reviews of his music go
from quietly introducing a new talent to revering perhaps the
greatest jazz artist of his generation. The feature articles begin
with a very young very polite Davis lamenting I've worked so
little. I could probably tell you where I was playing any night in
the last three years. As he develops the interviews show Davis
gaining confidence and stature showing swagger and becoming the
over-the-top say-it-like-it-is showman that made every interview an
event.THEThe Miles Davis ReaderE compiles more than 200 news
stories feature articles and reviews by some of the greatest
writers in jazz into one volume. It delivers a patchwork of his
words and music a in the moment as they happened.THWith several
lengthy features added along with a dozen new photographs this new
edition is a beautiful series of snapshots a year-by-year ride
through the many phases of Davis as an artist and as a man.
Hurricane Katrina threatened to wash away the history of an
incomparable, culturally vibrant American city, while the aftermath
exposed New Orleans' ugly, deeply rooted racial divisions.
"Subversive Sounds," Charles Hersch's study of the role of race in
the origins of jazz, probes both sides of the city's heritage,
uncovering a web of racial interconnections and animosities that
was instrumental to the creation of a vital art form.
Drawing on oral histories, police reports, newspaper accounts, and
vintage recordings, Hersch brings to vivid life the neighborhoods
and nightspots where jazz was born. He shows how musicians such as
Jelly Roll Morton, Nick La Rocca, and Louis Armstrong negotiated
New Orleans' complex racial rules to pursue their craft and how, in
order to widen their audiences, they became fluent in a variety of
musical traditions from diverse ethnic sources. These encounters
with other music and other races subverted their own racial
identities and changed the way they played--a musical miscegenation
that, in the shadow of Jim Crow, undermined the pursuit of racial
purity and indelibly transformed American culture.
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