Musicians, singers, bands and groups Books

Book SynopsisA contribution to the history of the blues and of Afro-American culture in general. Writing from a black/feminist standpoint, Harrison shows the joys, trials, heartbreaks and enduring influence of such singers as Victoria Spivey and Alberta Hunter.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Riding "Toby" to the Big Time 2. "Crazy Blues" Starts a New Craze 3. "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues": Blues from the Black Woman's Perspective 4. "Up the Country..." and Still Singing the Blues: Sippie Wallace 5. Blue Was Her Business: Victoria Spivey 6. "He Used to Be Your Man..." But He's Edith Wilson's Now 7. She's Got a Mind to Ramble: Alberta Hunter Conclusion Other Blues Singers Selected Blues Titles by Women Notes Glossary of Colloquialisms Selected Discography Bibliography Subject Index Index of Song Titles

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Book SynopsisTrade Review "Fans will appreciate Metsa's stories about the writing and reception of many of his songs."—Publishers Weekly "More than simply a title of regional interest to Midwesterners, this musical journey will resonate with readers who prefer their tell-alls spiced with a generous helping of conviction and a dash of humility."—Kirkus Reviews "Blue Guitar Highway is a convincing testament to the strength that a performer can draw on by remaining in touch with his or her roots, while remaining open to the trials and rewards along the road of an America steeped in song."—Discorder Magazine "You’ve got to admire Paul Metsa. He chased his dreams and became an accomplished Minneapolis-based guitarist and songwriter. Although he’s often lived gig to gig, you sense from this memoir that he’s loved the ride."—Lake Superior Magazine "Blue Guitar Highway has so many compelling stories that you can’t put it down."—Star Tribune "Metsa’s style is readable, sometimes funny, sometimes lyrical, and full of passion."—Northeaster and North News "Blue Guitar Highway is . . . Paul Metsa’s equivalent of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Vol. 1."—Hometown Focus "Metsa uses his talents as a songwriter and lyricist to full advantage. His prose sets us to laughing, crying, and remembering often within the same sentence. . . . This memoir belongs on any music fan’s bookshelf."—Mark Munger, Cloquet River Press "Reading the words of Paul Metsa as recorded in his memoir, Blue Guitar Highway, is a walk through the several decades of the local music scene with all of his and its connections with the ages and stages of American music writ large."—Twin Cities Daily Planet "While the 271-page work is full of telling, humorous anecdotes from Metsa’s life—including the time he slipped Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia some leftover, psychedelic mushrooms—the story’s primary message is one of perseverance and passion."—The Downtown Journal "Blue Guitar Highway conveys all the sweet absurdity, dry humor, and passion for the language of music that has made Metsa’s story sing."—Grand Rapids Herald-Review "For music-lovers who admire the 80s and 90s in the Twin Cities rock-and-roll scene, Metsa’s journey is worth delving into."—Woodbury-South Maplewood Review "Blue Guitar Highway, by Paul Metsa will certainly please music buffs who remember Metsaʼs days in the joints on Minneapolisʼs West Bank."—River Falls Journal "Packed with colorful details about music venues in Minneapolis and on the Range and with references to things uniquely Minnesotan, Blue Guitar Highway offers lots of local appeal. On a broader plane, Metsaʼs book is an anthem to professional musicians who live to play. His heartfelt tributes to those who influenced him in his musical pursuits are numerous. So belly up to the bar now and then, and get to know this gregarious Minnesotan, a born storyteller."—Duluth News Tribune "Metsa writes so well that he can even make a hangover seem beautiful. Compelling, gripping and laugh out loud funny even as he describes some far from funny happenstance, Metsa takes us on his lifelong ride, from the death of his mother on an operating table, to his bust for cocaine possession, through a personal quest to save a beloved local theatre, all told within the roller coaster ride of a musician from whom “quit” is definitely not an option. He is Minnesota’s other Dylan."—Sound Waves Magazine "The anecdotes are entertaining, the self-deprecating humor is often captivating, and the music trivia is mostly entertaining to those of us who know little about the music and the culture of Minnesota in the middle of the last century."—No Depression "Metsa is the other great folksinger from Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range."—Huffington Post "Metsa is a mountain in Minnesota music."—Bobby VeeTable of ContentsContentsForeword by David CarrGuitar FoolsA Boy and His GuitarBuckshot in Short PantsThe Cry of the MuskratCats Under the StarsVaseline Machine GunOne More Saturday NightFranklin AvenueElectric High HeelsParty to a CrimeRobots on Death RowHouse of CardsWhistling Past the GraveyardFerris Wheels on the FarmCity of the AngelsMississippi FarewellNo Money DownSwing Low, Sweet ChariotGhosts of Woody GuthrieMartini GulchWhite Boys Lost in the BluesFrom Russia with LoveKey to the HighwaySisuTexas in the Twilight ZoneSlings and ArrowsBarbeque and BluesIko-IkoSlow JusticeStars Over the PrairieFireworks on the 4th of JulyAcknowledgmentsDiscographyConcert Appearances

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Book SynopsisTexas-born T Bone Burnett is an award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer with over forty years of experience in the entertainment industry. Heath Carpenter evaluates and positions Burnett as a major cultural catalyst by grounding his work, and that of others abiding by a similar ""roots"" ethic, in the American South.

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Book SynopsisWith the exception of a few dance recordings, including "Is It All Over My Face?" and "Go Bang! numbered 5", Arthur Russell's pioneering music was largely forgotten until the issue of two albums in 2004 triggered a revival of interest. This title presents the life Russell.Trade Review“[A] sensitive and thorough biography. . . . In a sense, Arthur Russell was so much a part of his times that he tended to disappear into them, blending in with so many different scenes that the camouflage seemed at times to have taken over. Lawrence notes, for example, how many previous accounts of the New York downtown scene fail to notice him at all. With Hold On to Your Dreams, the outline of an outstanding and prescient artist can now be more clearly made out.” - Ken Hollings, The Wire“[W]hat makes this book valuable is that Russell’s shadowy ubiquity turns an ostensible biography into a first draft of that elusive comprehensive history of the downtown performing arts. Hold On to Your Dreams has to go everywhere, because that’s where Russell went. . . . [E]ven if you didn’t know about Russell and are not yet persuaded to pursue him further, this is still a book worth reading. . . . Psychologically, Russell emerges as indeed fascinating, more fascinating than his music, as a maverick without, Lawrence notes, the feisty self-righteousness such figures often embody. . . . Russell has inspired a book that helps us understand a thrilling twenty-five years of American cultural history.” - John Rockwell, Bookforum“[An exhaustive, often spellbinding account of the life of one of music’s true maverick enigmas. . . . While the book provides many fresh insights into the 80s downtown hotbed, Russell emerges as a strange, fragile figure, in a monumental work. Hold On To Your Dreams is a captivating record of a true original’s all-too-brief life.” - Kris Needs, Record Collector“The passionate, revelatory anecdotes collected here follow Russell through those liminal downtown nightclubs, loft spaces, and recording studios that made his life and music possible.” - Carol Cooper, Village Voice“[A]n exemplary demonstration of exactly what a biography should do. In his rigorously researched investigation of musician and composer Arthur Russell, cultural theory lecturer Tim Lawrence effortlessly explores his subject and in so doing shines fresh light on the darkened recesses of both New York's downtown music scene and the popular cultural landscape of Russell's times. And despite Russell's relative obscurity, the book leaves you in no doubt as to how influential this maverick music figure has been.” - Martin James, Times Higher Education Supplement“Hold On to Your Dreams tells the story of an artist whose life becomes more intriguing with every turn. Inspiring and written with love, this book takes us to the roots of Arthur Russell’s music, from the streets of New York to the cornfields of Iowa.”—Jens Lekman, musician“Tim Lawrence has written a fascinating and insightful biography of a sensitive and searching soul. Arthur Russell was a personal artist whose musical vision led him to coexist in seemingly incompatible worlds. Through the lens of Arthur Russell’s life (never clouded with material success or celebrity), Tim Lawrence gives us a sharp and singular portrait of late-twentieth-century American life. A fine read, with a depth and detail that resonate with Arthur Russell’s sparkle and wit.”—Peter Gordon, Love of Life Orchestra“With rich and animated detail, Tim Lawrence tracks Arthur Russell’s insatiable drive to integrate so-called serious music and pop. This definitive biography is both an engrossing record of Russell’s musical ambitions and a compelling account of the fertile downtown scene that supported his admirable dreams.”—Matt Wolf, director of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell“[A] sensitive and thorough biography. . . . In a sense, Arthur Russell was so much a part of his times that he tended to disappear into them, blending in with so many different scenes that the camouflage seemed at times to have taken over. Lawrence notes, for example, how many previous accounts of the New York downtown scene fail to notice him at all. With Hold On to Your Dreams, the outline of an outstanding and prescient artist can now be more clearly made out.” -- Ken Hollings * The Wire *“[A]n exemplary demonstration of exactly what a biography should do. In his rigorously researched investigation of musician and composer Arthur Russell, cultural theory lecturer Tim Lawrence effortlessly explores his subject and in so doing shines fresh light on the darkened recesses of both New York's downtown music scene and the popular cultural landscape of Russell's times. And despite Russell's relative obscurity, the book leaves you in no doubt as to how influential this maverick music figure has been.” -- Martin James * Times Higher Education *“[An exhaustive, often spellbinding account of the life of one of music’s true maverick enigmas. . . . While the book provides many fresh insights into the 80s downtown hotbed, Russell emerges as a strange, fragile figure, in a monumental work. Hold On To Your Dreams is a captivating record of a true original’s all-too-brief life.” -- Kris Needs * Record Collector *“[W]hat makes this book valuable is that Russell’s shadowy ubiquity turns an ostensible biography into a first draft of that elusive comprehensive history of the downtown performing arts. Hold On to Your Dreams has to go everywhere, because that’s where Russell went. . . . [E]ven if you didn’t know about Russell and are not yet persuaded to pursue him further, this is still a book worth reading. . . . Psychologically, Russell emerges as indeed fascinating, more fascinating than his music, as a maverick without, Lawrence notes, the feisty self-righteousness such figures often embody. . . . Russell has inspired a book that helps us understand a thrilling twenty-five years of American cultural history.” -- John Rockwell * Bookforum *“The passionate, revelatory anecdotes collected here follow Russell through those liminal downtown nightclubs, loft spaces, and recording studios that made his life and music possible.” -- Carol Cooper * Village Voice *Table of ContentsIllustrations xi Preface xv Acknowledgments xxiii Introduction 1 1. Formations (1951–1973) 11 2. Explorations (1973–1975) 47 3. Alternatives (1975–1977) 83 4. Intensities (1977–1980) 125 5. Variations (1980–1984) 179 6. Reverberations (1984–1987) 247 7. Tangents (1987–1992) 293 Epilogue 341 Notes 359 Discography 377 Bibliography 387 Index 393

