Tishomingo Blues

Tishomingo Blues
Author: Elmore Leonard
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0061804789

“Leonard delivers a certifiable masterpiece of such twisted ingenuity that he transcends even his own bad self….Tishomingo Blues is that good.” —Baltimore Sun Crime fiction Grand Master Elmore Leonard heads to the Deep South for a bracing dose of Tishomingo Blues—a wild, Leonard-esque ride featuring gamblers, mobsters, murderers, high divers, and Civil War re-enactors that the New York Times Book Review calls, “Leonard’s best work since Get Shorty.” Sparkling with trademark “Dutch” Leonard dialogue so sharp it could cut you, Tishomingo Blues is classic mystery, mayhem, and gritty noir fun from “the coolest, hottest thriller writer in America” (Chicago Tribune).

Rabbit's Blues

Rabbit's Blues
Author: Con Chapman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0190653914

In his eulogy of saxophonist Johnny Hodges (1907-70), Duke Ellington ended with the words, "Never the world's most highly animated showman or greatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful it sometimes brought tears to the eyes--this was Johnny Hodges. This is Johnny Hodges." Hodges' unforgettable tone resonated throughout the jazz world over the greater part of the twentieth century. Benny Goodman described Hodges as "by far the greatest man on alto sax that I ever heard," and Charlie Parker compared him to Lily Pons, the operatic soprano. As a teenager, Hodges developed his playing style by imitating Sidney Bechet, the New Orleans soprano sax player, then honed it in late-night cutting sessions in New York and a succession of bands lead by Chick Webb, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Luckey Roberts. In 1928 he joined Duke Ellington, beginning an association that would continue, with one interruption, until Hodges' death. Hodges' celebrated technique and silky tone marked him then, and still today, as one of the most important and influential saxophone players in the history of jazz. As the first ever biography on Johnny Hodges, Rabbit's Blues details his place as one of the premier artists of the alto sax in jazz history, and his role as co-composer with Ellington.

Early Jazz

Early Jazz
Author: Gunther Schuller
Publisher: History of Jazz
Total Pages: 422
Release: 1986
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195040432

The first of three volumes on the history and musical contribution of jazz.

Voicing the Popular

Voicing the Popular
Author: Richard Middleton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-09-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1136092749

How does popular music produce its subject? How does it produce us as subjects? More specifically, how does it do this through voice--through "giving voice"? And how should we understand this subject--"the people"--that it voices into existence? Is it singular or plural? What is its history and what is its future? Voicing the Popular draws on approaches from musical interpretation, cultural history, social theory and psychoanalysis to explore key topics in the field, including race, gender, authenticity and repetition. Taking most of his examples from across the past hundred years of popular music development--but relating them to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century "pre-history"--Richard Middleton constructs an argument that relates "the popular" to the unfolding of modernity itself. Voicing the Popular renews the case for ambitious theory in musical and cultural studies, and, against the grain of much contemporary thought, insists on the progressive potential of a politics of the Low.

Long Lost Blues

Long Lost Blues
Author: Peter C. Muir
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2024-03-18
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252056043

Mamie Smith's 1920 recording of ""Crazy Blues"" is commonly thought to signify the beginning of commercial attention to blues music and culture, but by that year more than 450 other blues titles had already appeared in sheet music and on recordings. In this examination of early popular blues, Peter C. Muir traces the genre's early history and the highly creative interplay between folk and popular forms, focusing especially on the roles W. C. Handy played in both blues music and the music business. Long Lost Blues exposes for the first time the full scope and importance of early popular blues to mainstream American culture in the early twentieth century. Closely analyzing sheet music and other print sources that have previously gone unexamined, Muir revises our understanding of the evolution and sociology of blues at its inception.

