Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Author: James Jamerson
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1989
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780881888829

(Guitar Book). Bassist James Jamerson was the embodiment of the Motown spirit and groove the invisible entity whose playing inspired thousands. His tumultuous life and musical brilliance are explored in depth through hundreds of interviews, 49 transcribed musical scores, two hours of recorded all-star performances, and more than 50 rarely seen photos in this stellar tribute to behind-the-scenes Motown. Features a 120-minute CD! Allan Slutsky's 2002 documentary of the same name is the winner of the New York Film Critics "Best Documentary of the Year" award!

Motown Bass Classics (Songbook)

Motown Bass Classics (Songbook)
Author: Hal Leonard Corp.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998-12-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1458452484

(Bass Recorded Versions). Exact transcriptions with tab for 21 bass-heavy Motown faves: Ain't No Mountain High Enough * Baby Love * Dancing in the Street * Get Ready * I Just Want to Celebrate * My Girl * My Guy * Stop! in the Name of Love * Where Did Our Love Go * You Can't Hurry Love * and more.

RnB, Soul & Motown Style Basslines

RnB, Soul & Motown Style Basslines
Author: Dan Hawkins
Publisher: WWW.Fundamental-Changes.com
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2021-08-04
Genre:
ISBN: 9781789332438

RnB, Soul & Motown Style Basslines is your complete guide to mastering the essential skills of Soul bass guitar.

Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation

Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation
Author: Ramon Ricker
Publisher: Alfred Music
Total Pages: 88
Release: 1999-11-27
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781457494109

More than a pattern book, this lays out the theory behind the use of pentatonic scales in jazz, and follows with transcribed solos and exercises. Still a favorite after 14 years, this book has become a standard in the field.

Dancing in the Street

Dancing in the Street
Author: Suzanne E. Smith
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2001-05-02
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0674043839

Detroit in the 1960s was a city with a pulse: people were marching in step with Martin Luther King, Jr., dancing in the street with Martha and the Vandellas, and facing off with city police. Through it all, Motown provided the beat. This book tells the story of Motown--as both musical style and entrepreneurial phenomenon--and of its intrinsic relationship to the politics and culture of Motor Town, USA. As Suzanne Smith traces the evolution of Motown from a small record company firmly rooted in Detroit's black community to an international music industry giant, she gives us a clear look at cultural politics at the grassroots level. Here we see Motown's music not as the mere soundtrack for its historical moment but as an active agent in the politics of the time. In this story, Motown Records had a distinct role to play in the city's black community as that community articulated and promoted its own social, cultural, and political agendas. Smith shows how these local agendas, which reflected the unique concerns of African Americans living in the urban North, both responded to and reconfigured the national civil rights campaign. Against a background of events on the national scene--featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Nat King Cole, and Malcolm X--Dancing in the Street presents a vivid picture of the civil rights movement in Detroit, with Motown at its heart. This is a lively and vital history. It's peopled with a host of major and minor figures in black politics, culture, and the arts, and full of the passions of a momentous era. It offers a critical new perspective on the role of popular culture in the process of political change.

Motown

Motown
Author: Gerald Posner
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2009-04-02
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0307538621

In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building’s entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted “Hitsville U.S.A.” The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company’s name was Motown. Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America’s most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002. Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America’s northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit’s inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom—drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition. Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family. Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit’s Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial—and hitherto largely untold—history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation. From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation.

R & B bass

R & B bass
Author: Glenn Letsch
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2005
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780634073700

Beginner Bass Guitar Instruction

Gold Thunder: A Legendary Adventures of a Motown Bassman

Gold Thunder: A Legendary Adventures of a Motown Bassman
Author: Tony Newton
Publisher: Tony Newton
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2010-12-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Gold Thunder is the autobiography of music legend Tony Newton. It chronicles his life from the early years as kid musician, beating the competition to become a Motown bassist during the explosion of American music in the 1960’s Detroit. Newton’s story is the story of a musician’s quest for excellence, and we follow him through a career as a “first call” bass player and recording artist in Detroit and in Los Angeles and worldwide touring artist up through the present day. It is also the story of a musician’s challenges and sacrifices to follow his destiny. Gold Thunder Follows Newton’s career as a bass player with Motown and Blues stars, including John Lee Hooker, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and others. From being a cocky kid trying to fight his way into the music business in Detroit, Newton goes on to become a musician-artist in various music groups, including The Eighth Day, Tony Williams Lifetime, G-Force with Gary Moore, TNT Xtreme, and the Thunderfunkfusion project. Quotes from industry leaders and critics: “When I arrived at Motown in 1963, Tony Newton was already there as the bass player for the Smokey and the Miracles. He was even there before Earl Van Dyke or Uriel Jones. Tony and I were two of the first musicians (now still living) to tour Europe with Motown acts. He was and still is one of the best bass players that ever did it. Later, when I became a touring artist, Tony joined me as the bass player. I was very familiar with his skills, but during a sound check, Tony sat at the piano and performed a sensational original classical composition. I was totally surprised at his versatility. When I recall the production of the documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, I say here and now, based on the facts, Tony Newton is a Funk Brother.” …Jack Ashford, Legendary Motown Funk Brother and Grammy Winner “Tony Newton, super genius, will go down in history as one of the most vital path-forgers of our era” …Music critic Randali of Mean Street Magazine “Like Allan Holdsworth, he not only plays long beautiful lines, but at the same time he plays very rhythmically. Some bass players are busy playing the bass as if it's another guitar. That's fine with me, except that it wasn't what I wanted for the band” …Tony Williams “Once in a while, not very often, a songwriter will come up with what we call a ‘classic.’ That’s what Tony Newton has managed to do on Tony Williams album "Believe It." Newton’s songs "Snake Oil" and "Red Alert" are both classics. I just played a week’s gig at the Iridium club in New York. Guess what the only song we played that wasn’t my own? Snake Oil of course!” …Robby Krieger, The Doors “Architect of Fusion Brings The Edge To Extreme Music Minds! Legendary Musician-composer’s new Thunderfunkfusion project promises inspiring music frontiers for exploring music lovers.” …Quantum Media Music