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Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and
fearless contrarian - 'I'm a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian
pro-lifer' - has lived through much of jazz's history and has known
many of jazz's most important figures, often as friend and
confidant. Hentoff has been a tireless advocate for the neglected
parts of jazz history, including forgotten sidemen and women. This
volume includes his best recent work - short essays, long
interviews, and personal recollections. From Duke Ellington and
Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman and Quincy Jones, Hentoff brings
the jazz greats to life and traces their art to gospel, blues, and
many other forms of American music. "At the Jazz Band Ball" also
includes Hentoff's keen, cosmopolitan observations on a wide range
of issues. The book shows how jazz and education are a vital
partnership, how free expression is the essence of liberty, and how
social justice issues like health care and strong civil rights and
liberties keep all the arts - and all members of society - strong.
Through stories and portraits of the strong personalities around
him, Nat Hentoff brings to life the political, familial, and
musical forces that shaped his unique perspectives on the world.
This is a paperbound reprint of a 2003 book. Village Voice
columnist Hentoff has been one of the most vociferous opponents of
the Bush administration's attempts to curtail American liberty in
the wake of the September 11th attacks. Here he surveys the
broad-based attack on civil liberties spearheaded by Attorney
General John Ashcroft, including dis
Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and
fearless contrarian - 'I'm a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian
pro-lifer' - has lived through much of jazz's history and has known
many of jazz's most important figures, often as friend and
confidant. Hentoff has been a tireless advocate for the neglected
parts of jazz history, including forgotten sidemen and - women.
This volume includes his best recent work - short essays, long
interviews, and personal recollections. From Duke Ellington and
Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman and Quincy Jones, Hentoff brings
the jazz greats to life and traces their art to gospel, blues, and
many other forms of American music. "At the Jazz Band Ball" also
includes Hentoff's keen, cosmopolitan observations on a wide range
of issues. The book shows how jazz and education are a vital
partnership, how free expression is the essence of liberty, and how
social justice issues like health care and strong civil rights and
liberties keep all the arts - and all members of society - strong.
Nat Hentoff is one of America's foremost and most passionate
writers about civil liberties and civil rights. In Living the Bill
of Rights, he has taken what is too often thought of as an abstract
issue and enlivened it by focusing on representative individuals
for whom the Constitution is a vital part of life. As the late
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan told Hentoff, Americans need
to know how "American liberties were won -- and what it takes to
keep them alive".
With characteristic eloquence, Hentoff covers the full range of
American life in these inspiring profiles and stories about public
and private heroes -- Supreme Court Justices William Brennan and
William O. Douglas, Dr. Kenneth O. Clark, and students, teachers,
lawyers, and others who challenge assaults on the Bill of Rights --
people, as Justice Brennan says, "who are not afraid to fight to
keep on being free Americans".
In this wise, stimulating, and deeply personal book, an eminent
jazz chronicler writes of his encounters with four great black
musicians: Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Milt Hinton, and Nat
"King" Cole. Equal parts memoir, oral history, and commentary, each
of the main chapters is a minibiography, weaving together
conversations Gene Lees had with the musicians and their families,
friends, and associates over a period of several decades.
Lees begins the book with an essay that tells of his introduction
to the world of jazz and his reaction to racism in the United
States when he emigrated from Canada in 1955. The underlying theme
in his book is the impact racism had on the four musicians' lives
and careers and their determination to overcome it. As Lees writes,
"No white person can even begin to understand the black experience
in the United States. . . . All of the four jazz makers] are men
who had every reason to embrace bitterness--and didn't."
From the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech, and civil rights to
jazz, blues and country music, Nat Hentoff has written about
American life for decades, in the "Atlantic Monthly," the "New
Yorker," the "Village Voice," the "Wall Street Journal," and
"JazzTimes, " among countless other publications. The "New York
Times" has hailed Hentoff's work as "an invigorating and
entertaining reminder of why freedom of expression matters." The
"Washington Post Book World" has called Hentoff "an old-fashioned
music lover who likes, as Charlie Parker once put it, 'to listen to
the stories' that good music tells." Nat Hentoff is a legend.And
now, for the first time, here are his most important writings of
the past twenty years--the quintessential Hentoff on everything
from Cardinal John O'Connor to Merle Haggard, racism and political
correctness in the classroom to Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie to
the censorship of Huckleberry Finn. Controversial? You bet.