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Book SynopsisTony Allen is the autobiography of legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, the rhythmic engine of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat.Trade Review“There’s a sentence in the introduction where Veal, a Yale professor, uses the phrase ‘indigenization of jazz drumming’, but don’t let that put you off. The academic is present primarily to transcribe and edit, while Allen reflects on 50 years at the coalface. . . One of the great sidemen, Allen here cuts mercilessly through the bullshit.” -- David Hutcheon * Mojo *“Allen bring us his inspirational biography. Written together with Michael Veal, author of Fela Kuti’s biography, this is the most accessible Afrobeat book of them all. . . . Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of West-African popular music.” * AfrobeatMusic.net *“Tony Allen is a fascinating insider’s view of how a musician and a musical style developed over time. Allen is a compelling storyteller and sharp observer whose memories bring forth a stream of ideas, anecdotes, humor, and life lessons that add up to an insightful auto-ethnography. Well-organized and concise, the book flows as a story of one of the most important West African musicians of the past 50 years, a narrative of creativity in post-colonial African popular music, and sound advice on how to have a long and productive career in music.” -- Thomas Brett * Popular Music and Society *“This master drummer’s account is enriched by unstinting critical appraisal, whether evaluating Fela’s most loved recordings or his own subsequent solo efforts. Tony Allen, ever restless, retains the enthusiasm of an absolute beginner, tempered with a survivor’s wisdom. His life obviously a work in progress, one anticipates music yet to come and the stories that surface in its wake.” -- Richard Henderson * The Wire *“[D]rummers are going to love this book. With so few autobiographies of drummers in print, the publication of Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat is a cause for celebration. . . . Most importantly, the book is a hell of a lot of fun to read, although Allen's first-hand accounts of his struggles with shamanistic bandleader and Nigeria's adopted ‘black president’ Fela Anikulapo-Kuti will piss off any musician who has had to fight to get paid for playing a gig." -- Chris Becker * All About Jazz *“After decades of being underpaid and underappreciated for his contributions with Kuti and beyond, it’s satisfying to see Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat in print. Drummers, fans of African music, and lovers of music more generally will find a lot to love in this book.” -- Zachary Stockill * Popmatters *"There is much to enjoy from his account of growing up and becoming part of 'swinging Lagos' pre 1978, before it was unsafe to venture out at night. The part describing his musical influences and relationship with Fela Kuti is illuminating. Tony, one of the originators of Afrobeat, still plays to sellout crowds in his seventies . . . demonstrating that age is just a number. Allen's autobiography is a gem." * The Voice *“Anyone who knows their Afrobeat will tell you how pivotal the kit drummer Tony Allen was to the genre’s development. Indeed, as . . . Michael Veal points out in this important, deftly crafted book, the pairing of Allen and the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti could be likened to partnerships between such jazz supernovas as Coltrane and Elvin Jones; Miles and Philly Joe Jones; Ornette and Billy Higgins.” -- Jane Cornwel * Jazzwise *“This is not a slice of dry academia, what we get in this incredibly fruitful collaboration is 160 pages of rich revealing narrative that is so engrossing that I missed my stop on the tube. . . . Basically, I couldn’t put the book down and it had me sifting through the records to provide a soundtrack to the narrative.” -- Paul Brad * Ancient to Future *“This is a much needed, truly fascinating book. . . . Allen spins the tale of his life, and of the evolution of one of the great popular musical styles of the 20th century, like the great storyteller he is. It’s a narrative filled with tasty anecdotes and twinkling details, which just add to its momentum. You can almost see the wry smile on his face as he challenges you to make up his own mind . . . Allen’s totally absorbing narrative was edited and shaped by Michael E. Veal. . . . In his introduction he treats us to an unbeatably succinct, lucidly accurate contextual analysis of Allen as a ‘Yoruba modernist’. He also gets to grips with how the Allen technique works. . . . This is highly readable and highly recommended.” -- Max Reinhardt * Songlines *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction / Michael E. Veal 1 1. Right in the Center of Lagos 21 2. Highlife Time 36 3. The Sky was the Limit 47 4. God's Own Country 68 5. Swinging Like Hell! 85 6. Everything Scatter 108 7. Progress 128 8. When One Road Closes . . . 146 9. Paris Blues 162 10. No End to Business 175 Selected References 187 Index 193

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Book SynopsisPart ethnography, part biography, and part Caribbean music history, Roy Cape is about the making of reputation and circulation, and about the meaning of labor and work ethics. An experiment in storytelling, it joins Roy's voice with that of ethnomusicologist Jocelyne Guilbault.Trade Review“The book is rich in the details of Cape’s life and his times. . . .Recommended.” -- T. E. Miller * Choice *“This is a superb book on a much-neglected area of world music: the pivotal role played by the bandleader, who for too long has remained in the shadows.” -- Charles de Ledesma * Songlines *"The unique style of interweaving storytelling and anthropological research with the voices of Roy Cape, the subject of this work, and Jocelyne Guilbault, an astute ethnomusicologist, is both refreshing and exciting.... Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand is a mustread for all researchers, students, aspiring musicians, and aficionados of popular music in general and of Caribbean music and popular music culture in particular." -- Donna P. Hope * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Jocelyne Guilbault... is one of the few non-Caribbean ethnomusicologists who has researched Eastern Caribbean music as if she is an insider, particularly from the perspective of band members rather than headline singers. Together in unique collaboration, this matched pair has created a short book that both illuminates the career of a pivotal musician and constructs a refreshing approach to narrative, diologic ethnomusicology." -- Donald Hill * American Anthropologist *“Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand is a successful path finding experiment in terms of its content as well as of its form…. In departing from traditional or conventional biography towards the multivocal, multimodal presentation of Roy Cape, the book alters researchers to the fact that they, like Nobel-Prize winner Derek Walcott, need to create new metaphors for and forms of communicating our collective (musical) experience.” -- Louis Regis * World of Music *"[A]n admirable collaboration, both in producing new perspectives to existing Caribbean scholarship and in demonstrating that there is still much to learn from 'behind the scenes' of the West Indian carnival music industry." -- Amelia K. Ingram * Latin American Music Review *"[W]hile reading Roy Cape, readers may end up feeling as though they are sitting around a coffee table in Trinidad with Guilbault and Cape, passing around old pictures and telling school stories or reminiscing about bands, sometimes with friends dropping by to lime (laugh, joke, drink, and tell stories)." -- Gage Averill * Musicultures *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Notes on the Text xv Introduction 1 1. For the Love of Music: Up from the Panyards and at the Orphanage 23 2. Working as a Bandsman 42 3. Listening to Roy Sounding 76 4. Leading the Band 99 5. Remembering with Pictures 135 6. Working with Roy: Musicians and Friends Speak 183 7. Circulation: Summarizing a Career 207 Afterword. Writing Voices 229 Notes 233 Select Discography 259 References 261 About the Companion CD 277 Index 279

