In Experiencing Jazz: A Listener s Companion, writer, teacher, and prominent jazz drummer Michael Stephans offers a much-needed survey in the art of listening to and enjoying this dynamic, ever-changing art form. More than mere entertainment, jazz provides a pleasurable and sometimes dizzying listening experience with an extensive range in structure and form, from the syncopated swing of big bands to the musical experimentalism of small combos. As Stephans illustrates, listeners and jazz artists often experience the essence of the music together an experience unique in the world of music. Experiencing Jazz demonstrates how the act of listening to jazz takes place on a deeply personal level and takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the genre, instrument by instrument offering not only brief portraits of key musicians like Joe Lovano and John Scofield, but also their own commentaries on how best to experience their music. Throughout, jazz takes center stage as a personal transaction that enriches the lives of the musician and the listener. Written for anyone curious about the musical genre, this book encourages further reading, listening, and viewing, helping potential listeners cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the jazz art and how it can help in drummer Art Blakey s words wash away the dust of everyday life. "

This book develops a theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations. It is essential reading to those seriously involved in linking the arts and cognitive sciences.

How we perceive and respond to visual art has been a central concern of psychologists, philosophers and art historians. Today, where the visual image increasingly permeates our everyday life and consciousness, the question becomes ever more relevant. How do we, for instance, instinctively "know" what it is that a picture represents without having to be taught? How is it that we often want to talk about the pictures we look at? Such questions are currently asked by a wide range of disciplines, including: semiotics, psychoanalysis, anthropology, neuropsychology, and in general, contemporary critical analysis of the visual arts. In "A Transformational Theory of Aesthetics", Michael Stephan breaks new ground by linking the findings of these areas. Drawing on their common area of knowledge, he has developed a new theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations. This is because the left and right hemispheres of the brain do not always work in harmony, hence the wide ranging nature of aesthetic response to distinct art forms.

In Experiencing Jazz: A Listener's Companion, writer, teacher, and renowned jazz drummer Michael Stephans offers a much-needed survey in the art of listening to and enjoying this dynamic, ever-changing art form. More than mere entertainment, jazz provides a pleasurable and sometimes dizzying listening experience with an extensive range in structure and form, from the syncopated swing of big bands to the musical experimentalism of small combos. As Stephans illustrates, listeners and jazz artists often experience the essence of the music together-an experience unique in the world of music. Experiencing Jazz demonstrates how the act of listening to jazz takes place on a deeply personal level and takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the genre, instrument by instrument-offering not only brief portraits of key musicians like Joe Lovano and John Scofield, but also their own commentaries on how best to experience the music they create. Throughout, jazz takes center stage as a personal transaction that enriches the lives of both musician and listener. Written for anyone curious about the genre, this book encourages further reading, listening, and viewing, helping potential listeners cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the jazz art and how it can help-in drummer Art Blakey's words-"wash away the dust of everyday life."

This book develops a theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations. It is essential reading to those seriously involved in linking the arts and cognitive sciences.

Testamentsvollstreckung durch Steuerberater und Vermoegensverwalter ist die moderne Form der Vermoegensnachfolgegestaltung. Sie haben umfassenden Einblick in die Vermoegensverhaltnisse ihrer Mandanten und geniessen deren Vertrauen. Das Werk bietet nicht nur das vollstandige Grundlagenwissen fur den Fachberater Testamentsvollstreckung und Nachlassverwaltung (DStV e.V.), sondern ist daruber hinaus durch die praxisnahe Gestaltung fur jeden, der sich qualitatsorientierter Testamentsvollstreckung verschrieben hat, ein wertvoller Ratgeber.

Mit einem Geleitwort von Prof. Dr. Jean-Paul Thommen

Michael Stephan untersucht ein ressourcentheoretisches Modell zu den Determinanten der technologischen Diversifikation anhand eines Samples von 46 Unternehmen. Die Untersuchung wird erganzt um drei detaillierte Fallstudien von Unternehmen, die in neue technologische Kompetenzen jenseits ihrer Produktbereiche investiert haben."

Die 1911 erstmals erschienenen Geschich-ten spiegeln mit liebevoller Ironie und oft bissigem Humor die bauerliche Welt ei-nes kleinen bayerischen Dorfes. Georg Queri (1879-1919) lasst immer wieder autobiographische Bezuge einfliessen, die er als Gerichts-reporter der "Munchner Neuesten Nachrichten" und seit Marz 1908 als Chefredakteur des "Starnberger Land- und Seeboten" gewonnen hat. Sein genauer Blick auf die Menschen, seine Vertrautheit mit den Nuancen des bairischen Dialekts und seine geschickte Erzahltechnik machen das Buch auch heute noch zu einem wahren Dokument baye-rischer Literatur

Das im Herbst 1918 erschienene Bayerische Kom dienb chl" ist die einzige Kom diensammlung des ein Jahr nach Erscheinen verstorbenen Starnberger Journalisten und Volksschriftstellers. Es enth lt zehn eher zum Lesen gedachte kurze Szenen aus dem Alltagsmilieu der Bauern und Kleinb rger. Das Buch ist deshalb mit zahlreichen Illustrationen von Paul Neu versehen, der die meisten B cher von Queri illustriert hat. Die Neuausgabe bernimmt alle Zeichnungen des Originals. Kernst ck bilden die seit 1911 in den M nchner Neuesten Nachrichten" erschienen S ckinger Kom dien, Wirtshausgespr che ber Kriegsahnungen der Bauern, die treffsicher die Volksmeinung der Vorkriegszeitzeit widerspiegeln. Mit diesem B ndchen wird die von Michael Stephan herausgegebene Queri-Edition im Allitera Verlag fortgesetzt.

Die 1910 erstmals erschienenen Schnurren des Rochus Mang" gehoren wie Die Weltlichen Gesange des Egidius Pfanzelter" (1909) und Der Wochentliche Beobachter von Polykarpszell" (1911) zu den satirischen und humoristischen Schriften Georg Queris. Mit dieser Sammlung von kurzen und unterhaltsamen Erzahlungen, die einem fiktiven Dorfbader mit Namen Rochus Mang als einem typischen Vertreter der dorflichen Welt in den Mund gelegt werden, weist sich Queri erneut als einer der besten Vermittler bairischer Sprache und Lebensart aus. Viele dieser Schnurren wurden und werden bis heute weiter erzahlt. So hat auch Oskar Maria Graf die Geschichte Vom Hirnpecker" in sein frivoles Bayrische Dekameron" (1928) aufgenommen. Auch Graf zeigte sich ebenso wie Georg Queri von dem oft stark erotischen Charakter und der prallen Lebenslust der Schnurre fasziniert.

Saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Ornette Coleman, along with pianist Cecil Taylor, was one of the founding forces of the Free Jazz movement which took the music world by storm in the 1950s and 60s. His brilliance as an instrumentalist at first positioned him as a polarizing figure, but eventually brought him recognition as an American original and international jazz treasure. Jazz drummer Michael Stephans explores the personal challenges Coleman faced, the music he created from one decade to the next, and the incredibly positive attitude he maintained in the face of so much negativity throughout his life. Revealing how Coleman became an iconic, enigmatic figure not only in jazz, but in much of contemporary improvisational music, Stephans weaves together analysis of Coleman's recordings with interviews of those who knew Coleman best. Experiencing Ornette Coleman: A Listener's Companion encourages both jazz devotees and readers with little knowledge of the music to trace the inspirational journey of this now-seminal figure from his early years through the beginnings of the new millennium. Along the way, readers will learn about the music and motivations of the free jazz movement while experiencing an utterly human story of artistic genius and expression.