The Original Hot Five Recordings of Louis Armstrong

The Original Hot Five Recordings of Louis Armstrong
Author: Gene Henry Anderson
Publisher: Pendragon Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781576471203

Between 1925 and 1928 the Hot Five--the incomparable Louis Armstrong and four seasoned practitioners of the burgeoning jazz style--recorded fifty-five performances in Chicago for the OKeh label. Oddly enough, the quintet immortalized on vinyl with recent technology rarely performed as a unit in local nightspots. And yet, like other music now regarded as especially historic, their work in the studio summarized approaches of the past and set standards for the future. Remarkable both for popularity among the members of the public and for influence on contemporary musicians, these recordings helped make "Satchmo" a familiar household name and ultimately its bearer an adored public figure. They showcased Armstrong's genius, notably his leadership in transforming the practice of jazz as an ensemble improvisation into jazz as the art of the improvising soloist. In his study Professor Anderson--for the first time--provides a detailed account of the origins of this pioneering enterprise, relates individual pieces to existing copyright deposits, and contextualizes the music by offering a reliable timeline of Armstrong's professional activities during these years. All fifty-five pieces, moreover, are described in informed commentary [Publisher description].

Moving Targets

Moving Targets
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2005
Genre: Canadian literature
ISBN: 9780887847356

The most precious treasure of this collection is that it gives us the rich back-story and diverse range of influences on Margaret Atwood's work. From the aunts who encouraged her nascent writing career to the influence of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four on The Handmaid's Tale, we trace the movement of Atwood's fertile and curious mind in action over the years.Atwood's controversial political pieces, Napoleon's Two Biggest Mistakes and Letter to America -- both not-so-veiled warnings about the repercussions of the war in Iraq -- also appear, alongside pieces that exhibit her active concern for the environment, the North, and the future of the human race. Atwood also writes about her peers: John Updike, Marina Warner, Italo Calvino, Marian Engel, Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mordecai Richler, Elmore Leonard, and Ursula Le Guin.This is a landmark volume from a major writer whose worldwide readership is in the millions, and whose work has influenced and entertained generations. Moving Targets is the companion volume to Second Words.

Djibouti LP

Djibouti LP
Author: Elmore Leonard
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2010-10-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062008315

Elmore Leonard, New York Times bestselling author and "the hippest, funniest national treasure in sight" (Washington Post), brings his trademark wit and inimitable style to this twisting, gripping—and sometimes playful—tale of modern-day piracy Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker, is at the top of her game. She's covered the rape of Bosnian women, neo-Nazi white supremacists, and post-Katrina New Orleans, and has won awards for all three. Now, looking for a bigger challenge, Dara and her right-hand-man, Xavier LeBo, a six-foot-six, seventy-two-year-old African American seafarer, head to Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, to film modern-day pirates hijacking merchant ships. They learn soon enough that almost no one in the Middle East is who he seems to be. The most successful pirate, driving his Mercedes around Djibouti, appears to be a good guy, but his pal, a cultured Saudi diplomat, has dubious connections. Billy Wynn, a Texas billionaire, plays mysterious roles as the mood strikes him. He's promised his girlfriend, Helene, a nifty fashion model, that he'll marry her if she doesn't become seasick or bored while circling the world on his yacht. And there's Jama Raisuli, a black al Qaeda terrorist from Miami, who's vowed to blow up something big. What Dara and Xavier have to decide, besides the best way to stay alive: Should they shoot the action as a documentary or turn it into a Hollywood feature film?

Analysis of Jazz

Analysis of Jazz
Author: Laurent Cugny
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2019-03-20
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1496821904

Analysis of Jazz: A Comprehensive Approach, originally published in French as Analyser le jazz, is available here in English for the first time. In this groundbreaking volume, Laurent Cugny examines and connects the theoretical and methodological processes that underlie all of jazz. Jazz in all its forms has been researched and analyzed by performers, scholars, and critics, and Analysis of Jazz is required reading for any serious study of jazz; but not just musicians and musicologists analyze jazz. All listeners are analysts to some extent. Listening is an active process; it may not involve questioning but it always involves remembering, comparing, and listening again. This book is for anyone who attentively listens to and wants to understand jazz. Divided into three parts, the book focuses on the work of jazz, analytical parameters, and analysis. In part one, Cugny aims at defining what a jazz work is precisely, offering suggestions based on the main features of definition and structure. Part two he dedicates to the analytical parameters of jazz in which a work is performed: harmony, rhythm, form, sound, and melody. Part three takes up the analysis of jazz itself, its history, issues of transcription, and the nature of improvised solos. In conclusion, Cugny addresses the issues of interpretation to reflect on the goals of analysis with regard to understanding the history of jazz and the different cultural backgrounds in which it takes place. Analysis of Jazz presents a detailed inventory of theoretical tools and issues necessary for understanding jazz.