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Book SynopsisPart ethnography, part biography, and part Caribbean music history, Roy Cape is about the making of reputation and circulation, and about the meaning of labor and work ethics. An experiment in storytelling, it joins Roy's voice with that of ethnomusicologist Jocelyne Guilbault.Trade Review“The book is rich in the details of Cape’s life and his times. . . .Recommended.” -- T. E. Miller * Choice *“This is a superb book on a much-neglected area of world music: the pivotal role played by the bandleader, who for too long has remained in the shadows.” -- Charles de Ledesma * Songlines *"The unique style of interweaving storytelling and anthropological research with the voices of Roy Cape, the subject of this work, and Jocelyne Guilbault, an astute ethnomusicologist, is both refreshing and exciting.... Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand is a mustread for all researchers, students, aspiring musicians, and aficionados of popular music in general and of Caribbean music and popular music culture in particular." -- Donna P. Hope * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Jocelyne Guilbault... is one of the few non-Caribbean ethnomusicologists who has researched Eastern Caribbean music as if she is an insider, particularly from the perspective of band members rather than headline singers. Together in unique collaboration, this matched pair has created a short book that both illuminates the career of a pivotal musician and constructs a refreshing approach to narrative, diologic ethnomusicology." -- Donald Hill * American Anthropologist *“Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand is a successful path finding experiment in terms of its content as well as of its form…. In departing from traditional or conventional biography towards the multivocal, multimodal presentation of Roy Cape, the book alters researchers to the fact that they, like Nobel-Prize winner Derek Walcott, need to create new metaphors for and forms of communicating our collective (musical) experience.” -- Louis Regis * World of Music *"[A]n admirable collaboration, both in producing new perspectives to existing Caribbean scholarship and in demonstrating that there is still much to learn from 'behind the scenes' of the West Indian carnival music industry." -- Amelia K. Ingram * Latin American Music Review *"[W]hile reading Roy Cape, readers may end up feeling as though they are sitting around a coffee table in Trinidad with Guilbault and Cape, passing around old pictures and telling school stories or reminiscing about bands, sometimes with friends dropping by to lime (laugh, joke, drink, and tell stories)." -- Gage Averill * Musicultures *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Notes on the Text xv Introduction 1 1. For the Love of Music: Up from the Panyards and at the Orphanage 23 2. Working as a Bandsman 42 3. Listening to Roy Sounding 76 4. Leading the Band 99 5. Remembering with Pictures 135 6. Working with Roy: Musicians and Friends Speak 183 7. Circulation: Summarizing a Career 207 Afterword. Writing Voices 229 Notes 233 Select Discography 259 References 261 About the Companion CD 277 Index 279

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Book SynopsisRaymond Knapp traces the musical legacy of German Idealism as it led to the declining prestige of composers such as Haydn while influencing the development of American popular music in the nineteenth century, showing how the existence of camp in Haydn and American music offer ways of reassessing Haydn's oeuvre.Trade Review“Making Light will surely spark many fruitful and interesting discussions, and lead to ever clearer and more meaningful ways of looking at performance.” -- Michael E. Ruhling * Haydn *“As a writer and thinker, Raymond Knapp is a congenial musicologist—eschewing the obscurities of hard theoretical labor and preferring colorful insights. Highly recommended.” -- M. Dineen * Choice *"I recommend Making Light strongly; it is provocative, stimulating and overflowing in original and insightful argument. [Knapp] moves the study of Haydn in a new direction, while developing new ways of understanding how idealistic perspectives on music have shaped the values attached to different forms of music-making." -- Derek B. Scott * Popular Music *"A rich and timely study. . . . Readers interested in fresh approaches to Haydn’s catalogue or camp in American musical culture will find Making Light an intriguing study of marginalized musical features across canonic boundaries." -- Jon Churchill * Current Musicology *

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Book SynopsisRaymond Knapp traces the musical legacy of German Idealism as it led to the declining prestige of composers such as Haydn while influencing the development of American popular music in the nineteenth century, showing how the existence of camp in Haydn and American music offer ways of reassessing Haydn's oeuvre.Trade Review“Making Light will surely spark many fruitful and interesting discussions, and lead to ever clearer and more meaningful ways of looking at performance.” -- Michael E. Ruhling * Haydn *“As a writer and thinker, Raymond Knapp is a congenial musicologist—eschewing the obscurities of hard theoretical labor and preferring colorful insights. Highly recommended.” -- M. Dineen * Choice *"I recommend Making Light strongly; it is provocative, stimulating and overflowing in original and insightful argument. [Knapp] moves the study of Haydn in a new direction, while developing new ways of understanding how idealistic perspectives on music have shaped the values attached to different forms of music-making." -- Derek B. Scott * Popular Music *"A rich and timely study. . . . Readers interested in fresh approaches to Haydn’s catalogue or camp in American musical culture will find Making Light an intriguing study of marginalized musical features across canonic boundaries." -- Jon Churchill * Current Musicology *

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsI. Introduction 1. Arvo Pärt and the Art of Embodiment | 3 Peter C. Bouteneff, Jeffers Engelhardt, and Robert Saler 2. The Sound—and Hearing—of Arvo Pärt | 8 Peter C. Bouteneff II. History and Context 3. Sounding Structure, Structured Sound | 25 Toomas Siitan 4. Colorful Dreams: Exploring Pärt’s Soviet Film Music | 36 Christopher J. May 5. Arvo Pärt’s Tintinnabuli and the 1970s Soviet Underground | 68 Kevin C. Karnes III. Performance 6. The Pärt Sound | 89 Paul Hillier, in conversation with Peter Bouteneff 7. The Rest Is Silence | 107 Andrew Shenton IV. Materiality and Phenomenology 8. Vibrating, and Silent: Listening to the Material Acoustics of Tintinnabulation | 129 Jeffers Engelhardt 9. Medieval Pärt | 154 Andrew Albin 10. The Piano and the Performing Body in the Music of Arvo Pärt: Phenomenological Perspectives | 177 Maria Cizmic and Adriana Helbig V. Theology 11. Presence, Absence, and the Ambiguities of Ambiance: Theological Discourse and the Move to Sound in Pärt Studies | 197 Robert Saler 12. The Materiality of Sound and the Theology of the Incarnation in the Music of Arvo Pärt | 208 Ivan Moody 13. Christian Liturgical Chant and the Musical Reorientation of Arvo Pärt | 220 Alexander Lingas 14. In the Beginning There Was Sound: Hearing, Tintinnabuli, and Musical Meaning in Sufism | 232 Sevin Huriye Yaraman List of Contributors | 243 Index of Terms | 247 Index of Persons | 252 Works by Other Composers | 256 Works by Arvo Pärt | 257

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Book SynopsisChronically associates artistic maturity either with transcendence, degeneration, or irrelevance. This volume looks to the non-representational arts of music, abstract painting and sculpture, and architecture for fresh insight into the juncture of aesthetics and mortality.

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Book SynopsisIt is often assumed that reading about the lives of artists enhances our understanding of their work. This book contains a collection of essays, by a number of respected art historians that attempt to address this relationship by looking at the life and works of such artists as Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Leonardo da Vinci.

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Book SynopsisThe first extensive study of the life and music of the Swiss composer, Richard Flury (1896-1967).The late-Romantic composer Richard Flury (1896-1967) was born in Biberist, a tiny town outside the Baroque city of Solothurn in northern Switzerland. He went to school in Solothurn, later taught there, conducted its orchestra, andhad his operas and ballets performed at the local theatre by its semi-professional ensemble. But Flury was more than just another conservative composer stuck in the provinces. His teachers included Ernst Kurth and JosephMarx of Vienna, and his music was performed by conductors such as Felix Weingartner and Hermann Scherchen and star instrumentalists like Wilhelm Backhaus and Georg Kulenkampff. His first opera was conducted by a former student ofBerg and Schoenberg who became his staunch advocate, and during the Second World War Flury worked closely with several Jewish emigré writers and musicians from Germany and Czechoslovakia.In his music of the early 1930s, the influence of Berg and Hindemith became apparent as Flury dabbled in modernism and free tonality before moving back to a more traditionalist stance; but he was also a fine tunesmith who loved writing Viennese waltzes and violin miniatures after the manner of Kreisler. In both his aesthetic and his career, Flury offers a fascinating case of a man negotiating constantly between the centre and the periphery - and composing some very good music in the process.The book includes a 23 track CD of Flury's music. CHRIS WALTON teaches music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland. He is the author of Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (2009) and Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place (2007).Trade ReviewProfessor Walton, himself a most engaging writer, beautifully evokes the provincial musical life, rural culture and landscapes of the German-speaking part of Switzerland in the first half of the 20th century. * MUSICAL TIMES *

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Book SynopsisThe Polish-born, British-based pianist André Tchaikowsky (1935-82) saw himself principally as a composer- one of several conflicting elements in his personality, charted by the diaries he kept between 1974 and 1982.André Tchaikowsky was only 46 when he died, internationally renowned as a pianist - and he made the headlines after his death when he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in performances of Hamlet. Yet for all his facility at the keyboard Tchaikowsky's real passion was composition. The internal conflict between pianist and composer compounded an already complex character. A Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, Tchaikowsky was also a homosexual. The diaries he kept between 1974 and his death chronicle the struggles that ran through his life. Debt kept driving him back to the concert platform when his true wish was to find the time to compose. His spirited writing details the joys and vicissitudes of his life with striking candour. The diaries are introduced and annotated by Anastasia Belina-Johnson, who also provides a chronology of Tchaikowsky's life and a survey of his music. Includes a CDof the pianist in recital.Anastasia Belina-Johnson is Head of Classical Music at the Leeds College of Music.Trade ReviewAn absorbing read and a significant step in Tchaikowsky studies. * MUSIC & LETTERS *A valuable book in rediscovering a vital talent undeservedly overlooked for too long. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *This is a very well-researched 'biography'. The edited diaries [are] especially revealing, and I came away from them feeling I had really got under the skin of this fascinating character ... If [Belina-Johnson's] intentions were to reawaken an interest in this almost forgotten musician, she has truly succeeded. , January 2014 * MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, January 2014 *

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Book SynopsisMoira Bennett casts her perceptive, wry and amused eye over a childhood and adolescence in South Africa and her years raising sponsorship for the Aldeburgh Festival, the Barbican Centre and the London Symphony Orchestra.In her early fifties, Moira Bennett was widowed with a school-age son and in need of a job. With virtually no previous working experience but full of energy and determination, she found herself working at the Britten-Pears Schoolat Snape, helping to run masterclasses for young professional musicians studying with artists such as Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hugues Cuénod and William Pleeth. Her gift for arts administration - understanding the needs of performers and audiences - was soon to become highly valued at Aldeburgh, as she became the Registrar at the Britten-Pears School and went on to create the post of Development Director in the early days ofcommercial sponsorship of the arts. She was later invited to take on a similar role at the Barbican Centre, supporting a series of international arts festivals, before going on to work with the London Symphony Orchestra.In 2012 the Bittern Press published Moira Bennett's history of the Britten-Pears School, Making Musicians, which Classical Music magazine made one its Books of the Year. Now in her early nineties, Moira Bennett has written an extraordinary autobiography, casting an astute eye over her childhood and adolescence in South Africa, the impact of the Second World War and the Apartheid years on the country, and her second, 'unexpected', life in the arts.

