Benny More (1919-1963) was one of the giants at the center of the golden age of Cuban music. Arguably the greatest singer ever to come from the island, his name is still spoken with reverence and nostalgia by Cubans and Cuban exiles alike. Unable to read music, he nevertheless wrote more than a dozen Cuban standards. His band helped shape what came to be known as the Afro-Cuban sound and, later, salsa. More epitomized the Cuban big-band era and was one of the most important precursors to the music later featured in the Buena Vista Social Club. Even now, to hear his recordings for the first time, it is impossible not to be thrilled and amazed. Journalist John Radanovich has spent years tracking down the musicians who knew More and More family members, seeking out rare recordings and little-known photographs. Radanovich provides the definitive biography of the man and his music, whose legacy was forgotten in the larger scheme of political difficulties between the United States and Cuba. Even the exact spelling of More's first name was unknown until now. The author also examines the milieu of Cuban music in the 1950s, when Havana was the playground of Hollywood stars and the Mafia ran the nightclubs and casinos.

Women performers played a vital role in the development of American and transatlantic entertainment, celebrity culture, and gender ideology. Sara E. Lampert examines the lives, careers, and fame of overlooked figures from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama, ballet, and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences. These women lived and performed the tensions and contradictions of nineteenth-century gender roles, sparking debates about women's place in public life. Yet even their unprecedented wealth and prominence failed to break the patriarchal family structures that governed their lives and conditioned their careers. Inevitable contradictions arose. The burgeoning celebrity culture of the time forced women stage stars to don the costumes of domestic femininity even as the unsettled nature of life in the theater defied these ideals.A revealing foray into a lost time, Starring Women returns a generation of performers to their central place in the early history of American theater.

This collection of interviews with nine of the world's greatest living musicians shines light on the jazz piano trio, one of the genre's most enduring formats. Interviewed musicians include Jeff Hamilton, Richard Davis, Joanne Brackeen, Jeff Ballard, Fred Hersch, Chuck Israels, Peter Erskine, Eric Reed, and Rufus Reid. There is also a lengthy analysis section comparing the diverse responses given by these intriguing individuals.

There are three fundamentals to any great solo: Chords, Scales, and Tone Selection. Learn to use the fundamentals as your three-step approach to jazz improvisation. Over 80 images for Treble and Bass Clef. This book is perfect for beginners, struggling intermediates, and jazz instructors requiring a concise method for students. Simple enough for immediate results, this method can be applied to any style, from the easiest inside harmonies, to the most advanced outside substitutions. While other methods teach patterns and riffs, this book reveals how those patterns and riffs get created in the first place. All images in this edition are monochrome (black and white).

Jazz musician Bobby Hackett - 'one of the finest natural musicians in the business' according to Muggsy Spanier - began his career in the 1930s; it ended with his death in 1976. An extensively researched discography of the vast number of recorded sessions in which Hackett took part during these decades forms the essential core of this substantial book. It is prefaced with the fascinating biographical insights gathered from the articles, reviews, news stories, meetings and interviews which the editors accumulated as they worked, and illustrated throughout with contemporary photographs, advertising, and record labels and covers. Detailed indexes feature both the famous and the influential - Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, Jackie Gleason, Horace Heidt, Glenn Miller, Lee Wiley among them - and the lesser-known working musicians and artists of the era.Prompted by Hackett's death, this work of research started with hand-written index cards, and progressed through typewriters and several generations of word processors and computer operating systems; its publication is a realisation not only of Bobby Hackett's life in music, and place in a period of musical history, but also of an enthusiasm sustained through personal acquisitions, friendships and travel - and listening to a lot of jazz!

Of Fillmore's fifteen band pieces featuring trombones - popularly known as 'trombone smears' - "Lassus Trombone" is easily the most famous, though it was neither first or last in the series, which occupied their composer from 1908 to 1929. Along with the featured trombone glissandi (smears), the work has a distinctly ragtime character. Fillmore was a circus band composer, and slapstick aspect of the trombone smears were the perfect accompaniment to the antics of the clowns. The new Serenissima Band Classics series is designed to offer band directors and others interested in this genre newly engraved authoritative editions which are prepared from the primary sources using the composer's original instrumentaion, which is sometimes markedly different from that found in bands today.

Fillmore composed a total of fifteen band pieces featuring trombones - popularly known as 'trombone smears' - between 1908 to 1929. Composed in 1911, "Teddy Trombone" was second in the series, which was launched three years before with Miss Trombone. Written in the ragtime style so popular at the time, the trombone 'smears' (glissandi) give the work a humorous charcter in keeping with the circus performances it was composed for. The new Serenissima Band Classics series is designed to offer band directors and others interested in this genre newly engraved authoritative editions which are prepared from the primary sources using the composer's original instrumentaion, which is sometimes markedly different from that found in bands today.

Original Music composed by Antonio Ciacca for the Chocolate Festival Event, pairing Richart chocolate with live jazz.

"Practical Jazz Theory for Improvisation" is a jazz theory text with an emphasis on improvisation. Originally conceived as the Jazz Theory/Improvisation text and curriculum for the 2014 National Jazz Workshop, it has already been adopted by several university jazz programs. This book begins at a level accessible by students just beginning in jazz, with reference appendices to fill any fundamental music theory knowledge, yet progresses systematically in technical and conceptual content well beyond all but the most advanced college improvisation classes. With notated examples and exercises demonstrating all concepts as well free downloadable play-along tracks for all exercises, this book will have students playing the material almost immediately. While not required, the available 300+ page companion book, "Practical Jazz Theory for Improvisation Exercise Workbook" (available in treble and bass clef) has all exercises notated in all keys to allow for quicker technical and aural advancement.

This is a book for students and seasoned performers who want to know more about the thought processes for improvising Jazz. It is also for teachers who wish to control the subject in graduated steps. It shows promising students that it won't do to play just anything at any time, and that there is a difference between mere self-gratification and really connecting with a much larger audience. If, as a movement, Jazz has lost its way, this book shows the way back.

Koop Kooper, the Cocktail universe's high priest of all things hep, swinging, and swank, and cyber disc-jockey of his radio show, "The Cocktail Nation," has unleashed the definitive guide to the Lounge universe. Replete with gassin interviews and cool pixeramas, he reveals the incredible diorama of Cocktail culture, lifestyle, and music. Koop mixes it up with cool luminaries and pioneers of the Cocktail soundtrack, such as hepster Jack Constanzo, the bongo player of the 1950s, shakes a martini with the leaders of the revival Combustible Edison, trades smart lip with comedian satirist Shelley Berman and 21st century hit-makers Martini Kings, heads down the dark streets of Cocktail noir, muscling it up with croonoir Jimmy Vargas, then it's off to the Vegas pool, where he conducts an underwater interview with gorgeous fire-eating mermaid Marina. Koop Kooper's Cocktail Nation book is a glorious panorama of all things Lounge, created by the swank meister of uber cool himself.

Jazz rock flourished from 1968 to 1974, offering a distinctively cool and innovative hybrid sound that captivated a generation-and beyond. Superstar bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago have earned their place in popular consciousness, but the movement included many other powerful, innovative groups such as Tower of Power and Malo. Author Mike Baron explores the history of this music fusion, its rise and fall in popularity. He offers highlights-and his own unique insights from a front-row seat in jazz rock-into what made the era so special. A Brief History of Jazz Rock is a sax-meets-Strat bible that dares to inspire a Renaissance-to cultivate a new generation of musicians who might mix brass with bass, and help return forgotten bands like If and Dreams to their place on the main stage.