Whatever the topic, "The Nat Hentoff Reader" shows a man of passion
and insight, of streetwise wit and polished eloquence-a true
American original.
Here is Nat Hentoff's deeply felt exploration of jazz, blues,
country, and gospel--and the musicians who bring the music to life.
Hentoff has not only loved music all his life, he has lived it by
being friends with many of the musicians he writes about in this
collection. Hentoff poignantly describes the early days of Roy
Eldridge and the last years of Billie Holiday and Bird. He tells
amazing stories of the Count, Duke, and Dizzy. "Full of insightful
behind-the-scenes encounters" ("San Francisco Chronicle"), "Listen
to the Stories" covers new recordings and old legends, remarkable
lives and unforgettable music.
The last few years have witnessed an enormous resurgence in the
popularity of jazz, after some lean times in the sixties when many
potential jazz fans turned to rock. Now the pendulum is on the
backswing, and vintage and modern jazz as well as "jazz rock" are
attracting huge new audiences. One factor involved in the comeback
of jazz among blacks and whites alike is the rise of black
consciousness, with its search for roots in the American
experience. Nat Hentoff's "The Jazz Life" explores the social,
economic, and psychological elements that make up the context of
modern jazz. Among the jazz greats whose lives and work are
discussed are Count Basie, Charles Mingus, John Lewis, Miles Davis,
Thelonius Monk, and Ornette Coleman. Written with intelligence,
passion, and wit, this jazz classic is of immense importance to
anyone wanting a better understanding of the jazz--or indeed our
American life.
The story of a woman whose work inspired one of London's greatest
attractions. Born in Strasbourg, the young Marie Tussaud learned
her skills from her mother's employer, Philippe Curtius. In 1780
she became tutor to King Louis XVI's sister and for eight years
prior to the Revolution lived at the court in Versailles. In Paris
throughout the Revolution, she was often in extreme danger.
Incredibly, she was forced to make death masks from the decapitated
heads of her friends who fell to the guillotine. In 1802, she
opened her first exhibition at the Lyceum theatre in London. With
modelled figures such as Napoleon and Josephine and other notables
from the Revolution, her exhibition was very popular. She also had
the guillotine blade that severed Marie Antoinette's head. For the
next 26 years Madame Tussaud toured England and Scotland with her
Waxwork Exhibition, until she established her base in Baker Street
in 1835. She had always had a separate room, for the most gruesome
of the models, which in 1846 Punch dubbed The Chamber of Horrors.
The name stuck. She died in 1850 and in 1884, Tussaud's grandsons
moved the exhibition to Marylebone Road, where it remains.
Thank God for Nat, who places the soul of the musician above that
of his art.--Dizzy Gillespie. Writing in a passionate and
streetwise style all his own, Nat Hentoff transports us into the
diverse worlds of musicians that hold one thing in common: America.
In over sixty pieces Hentoff has assembled a mosaic that creates a
vivid picture of the music scene as it leaps into the twenty-first
century. From sweeping surveys of the roots of American music to
vivid assessments of individual performers (including John
Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Joe Williams, Doc Pomus, Duke Ellington,
Willie Nelson, and many more) Hentoff demonstrates once again why
he is lauded as a critic par excellence ( Publishers Weekly ).
American Music Is compiles the best of his essays into a potent
reader, collecting his most illuminating writing on a broad range
of topics. For those who love jazz, blues, country, gospel, or
folk, American Music Is provides eloquent and powerful insights.
For those who love all of them, it is required reading.
Who would have believed that The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn could cause the worst crisis in the history of George Mason High School? Certainly not Barney Roth, editor of the school paper. But when a small but vocal group of students and parents decide that the book is racist, sexist, and immoral--and should be removed from reading lists and the school library--Barney takes matters into his own hands.
When the Huck Finn issue comes up for a hearing, Barney decides to print his story about previous censorship efforts at school. He's sure that investigative reporting and publicity can help the cause. But is he too late to turn the tide of censorship?
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