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Book SynopsisSchoenberg's quartets and trio, composed over a nearly forty-year period, occupy a central position among twentieth-century chamber music. This volume, based on papers presented at a conference in honor of David Lewin, collects a wide range of approaches to Schoenberg's pieces.

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Book Synopsis Joe Wilder set the table. His struggles made it easier for me and many others.--From the Foreword by Wynton Marsalis Trumpeter Joe Wilder is distinguished for his achievements in both the jazz and classical worlds. He was a founding member of the Symphony of the New World, where he played first trumpet, and he performed as lead trumpet and soloist with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie. Yet Wilder is also known as a pioneer who broke down racial barriers, the first African American to hold a principal chair in a Broadway show orchestra, and one of the first African Americans to join a network studio orchestra. In Softly, with Feeling, Edward Berger tells Wilder''s remarkable story-from his growing up in working-class Philadelphia to becoming one of the first 1,000 black Marines during World War II-with tremendous feeling and extensive reminiscences by Wilder and his colleagues, including renowned PhiladelphTable of ContentsForeword by Wynton Marsalis Preface Acknowledgments 1 The Making of a Musician: Philadelphia (1922–1938) Musical Beginnings Colored Kiddies of the Air: “Little Louis” Meets Pops William T. Tilden Junior High School 2 From Student to Pro (1938–1943) Mastbaum The Harlem Dictators Leaving Home: Les Hite Lionel Hampton 3 Integration of the Armed Forces: The Montford Point Marines (1943–1946) 4 Big Band Odyssey (1946–1950) Hampton Redux Jimmie Lunceford Dizzy Gillespie Lucky Millinder Sam Donahue Herbie Fields 5 New York (1950–1953) Noble Sissle and the Diamond Horseshoe Breaking Barriers on Broadway Wilder on Broadway Manhattan School of Music 6 On the Road Again: Count Basie (1953–1954) 7 Back on Broadway and into the Studios (1954–1957) Silk Stockings and Most Happy Fella The Urban League: Integrating the Music Industry Developing a Style: Recordings in the 1950s From Mainstream to Third Stream 8 On Staff: African American Musicians and the Network Orchestras (1957–1964) Wilder Joins ABC The Studio Life The Urban League: Integrating the Network Orchestras Record Dates: Sideman and Leader “The Sound of Jazz” Benny Goodman: USSR Tour Miss America Pageant Family Life 9 A Dream Realized: Return to Classical Music (1964–1974) African Americans in Symphony Orchestras: The Beginnings of Change The Symphony of the New World The 1969 Human Rights Commission Hearings Earl Madison’s Reflections Other Classical Activities Wilder and Wilder: Joe and Alec 1960s Recordings 10 Freelance (1974–1990) The End of the Staff Orchestras Peter Duchin and the Society Orchestra Phenomenon Return to Broadway 1980s Recordings 11 New Outlets: Jazz Repertory and Jazz Parties (1990–2000) Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion The Jazz Party Phenomenon 12 Passing It On: Teaching, Awards, and Honors (2000–) Juilliard Awards and Honors The Reluctant Leader Recordings in the New Millennium: Evening Star Arbors Records and the Statesmen of Jazz Coda Notes Discography/Solography Index

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Book SynopsisMurray Schafer is one of Canada’s few composers to have achieved an international reputation. His innovative and often controversial work extends beyond music into the areas of education, literary scholarship, journalism, theatre, and graphics, as well as a new field of his own making—environmental sound research. This comprehensive critical survey of his life and works reveals the unifying pattern within an amazingly productive and varied career.Adams examines Schafer’s extensive writings, which form the intellectual context of his music. Though Schafer is both avant-gardist and self-confessed romantic, his writings solve this apparent paradox and show, as well, the central position of the ‘soundscape’ in his thought. Adam traces the development of Schafer’s music from his early works in a mild neo-classical vein to his experimentation with various modernist procedures—serialism, electronic sound, stereophony, graphic notation

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Book SynopsisWith an iconic sound that transcends country, pop, rock, and blues, Rosanne Cash’s voice and vision have captured American life for generations of fans. Over the same time span, internationally acclaimed artist Dan Rizzie has wowed collectors with his evocative paintings, prints, and collages. Now, in a book that is as unique as their artistry, Cash and her longtime friend Rizzie have teamed up to create an extraordinary hybrid. Blending images created by Rizzie with strands of lyrics from a variety of Cash’s songs (including new material from her latest album, She Remembers Everything, as well as her beloved classics), Bird on a Blade is a mosaic designed to inspire the imagination and soothe the heart.Oscillating between periods of growth and times of darkness, Bird on a Blade reflects on life’s mysteries. Powerful lines from songs such as “God Is in the Roses” from the 2006 album Black Cadillac evoke themes of mournTrade ReviewJuxtaposed with tender paintings from artist and friend Dan Rizzie, Cash's lyrics are luminescent nuggets, gleaming with desire, loss, home, and self-empowerment. * Vulture *

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Book SynopsisThe central experience of the Ramones and their music is of being an outsider, an outcast, a person who’s somehow defective, and the revolt against shame and self-loathing. The fans, argues Donna Gaines, got it right away, from their own experience of alienation at home, at school, on the streets, and from themselves. This sense of estrangement and marginality permeates everything the Ramones still offer us as artists, and as people. Why the Ramones Matter compellingly makes the case that the Ramones gave us everything; they saved rock and roll, modeled DIY ethics, and addressed our deepest collective traumas, from the personal to the historical.Trade ReviewGaines delivers on several fronts. Part sociological exploration, part fangirl gush, Gaines' book offers a multifaceted exploration of the band and their effect. * First of the Month *[A] treatise that is both a weighty and breezy read. * Long Island Weekly *Donna Gaines has taken the lightning-fast songs of the Ramones' oeuvre and welded her own brainy spin on their songs, their personalities, their impact, resulting in something unequivocally fresh and engrossing. Even the biggest fans will find something new to enjoy here. * Razorcake *Why the Ramones Matter…explores the group's legacy through the dual lenses of [Gaines's] doctorate in sociology and her experiences as a lifelong fan. * Please Kill Me *Table of ContentsPreface 1. The Mission 2. Ministry 3. PAF 4. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Acknowledgments Sources

