This is the first in-depth survey of the oboe during its Golden Age, tracing the history of the instrument from its invention through its many mutations as it adapted to the changing demands of composers. The author describes in detail the instruments, players, makers, and composers, how and where it was played, and who listened to it.

During America's Swing Era, no musician was more successful or controversial than Artie Shaw: the charismatic and opinionated clarinetist-bandleader whose dozens of hits became anthems for "the greatest generation." But some of his most beautiful recordings were not issued until decades after he'd left the scene. He broke racial barriers by hiring African American musicians. His frequent "retirements" earned him a reputation as the Hamlet of jazz. And he quit playing for good at the height of his powers. The handsome Shaw had seven wives (including Lana Turner and Ava Gardner). Inveterate reader and author of three books, he befriended the best-known writers of his time. Tom Nolan, who interviewed Shaw between 1990 and his death in 2004 and spoke with one hundred of his colleagues and contemporaries, captures Shaw and his era with candor and sympathy, bringing the master to vivid life and restoring him to his rightful place in jazz history. Originally published in hardcover under the title Three Chords for Beauty's Sake.

This is the first biography of the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938-72). He was a prodigy: recruited to Dizzy Gillespie's big band while still a teenager, joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers not much after, by his early-20s Morgan had played on four continents and dozens of albums. The trumpeter would go on to cultivate a personal and highly influential style, and to make records - most notably "The Sidewinder" - which would sell amounts almost unheard of in jazz. While what should have been Morgan's most successful years were hampered by a heroin addiction, the ascendant black liberation movement of the late-60s gave the musician a new, political impulse, and he returned to the jazz scene to become a vociferous campaigner for black musicians' rights and representation. But Morgan's personal life remained troubled, and during a fight with his girlfriend at a New York club, he was shot and killed, aged 33.

The oboe, including its earlier forms the shawm and the hautboy, is an instrument with a long and rich history. In this book two distinguished oboist-musicologists trace that history from its beginnings to the present time, discussing how and why the oboe evolved, what music was written for it, and which players were prominent. Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes begin by describing the oboe's prehistory and subsequent development out of the shawm in the mid-seventeenth century. They then examine later stages of the instrument, from the classical hautboy to the transition to a keyed oboe and eventually the Conservatoire-system oboe. The authors consider the instrument's place in Romantic and Modernist music and analyze traditional and avant-garde developments after World War II. Noting the oboe's appearance in paintings and other iconography, as well as in distinctive musical contexts, they examine what this reveals about the instrument's social function in different eras. Throughout the book they discuss the great performers, from the pioneers of the seventeenth century to the traveling virtuosi of the eighteenth, the masters of the romantic period and the legends of the twentieth century such as Gillet, Goossens, Tabuteau, and Holliger. With its extensive illustrations, useful technical appendices, and discography, this is a comprehensive and authoritative volume that will be the essential companion for every woodwind student and performer.

Teachers and flutists at all levels have praised Nancy Toff's The Flute Book, a unique one-stop guide to the flute and its music. Organized into four main parts-The Instrument, Performance, The Music, and Repertoire Catalog-the book begins with a description of the instrument and its making, offers information on choosing and caring for a flute, sketches a history of the flute, and discusses differences between members of the flute family. In the Performance section, readers learn about breathing, tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, performing, and recording. In the extensive analysis of flute literature that follows, Toff places individual pieces in historical context. The book ends with a comprehensive catalog of solo and chamber repertoire, and includes appendices with fingering charts as well as lists of current flute manufacturers, repair shops, sources for flute music and books, and flute clubs and related organizations worldwide. In this Third Edition, Toff has updated the book to reflect technology's advancements-like new digital recording technology and recordings' more prevalent online availability-over the last decade. She has also accounted for new scholarship on baroque flutes; recent developments like those of the contrabass flute, quarter-tone flute, and various manufacturing refinements and experiments; consumers' purchase prices for flutes; and an updated repertoire catalog, index, and appendices.

This book by the former Professor of Flute at the Royal Academy of Music (1945-1985) and Principal Flute of the Philharmonia Orchestra (1949-1972) is designed for professional and amateur alike. It contains detailed instructions for sound production, breath control, intonation, tonguing, and dynamics and offers sound advice on phrasing, tone, vibrato, and orchestral playing. There are annotated fingering charts showing normal fingerings, alternative fingerings, and trill fingerings, and a concise account of the history of the instrument. There is a useful repertory list and an appendix by Sebastian Bell (Principal Flute of the London Sinfonietta and current Professor of Flute at the RAM) describing avant-garde techniques.

(Instrumental Folio). This mammoth collection includes instrumental solos of more than 70 Disney classics: Beauty and the Beast * Can You Feel the Love Tonight * Friend like Me * It's a Small World * Mickey Mouse March * A Pirate's Life * Reflection * The Siamese Cat Song * A Spoonful of Sugar * Trashin' the Camp * Under the Sea * We're All in This Together * Winnie the Pooh * Written in the Stars * You've Got a Friend in Me * Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah * and dozens more.