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Book SynopsisHow Tammy Wynette channeled the conflicts of her life into her music and performance. With hits such as “Stand By Your Man” and “Golden Ring,” Tammy Wynette was an icon of American domesticity and femininity. But there were other sides to the first lady of country. Steacy Easton places the complications of Wynette’s music and her biography in sharp-edged relief, exploring how she made her sometimes-tumultuous life into her work, a transformation that was itself art. Wynette created a persona of high femininity to match the themes she sang about—fawning devotion, redemption in heterosexual romance, the heartbreak of loneliness. Behind the scenes, her life was marked by persistent class anxieties; despite wealth and fame, she kept her beautician’s license. Easton argues that the struggle to meet expectations of southernness, womanhood, and southern womanhood, finds subtle expression in Wynette’s performance of “Apartment #9”—and it’s because of these vocal subtleties that it came to be called the saddest song ever written. Wynette similarly took on elements of camp and political critique in her artistry, demonstrating an underappreciated genius. Why Tammy Wynette Matters reveals a musician who doubled back on herself, her façade of earnestness cracked by a melodrama that weaponized femininity and upended feminist expectations, while scoring twenty number-one hits. Trade Review[An] illuminating debut...Easton paints a riveting portrait of an oft-misunderstood star. Country music fans won’t be disappointed. * Publishers Weekly *Easton’s book incorporates the author’s relationship to Wynette’s music and vocal performances in a critical biography that focuses on the artist’s musical talents...Fans of Wynette and country music will be drawn to this reappraisal. * Library Journal *Why Tammy Wynette Matters ventures beyond the usual narrative of Tammy Wynette as a tragic country star whose numerous marriages and early death have often defined her. In this slim yet rich book of criticism, Steacy Easton considers the singer’s 'ambitious, transparent, and haunted work' in a feminist context, drawing out Wynette’s artistry and paying respect to her impact on country music...What makes Why Tammy Wynette Matters exceptional is that it considers how [Wynette's life] experiences gave her work its power...Easton is 'deeply committed to Wynette as a performer and writer.' They approach their subject with curiosity, generosity, and love. * Chapter 16 *[An] exemplary deep-dive into the life of Tammy Wynette...Country fans will be delighted with this short but incisive and fond remembrance. * Bay Area Reporter *Easton’s arguments are compelling…Reading Easton’s book you start to understand how Wynette may well have used the perceptions of her and her position as an icon of domestic femininity in a quite subversive way, and that she was far less of a victim than she herself often encouraged people to believe...Read this book; it’s unlike anything else you might have read about this artist and it will change your perception of who you think Tammy Wynette was. * Americana UK *[Why Tammy Wynette Matters] weaves the stress of maintaining stereotypical Southern womanhood into the country legend's complex legacy. * The Tennessean *[A] brilliant new book...Why Tammy Wynette Matters is a tour-de-force work of critical genius, and Easton’s book prompts us to listen once again to Wynette and to hear her performances in fresh ways. Their book is revelatory, offering insightful and illuminating readings of the ways that Wynette’s life and work intersect. * No Depression *The book is full of beautiful sentences. . . as Easton waxes poetic about why Wynette matters. . . As Easton explores all the layers to Wynette’s gendered, larger-than-life persona, they allow us to expand the way we interpret and understand the world, and to expand our understanding of queerness itself. * Autostraddle *A slim but thoughtful new book...Easton effectively makes the case that Wynette is underappreciated and worthy of a serious critical reappraisal. * New York Times *One thing is certain: wherever one falls on the Tammy Wynette continuum — fan, casual observer, or someone simply interested in how art gets made and how gender, for better or worse, influences both its creation and perception — is going to be knocked out by Why Tammy Wynette Matters . . . Their endlessly compelling book succeeds in proving its title beyond a doubt. No small feat. * Parton & Pearl *Table of Contents Introduction Domesticity High Femme Armor Soft Politics Pain Melodrama Sex Fame Tradition Reprieve Camp Funeral Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA stirring defense of Sinéad O’Connor’s music and activism, and an indictment of the culture that cancelled her. In 1990, Sinéad O’Connor’s video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” turned her into a superstar. Two years later, an appearance on Saturday Night Live turned her into a scandal. For many people—including, for years, the author—what they knew of O’Connor stopped there. Allyson McCabe believes it’s time to reassess our old judgments about Sinéad O’Connor and to expose the machinery that built her up and knocked her down. Addressing triumph and struggle, sound and story, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters argues that its subject has been repeatedly manipulated and misunderstood by a culture that is often hostile to women who speak their minds (in O’Connor’s case, by shaving her head, championing rappers, and tearing up a picture of the popTrade ReviewPart biography, part reflection on the meaning of O'Connor's artistry and actions, McCabe traces the achievements and media-generated scandals of O'Connor's career, and how she consistently sought to beat her own path in a culture that condemned women for veering off the course of sanctioned archetypes...What's most powerful is how McCabe draws on her own experience in parallel with O'Connor's. Perhaps this is O'Connor's most powerful asset as an artist: she opens up a space for people to see their struggles, their resistance and their trauma, in hers. * The Irish Times *Absolutely brilliant, heartbreaking, insightful, and personal. -- Margo Price * Literary Hub *Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters reassesses the oft-misunderstood songwriter and activist through a lens that is both historical and personal...Written in clear and provocative language...McCabe’s impassioned defense of O’Connor in the wake of her many controversies is both heartfelt and persuasive...our protagonist emerges from Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters as a conquering hero; having weathered abuse, cruelty, and prejudice, not to mention the usual unreasonable expectations too often placed on female artists, the courageous nonconformist emerges wounded but wiser. Ultimately—and most importantly—she is redeemed. * Aquarium Drunkard *[A] very personal and thought-provoking account of the media’s role in [O'Connor's] stratospheric rise and ultimate implosion…A touching tribute. O’Connor has been the subject of recent and numerous articles, a documentary, and books (including her own), but McCabe’s take is unique in its critical analysis of the media and its attempts to silence and cancel O’Connor. * Library Journal *I've been waiting for a book like McCabe's because...grappling with what happened to O'Connor—at her peak no less—carries important lessons that resonate today. The woman behind that sublime voice was a fierce, complicated, tormented, defiant badass. Yet somehow, she remains an enigma—despite publishing a memoir—because of how quickly and completely she was discarded from the music world for refusing to compromise her beliefs. The industry and world have ostensibly changed, but it's essential to remember and honor those who went before us. * Tertulia *A revealing reappraisal…McCabe skillfully renders the artist’s rise and ahead-of-her-time activism against the sociopolitical landscape of the 1980s and ’90s, persuasively rescuing O’Connor’s reputation from a mainstream media narrative that ‘all too often dismissed [her] as a slow-motion train wreck.’ Fans will be riveted. * Publishers Weekly *A superb showcase of the artist as a musician and a person, [Why Sinéad O'Connor Matters] seeks to discern her persistent drive to make music despite the obstacles in her path and what we can learn from such an unorthodox creative spirit...The heart of this immaculate work lies in how McCabe deftly navigates the turbulent intersection of criticism and compassion. When McCabe talks transparently about her own childhood traumas and how they often mirrored O’Connor’s, her candor is both refreshing and admirable...This book sets a new standard in music criticism. * Treble *[Why Sinéad O'Connor Matters] is about much more than Sinéad O’Connor. The singer becomes a 'window and a mirror into culture,' as McCabe puts it, expanding far beyond SNL, MTV, Bob Dylan, Prince, or any of the well-trod touchstones of O’Connor’s early career. Instead, the story reaches deeper — more about the refractions and the shadows that O’Connor casts on ourselves and on the culture. It asks the reader to consider their own relationship to the forces that once leveraged themselves en masse against O’Connor. It’s a beautiful and compassionate meditation on silence, trauma, healing, and much more. * KCRW *[Sinéad's] urges to "fight the real enemy" have been disregarded, mocked, and vilified for over 30 years – but McCabe's reexamination of O'Connor's treatment is both a tough lesson and a promising step forward. -- Laiken Neumann * Austin Chronicle *Shifting the focus back to music is key to Allyson McCabe’s Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters, published just two months before O’Connor’s death . . . The clarity with which McCabe tells these stories can make space for a more balanced assessment of Sinéad O’Connor’s music. * Spectrum Culture *Released just two months prior to O’Connor’s death, this intimate and moving release from author Allyson McCabe reiterates the lasting impact she left behind. If you’re looking for creative context and thoughtful criticism of the media’s role in O’Connor’s personal and creative well-being, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters is an essential read. * American Songwriter *Reevaluations of maligned "loud women" are always welcome here, but this dissection of Sinéad O'Connor's artistry, activism, and unfounded industry ostracism hits even harder following the artist's tragic July passing. -- Carys Anderson * Austin Chronicle *When people ask why I enjoy reading music criticism, I tell them the books shine a light upon our collective human psyche. Why Sinead O’Connor Matters by Alyson McCabe does exactly that . . . The heart of this immaculate work lies in the intersection of criticism and compassion crafted by McCabe. * Ancillary Review of Books *Table of Contents Prologue Framing Take 1 The Lion and the Cobra As Seen on MTV Rock-’n’-Roll Cassandra SPINning Sinéad She’ll Talk but You Won’t Listen The Takedown Is She Not Your Girl? This Means War We Do Not Want What She Has Got Wrecking Ball Things Need to Change We Need to Talk about Prince Hurt People Hurt Truthful Witness Acknowledgments Notes

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Book SynopsisAn examination of director Todd Haynes and his Bob Dylan biopic. As the first and only Bob Dylan “biopic,” I’m Not There caused a stir when released in 2007. Offering a surreal retelling of moments from Dylan’s life and career, the film is perhaps best known for its distinctive approach to casting, including Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, a Black child actor, as versions of Dylan though none of the characters bear his name. Greenlit by Bob Dylan himself, the film uses Dylan’s music as a score, a triumph for famed queer filmmaker Todd Haynes after encountering issues with copyright in previous projects. Noah Tsika eloquently characterizes all the ways that Dylan and Haynes harmonize in their methods and sensibilities, interpreting the rule-breaking film as a biography that refuses chronology, disdains factual accuracy, flirts with libel, and cannibalizes Western cinema. Fitting the film’s inspiration, creTrade ReviewIn I’m Not There (21st Century Film Essentials), Noah Tsika analyzes Haynes’ audacious 2007 Bob Dylan (sort of) biopic, which the author believes 'is perhaps the least studied' of the director’s films. The text establishes, however, that the film is more than worthy of deep consideration. Tsika even details how the film connects with Haynes’ career-long battles with trademark and copyright issues. All told, this is a truly essential study of a film that seems even bolder now than it did in 2007. * The Film Stage *Table of Contents Prologue: Flaming Quotations Introduction: 21st-Century Bedfellows Pursuing Opacity Violators Won’t Be Cited Mock the Documentary Playing On Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn examination of director Todd Haynes and his Bob Dylan biopic.Trade ReviewIn I’m Not There (21st Century Film Essentials), Noah Tsika analyzes Haynes’ audacious 2007 Bob Dylan (sort of) biopic, which the author believes 'is perhaps the least studied' of the director’s films. The text establishes, however, that the film is more than worthy of deep consideration. Tsika even details how the film connects with Haynes’ career-long battles with trademark and copyright issues. All told, this is a truly essential study of a film that seems even bolder now than it did in 2007. * The Film Stage *Table of Contents Prologue: Flaming Quotations Introduction: 21st-Century Bedfellows Pursuing Opacity Violators Won’t Be Cited Mock the Documentary Playing On Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBenjamin Piekut tells the story of the English experimental rock band Henry Cow and how it linked its improvisational musical aesthetic with a collectivist, progressive politics.Trade Review“What was it all about, to me? Thinking. Henry Cow really thought about the why, the what, the appropriate methods of making music. Their riveting music was the sound of thinking out loud: Henry Cow seemed to be asking, ‘So, what is the significance of these sounds in our heads?’ And they were always witty: just look at the name of the band and the unwearable sock representing ‘the Henry Cow legend.’ I am very glad this book exists. Henry Cow’s history—in all its inevitable turbulence—tells an inspiring story.” -- Robert Wyatt“In this landmark monograph, Benjamin Piekut offers a stunning new theoretical framework for writing the history of ‘adventurous’ music in the late twentieth century, realizing that theory in practice by replicating in his graceful prose the improvised relation to the world he seeks to illuminate. Through his gripping account of the band Henry Cow, he reconstructs the cultural space of what he calls the ‘vernacular avant-garde,’ where musicians learn from records rather than in institutions, live uncertainty, cross genres, improvise responses to novel situations, work with and against record companies, and embrace avant-gardism without negation. It is rare to finish a monumental monograph with a gasp. A must-read intervention and instant classic!” -- Tamara Levitz, Professor of Musicology and Comparative Literature, University of California Los Angeles"Henry Cow: The World Is A Problem provides an exhaustive account of an incomparable group pushing music to its limits, on a linear mission to change civilization and its culture forever." * Jazzwise *"A fascinating and pacey read, stitched together painstakingly from over 90 original interviews and both public and private texts including Hodgkinson's extensive diaries. The combination of narrative background, musical analysis and critical insight should open the door for a new generation of listeners." -- Phil England * The Wire *"Exhaustive and illuminating." -- Kurt Gottschalk * New York City Jazz Record *"Mixing a highly readable musicological analysis with fascinating details about the band's often-turbulent existence, Piekut's book is a fitting tribute to Henry Cow's importance and legacy in a notable but marginalised movement of 20th century music." -- Sid Smith * Prog Magazine *"This biography is many things but its main strength is as a chronicle of the band’s extraordinary history which spanned barely a decade, meticulously researched from a vast array of sources, not just from the music papers of the times but via interviews with the musicians, plus access to private musicians’ notes, diaries and minutes from the band’s many documented meetings. . . . A remarkable project: compelling, unique and requiring considerable powers of concentration and assiduousness—somewhat like the band themselves." -- Phil Howitt * Facelift *"It's hard to think of another group that did as much as Henry Cow to distance themselves from the usual Dionysian image and activities of your typical rock band. . . . All things considered, it doesn't sound like it was much fun at all. But this book is." -- Daniel Spicer * Jazzwise *"Why would this book appeal to anyone had never heard of Henry Cow? Well, I think that anyone that is interested in the development of British underground or counter-cultural music through the late sixties and seventies will find this book fascinating. As will anyone that is interested in the working out of a musical response to prevailing sociopolitical circumstances. And, as much as anything, it provides universal insights into a group of people and managing complex relationships where, at times, it seems that what would help most would be a psychological understanding of intergroup processes." -- Phil Stringer * Free Jazz Collective *"Piekut engages in continuous reflection as he narrates. In this sense, the book is also a sort of ethnography, with Henry Cow as an object of study serving to elucidate a range of matters both historical (music and art as cultural practices) and theoretical (larger issues of politics, musicology, and sociality). The research is impeccably thorough—not just by measure of the requisite bibliography but also the extensive, rigorous interviews with the people involved in the Henry Cow project. This original research on its own is a real treasure." -- Stathis Gourgouris * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Piekut's richly nuanced account of [Henry Cow] is, as far as I am aware, an unprecedently detailed case study of the life of a rock group" -- Chris Atton * Popular Music *"Piekut's book is one of the best dissections of a group I have ever read. It is lengthy, well-written, explores the musical and social milieu in depth, and is an excellent primer for listening to the music. Just don't do it at the same time. Each process: reading about and listening to Henry Cow deserve your full undivided attention." -- Robert Iannapollo * Association for Recorded Sound Collection *Table of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction. Feral Experimentalism 1 1. You Can't Play This Music at Cambridge | 1968–73 29 2. Faust and the Virgins | 1973 76 3. Contentment Is Hopeless, Unrest Is Progress | 1974 119 4. Death to the Individual: Slapp Happy | 1974–75 157 5. Europa | 1975–76 199 6. The Roads Leading to Rome | 1976–77 242 7. No Joy Anymore | London 1977 293 8. Henry Cow Always Had to Be Henry Cow | 1978 345 Afterword. The Vernacular Avant-Garde 387 Notes 409 Bibliography 455 Index 479

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Book SynopsisBenjamin Piekut tells the story of the English experimental rock band Henry Cow and how it linked its improvisational musical aesthetic with a collectivist, progressive politics.Trade Review“What was it all about, to me? Thinking. Henry Cow really thought about the why, the what, the appropriate methods of making music. Their riveting music was the sound of thinking out loud: Henry Cow seemed to be asking, ‘So, what is the significance of these sounds in our heads?’ And they were always witty: just look at the name of the band and the unwearable sock representing ‘the Henry Cow legend.’ I am very glad this book exists. Henry Cow’s history—in all its inevitable turbulence—tells an inspiring story.” -- Robert Wyatt“In this landmark monograph, Benjamin Piekut offers a stunning new theoretical framework for writing the history of ‘adventurous’ music in the late twentieth century, realizing that theory in practice by replicating in his graceful prose the improvised relation to the world he seeks to illuminate. Through his gripping account of the band Henry Cow, he reconstructs the cultural space of what he calls the ‘vernacular avant-garde,’ where musicians learn from records rather than in institutions, live uncertainty, cross genres, improvise responses to novel situations, work with and against record companies, and embrace avant-gardism without negation. It is rare to finish a monumental monograph with a gasp. A must-read intervention and instant classic!” -- Tamara Levitz, Professor of Musicology and Comparative Literature, University of California Los Angeles"Henry Cow: The World Is A Problem provides an exhaustive account of an incomparable group pushing music to its limits, on a linear mission to change civilization and its culture forever." * Jazzwise *"A fascinating and pacey read, stitched together painstakingly from over 90 original interviews and both public and private texts including Hodgkinson's extensive diaries. The combination of narrative background, musical analysis and critical insight should open the door for a new generation of listeners." -- Phil England * The Wire *"Exhaustive and illuminating." -- Kurt Gottschalk * New York City Jazz Record *"Mixing a highly readable musicological analysis with fascinating details about the band's often-turbulent existence, Piekut's book is a fitting tribute to Henry Cow's importance and legacy in a notable but marginalised movement of 20th century music." -- Sid Smith * Prog Magazine *"This biography is many things but its main strength is as a chronicle of the band’s extraordinary history which spanned barely a decade, meticulously researched from a vast array of sources, not just from the music papers of the times but via interviews with the musicians, plus access to private musicians’ notes, diaries and minutes from the band’s many documented meetings. . . . A remarkable project: compelling, unique and requiring considerable powers of concentration and assiduousness—somewhat like the band themselves." -- Phil Howitt * Facelift *"It's hard to think of another group that did as much as Henry Cow to distance themselves from the usual Dionysian image and activities of your typical rock band. . . . All things considered, it doesn't sound like it was much fun at all. But this book is." -- Daniel Spicer * Jazzwise *"Why would this book appeal to anyone had never heard of Henry Cow? Well, I think that anyone that is interested in the development of British underground or counter-cultural music through the late sixties and seventies will find this book fascinating. As will anyone that is interested in the working out of a musical response to prevailing sociopolitical circumstances. And, as much as anything, it provides universal insights into a group of people and managing complex relationships where, at times, it seems that what would help most would be a psychological understanding of intergroup processes." -- Phil Stringer * Free Jazz Collective *"Piekut engages in continuous reflection as he narrates. In this sense, the book is also a sort of ethnography, with Henry Cow as an object of study serving to elucidate a range of matters both historical (music and art as cultural practices) and theoretical (larger issues of politics, musicology, and sociality). The research is impeccably thorough—not just by measure of the requisite bibliography but also the extensive, rigorous interviews with the people involved in the Henry Cow project. This original research on its own is a real treasure." -- Stathis Gourgouris * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Piekut's richly nuanced account of [Henry Cow] is, as far as I am aware, an unprecedently detailed case study of the life of a rock group" -- Chris Atton * Popular Music *"Piekut's book is one of the best dissections of a group I have ever read. It is lengthy, well-written, explores the musical and social milieu in depth, and is an excellent primer for listening to the music. Just don't do it at the same time. Each process: reading about and listening to Henry Cow deserve your full undivided attention." -- Robert Iannapollo * Association for Recorded Sound Collection *Table of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction. Feral Experimentalism 1 1. You Can't Play This Music at Cambridge | 1968–73 29 2. Faust and the Virgins | 1973 76 3. Contentment Is Hopeless, Unrest Is Progress | 1974 119 4. Death to the Individual: Slapp Happy | 1974–75 157 5. Europa | 1975–76 199 6. The Roads Leading to Rome | 1976–77 242 7. No Joy Anymore | London 1977 293 8. Henry Cow Always Had to Be Henry Cow | 1978 345 Afterword. The Vernacular Avant-Garde 387 Notes 409 Bibliography 455 Index 479

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Book SynopsisJazz critic and historian Cisco Bradley tells the story of the life and music of bassist and composer William Parker, who for fifty years has been a monumental figure in free jazz.Trade Review“Writing elegantly about the music as well as William Parker's work as an activist and organizer, Cisco Bradley gives a full sense of Parker's centrality to the development and maintenance of the free jazz scene in New York as well as his efforts in presenting the music across the globe. Universal Tonality is a book worthy of its object.” -- Fred Moten, author of * Black and Blur *“We have precious few monographic works on creative musicians, fewer still on living ones, and none quite like Cisco Bradley's fascinating biography of bassist, bandleader, organizer, and composer William Parker. Bradley situates Parker as part of a historical legacy, skillfully illuminating Parker's career—including his crucial term with Cecil Taylor—as well as the entire underground scene, including the groundbreaking Sound Unity Festival, the enduring Vision Festival, and manifold developments in the New York creative music community. An essential entry in the critical culture reading list.” -- John Corbett, author of * Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium *"Each of [Parker's] own major projects, including the quartet, Raining On The Moon, Little Huey, and In Order To Survive, is discussed and analyzed in depth; his family history and personal life are documented in detail; and ultimately as full a portrait as possible of William Parker, artist and human being, is painted. Essential reading." -- Phil Freeman * Stereogum *"Cisco Bradley endeavors to pull the diverse parts of the artist's life together in this first ever biography of Parker. It is a monumental task, and like the dozens of biographies of Louis Armstrong that have been published, it is a good start." -- Mark Corroto * All About Jazz *"This is long overdue respect and praise for one of the finest and hardest working musicians of the post-war era. William Parker is a national treasure, as this book is a testament to his perseverance." -- Tim Niland * Music and More *"Bradley's work, currently only in English, really deserves to be translated into multiple languages." (translated from Italian) -- Giuseppe Segala * All About Jazz *"As with the best of jazz biographies, there are excellent descriptions of the music to be found on the key albums of Parker’s various groups. And these vivid words send the curious listener scurrying off to hear the music. . . . The biography is an excellent introduction to William Parker’s music and to his role in the free jazz community in New York and the USA." -- Tony Dudley-Evans * London Jazz News *"A timely and dynamic picture of the great artist’s travels, to date. Bradley’s book charts a past that also provides many clues and contextual narratives that tell us much about where Parker may be heading." -- Lee Rice Epstein * Free Jazz Collective *"Parker’s art and family history get explored at length in Cisco Bradley’s illuminating new critical study Universal Tonality, the first William Parker book that William Parker didn’t have to write himself. Parker appreciates the attention—he called it the story of how he rose 'from rags to enlightenment. Note that I didn’t say riches'—but still encourages musicians to tell their own stories, and not just because critics can be slow to catch up." -- Alan Scherstuhl * New York Times *"Excellent and overdue. . . ." -- Angus Batey * The Quietus *"The book, while essentially a biography, explains aspects of his musical vision that are exemplified by these recordings. There is an emphasis on vocals and lyrics, and the book goes in some depth with regard to Parker’s interest in poetry and literature, and his love of music from other cultures as well. . . . An important takeaway from Universal Tonality is Parker’s belief that music is in and of itself a revolutionary act, a rebellion against the hatred which he sees as inherent in the current organization of the world." -- Todd Manning * Rock and Roll Globe *"Cisco Bradley's insightful, detailed and beautifully illustrated biography is a labour of love. . . . Universal Tonality made me realise that, much as I've always loved his music, I hadn't begun to appreciate William Parker's achievement." -- Andy Hamilton * The Wire *"Bradley's book is a full-on biography, both personal and musical, that never gets lost in academic jargon. . . . The book succeeds in its sheer storytelling of a life, through interviews with Parker and his fellow musicians, who consistently connect Parker's music to his life and to the politics of community. One comes away from Bradley's book quite humbled by a journey that seems never to have compromised on creativity or its possibility to bring more justice to the world. The musician that emerges from Universal Tonality is also a poet and a political activist- or maybe it's clearer to say that we come to see Parker as having erased the lines separating those different roles." -- Will Layman * Popmatters *"An instant classic of jazz biography, Universal Tonality is a genuinely inspirational read, testament to the transformative power of art." -- Stewart Smith * Tribune *"If an antidote to apathy consists of work and proselytizing, then bassist/composer/bandleader, activist and organizer William Parker embodies that antidote. Cisco Bradley has achieved much in simply documenting the extent of his subject’s activities, but he also highlights the spiritual and social dimensions of Parker’s work, all of which is set within music at the free / demanding end of the spectrum, as opposed to the aural balm that jazz in the 21st century often seems to be." -- Nic Jones * Jazz Journal *"With sources that include Parker himself, poetry and excerpts from his journals, and insights from friends and peers, Cisco Bradley explains how the artist has maintained his focus. In the process, he discusses free/avant-garde jazz perceptively, helping to clear away hyperbole and misunderstanding." -- Mike Shanley * Jazz Times *"The publication of Universal Tonality . . . is both long overdue and richly appreciated. . . . Anyone interested in the state of the free improvising scene needs to read this book." -- Robert Bush * New York City Jazz Record *"Parker is one of the foremost practitioners of what is arguably the greatest Black-led American artistic tradition, i.e. jazz, and Universal Tonality casts him in the full light his work deserves." -- Patrick James Dunagan * Rain Taxi *"This meticulously researched, affectionate biography analyzes Parker’s impact as a musician, a composer, and a political revolutionary. An important work that will appeal to jazz historians, scholars of Black history, and music lovers." -- Lisa Henry * Library Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. "Flowers Grow in My Room": Realizing a Vision 1 I. Origins 1. Enslavement and Resistance: From West Africa to the Carolinas to Harlem 15 2. Struggle, Beauty, and Survival: Childhood in the South Bronx 41 3. Consciousness: Art, Politics, and Self in the Mind of a Young Man 61 II. Early Work 4. The Loft Scene: Art, Community, and Self-Determination 93 5. "Music That Will Give People Hope": Centering Dance Music with Patricia Nicholson 124 6. "Music Is Supposed to Change People": Working with Cecil Taylor 148 III. Toward the Universal 7. "It Is the Job of the Artist to Incite Political Revolution": In Order to Survive 173 8. Into the Tone World: Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra 194 9. Toward a Universal Sound: William Parker Quartet and Raining on the Moon 216 10. Honoring the Elders: Tribute Projects and Other Bands 239 11. All People Need Truth to Survive: Recent Work and Legacy 261 Appendix: William Parker Discography 279 Notes 291 Bibliography 359 Index 385

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Book SynopsisJazz critic and historian Cisco Bradley tells the story of the life and music of bassist and composer William Parker, who for fifty years has been a monumental figure in free jazz.Trade Review“Writing elegantly about the music as well as William Parker's work as an activist and organizer, Cisco Bradley gives a full sense of Parker's centrality to the development and maintenance of the free jazz scene in New York as well as his efforts in presenting the music across the globe. Universal Tonality is a book worthy of its object.” -- Fred Moten, author of * Black and Blur *“We have precious few monographic works on creative musicians, fewer still on living ones, and none quite like Cisco Bradley's fascinating biography of bassist, bandleader, organizer, and composer William Parker. Bradley situates Parker as part of a historical legacy, skillfully illuminating Parker's career—including his crucial term with Cecil Taylor—as well as the entire underground scene, including the groundbreaking Sound Unity Festival, the enduring Vision Festival, and manifold developments in the New York creative music community. An essential entry in the critical culture reading list.” -- John Corbett, author of * Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium *"Each of [Parker's] own major projects, including the quartet, Raining On The Moon, Little Huey, and In Order To Survive, is discussed and analyzed in depth; his family history and personal life are documented in detail; and ultimately as full a portrait as possible of William Parker, artist and human being, is painted. Essential reading." -- Phil Freeman * Stereogum *"Cisco Bradley endeavors to pull the diverse parts of the artist's life together in this first ever biography of Parker. It is a monumental task, and like the dozens of biographies of Louis Armstrong that have been published, it is a good start." -- Mark Corroto * All About Jazz *"This is long overdue respect and praise for one of the finest and hardest working musicians of the post-war era. William Parker is a national treasure, as this book is a testament to his perseverance." -- Tim Niland * Music and More *"Bradley's work, currently only in English, really deserves to be translated into multiple languages." (translated from Italian) -- Giuseppe Segala * All About Jazz *"As with the best of jazz biographies, there are excellent descriptions of the music to be found on the key albums of Parker’s various groups. And these vivid words send the curious listener scurrying off to hear the music. . . . The biography is an excellent introduction to William Parker’s music and to his role in the free jazz community in New York and the USA." -- Tony Dudley-Evans * London Jazz News *"A timely and dynamic picture of the great artist’s travels, to date. Bradley’s book charts a past that also provides many clues and contextual narratives that tell us much about where Parker may be heading." -- Lee Rice Epstein * Free Jazz Collective *"Parker’s art and family history get explored at length in Cisco Bradley’s illuminating new critical study Universal Tonality, the first William Parker book that William Parker didn’t have to write himself. Parker appreciates the attention—he called it the story of how he rose 'from rags to enlightenment. Note that I didn’t say riches'—but still encourages musicians to tell their own stories, and not just because critics can be slow to catch up." -- Alan Scherstuhl * New York Times *"Excellent and overdue. . . ." -- Angus Batey * The Quietus *"The book, while essentially a biography, explains aspects of his musical vision that are exemplified by these recordings. There is an emphasis on vocals and lyrics, and the book goes in some depth with regard to Parker’s interest in poetry and literature, and his love of music from other cultures as well. . . . An important takeaway from Universal Tonality is Parker’s belief that music is in and of itself a revolutionary act, a rebellion against the hatred which he sees as inherent in the current organization of the world." -- Todd Manning * Rock and Roll Globe *"Cisco Bradley's insightful, detailed and beautifully illustrated biography is a labour of love. . . . Universal Tonality made me realise that, much as I've always loved his music, I hadn't begun to appreciate William Parker's achievement." -- Andy Hamilton * The Wire *"Bradley's book is a full-on biography, both personal and musical, that never gets lost in academic jargon. . . . The book succeeds in its sheer storytelling of a life, through interviews with Parker and his fellow musicians, who consistently connect Parker's music to his life and to the politics of community. One comes away from Bradley's book quite humbled by a journey that seems never to have compromised on creativity or its possibility to bring more justice to the world. The musician that emerges from Universal Tonality is also a poet and a political activist- or maybe it's clearer to say that we come to see Parker as having erased the lines separating those different roles." -- Will Layman * Popmatters *"An instant classic of jazz biography, Universal Tonality is a genuinely inspirational read, testament to the transformative power of art." -- Stewart Smith * Tribune *"If an antidote to apathy consists of work and proselytizing, then bassist/composer/bandleader, activist and organizer William Parker embodies that antidote. Cisco Bradley has achieved much in simply documenting the extent of his subject’s activities, but he also highlights the spiritual and social dimensions of Parker’s work, all of which is set within music at the free / demanding end of the spectrum, as opposed to the aural balm that jazz in the 21st century often seems to be." -- Nic Jones * Jazz Journal *"With sources that include Parker himself, poetry and excerpts from his journals, and insights from friends and peers, Cisco Bradley explains how the artist has maintained his focus. In the process, he discusses free/avant-garde jazz perceptively, helping to clear away hyperbole and misunderstanding." -- Mike Shanley * Jazz Times *"The publication of Universal Tonality . . . is both long overdue and richly appreciated. . . . Anyone interested in the state of the free improvising scene needs to read this book." -- Robert Bush * New York City Jazz Record *"Parker is one of the foremost practitioners of what is arguably the greatest Black-led American artistic tradition, i.e. jazz, and Universal Tonality casts him in the full light his work deserves." -- Patrick James Dunagan * Rain Taxi *"This meticulously researched, affectionate biography analyzes Parker’s impact as a musician, a composer, and a political revolutionary. An important work that will appeal to jazz historians, scholars of Black history, and music lovers." -- Lisa Henry * Library Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. "Flowers Grow in My Room": Realizing a Vision 1 I. Origins 1. Enslavement and Resistance: From West Africa to the Carolinas to Harlem 15 2. Struggle, Beauty, and Survival: Childhood in the South Bronx 41 3. Consciousness: Art, Politics, and Self in the Mind of a Young Man 61 II. Early Work 4. The Loft Scene: Art, Community, and Self-Determination 93 5. "Music That Will Give People Hope": Centering Dance Music with Patricia Nicholson 124 6. "Music Is Supposed to Change People": Working with Cecil Taylor 148 III. Toward the Universal 7. "It Is the Job of the Artist to Incite Political Revolution": In Order to Survive 173 8. Into the Tone World: Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra 194 9. Toward a Universal Sound: William Parker Quartet and Raining on the Moon 216 10. Honoring the Elders: Tribute Projects and Other Bands 239 11. All People Need Truth to Survive: Recent Work and Legacy 261 Appendix: William Parker Discography 279 Notes 291 Bibliography 359 Index 385

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Book SynopsisChris Molanphy considers Lil Nas X’s debut single “Old Town Road” as pop artifact, chart phenomenon, and cultural watershed that channeled decades of Americana into a pop moment.Trade Review“I never fully understood, appreciated, or contextualized popular music until I read Chris Molanphy.” -- Jesse Eisenberg“Chris Molanphy provides a (typical for him) master class in understanding ‘Old Town Road’ as well as the interaction between race, the charts, and country music. A fascinating, rigorous, and joyful book.” -- Emily J. Lordi, author of * The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s *"More than just an analysis of 'Old Town Road.' This book has wide appeal for music and pop culture fans." (Starred Review) -- Rebekah J. Buchanan * Library Journal *"Molanphy's astute analysis shows readers the full cultural 360 in tracking the success and controversy of the song, the artist, and the evolution of online platforms like TikTok and YouTube to democratize the distribution and awareness of music. He also discusses the role that Lil Nas X's queerness has played in his success and post-"Old Town Road" career to date. Molanphy's book is a masterful and entertaining piece of cultural studies that, at 152 pages, takes exactly the time it needs to tell its story." -- Elizabeth DeNoma * Shelf Awareness *Table of ContentsIntroduction. BONAFIDE ’til I Can’t No More: “Old Town Road” as the Endpoint of a Century of Genre and Chat Evolution 1 1. WIDE-EYED ’til I Can’t No More: The Maker of “Old Town Road” and the Elements of Its Creation 7 2. HIED ’til I Can’t No More: A Brief History of Country and Race 17 3. FLY ’til I Can’t No More: The Collision and Cross-Pollination of Rap and Country 29 4. REIFIED ’til I Can’t No More: What a No. 1 Hit Meant as the Hot 100 Evolved 41 5. DIVIDE ’til I Can’t No More: Genre Charts, Data, and Identity 51 6. WORLD WIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Technology and Internet Culture Built “Old Town Road” 69 7. BESTRIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Lil Nas X Dominated 2019 87 Epilogue. PRIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Lil Nas X Became a Multihit Wonder 121 Acknowledgments 127 Bibliography 129 Index 133

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Book SynopsisIn Old Town Road, Chris Molanphy considers Lil Nas X's debut single as pop artifact, chart phenomenon, and cultural watershed. Old Town Road was more than a massive hit, with the most weeks at No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history. It is also a prism through which to track the evolution of popular music consumption and the ways race influences how the music industry categorizes songs and artists. By both lionizing and satirizing genre tropes-it's a country song built from an alternative rock sample, a hip-hop song in which nobody raps, a comical song that transcends novelty, and a queer anthem-Lil Nas X troubles the very idea of genre. Ultimately, Molanphy shows how Old Town Road channeled decades of Americana to point the way toward our cultural future.Trade Review“I never fully understood, appreciated, or contextualized popular music until I read Chris Molanphy.” -- Jesse Eisenberg“Chris Molanphy provides a (typical for him) master class in understanding ‘Old Town Road’ as well as the interaction between race, the charts, and country music. A fascinating, rigorous, and joyful book.” -- Emily J. Lordi, author of * The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s *"More than just an analysis of 'Old Town Road.' This book has wide appeal for music and pop culture fans." (Starred Review) -- Rebekah J. Buchanan * Library Journal *"Molanphy's astute analysis shows readers the full cultural 360 in tracking the success and controversy of the song, the artist, and the evolution of online platforms like TikTok and YouTube to democratize the distribution and awareness of music. He also discusses the role that Lil Nas X's queerness has played in his success and post-"Old Town Road" career to date. Molanphy's book is a masterful and entertaining piece of cultural studies that, at 152 pages, takes exactly the time it needs to tell its story." -- Elizabeth DeNoma * Shelf Awareness *Table of ContentsIntroduction. BONAFIDE ’til I Can’t No More: “Old Town Road” as the Endpoint of a Century of Genre and Chat Evolution 1 1. WIDE-EYED ’til I Can’t No More: The Maker of “Old Town Road” and the Elements of Its Creation 7 2. HIED ’til I Can’t No More: A Brief History of Country and Race 17 3. FLY ’til I Can’t No More: The Collision and Cross-Pollination of Rap and Country 29 4. REIFIED ’til I Can’t No More: What a No. 1 Hit Meant as the Hot 100 Evolved 41 5. DIVIDE ’til I Can’t No More: Genre Charts, Data, and Identity 51 6. WORLD WIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Technology and Internet Culture Built “Old Town Road” 69 7. BESTRIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Lil Nas X Dominated 2019 87 Epilogue. PRIDE ’til I Can’t No More: How Lil Nas X Became a Multihit Wonder 121 Acknowledgments 127 Bibliography 129 Index 133

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Book SynopsisWhile undergoing routine surgery to remove a benign tumor, Ruby Elzy died. She was only thirty-five. Had she lived, she would have been one of the first black artists to appear in grand opera.Although now in the shadows, she was a shining star in her day. She entertained Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. She was Paul Robeson''s leading lady in the movie version of The Emperor Jones. She co-starred in Birth of the Blues opposite Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. She sang at Harlem''s Apollo Theater and in the Hollywood Bowl. Her remarkable soprano voice was known to millions over the radio. She was personally chosen by George Gershwin to create one of the leading roles in his masterpiece, that of Serena in the original production of Porgy and Bess. Her signature song was the vocally demanding My Man''s Gone Now.From obscurity she had risen to great heights. Ruby Pearl Elzy (1908-1943) was born in abject poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Her father abandoned the family when she was five,

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Book SynopsisBorn in 1893, Emmanuel Taylor Gordon (1893-1971) became an internationally famous singer in the 1920s at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Despite his fame, Taylor Gordon has been all but forgotten. Michael Johnson illuminates Gordon's personal history and his cultural importance to the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Book SynopsisAdrian Rollini, an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, played the bass saxophone, piano, vibraphone, and an array of other instruments. This book draws on oral history, vintage articles, and family archives to trace Rollini's life, from his family's arrival in the US to his development and career as a musician, to his retirement and death.

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Book SynopsisDepicts the life and times of harmonica player Phil Wiggins and the unique, vibrant music scene around him. Featuring Wiggins's story, but including information on many musicians, the volume presents an incomparable documentary of the African American blues scene in Washington, DC, from 1975 to the present.

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