Popular music Books

Book SynopsisStudies the development of New Orleans jazz and its effect on jazz history. This title provides the story of how New Orleans jazz came to be recognizable as a discrete style and how that recognition affected the writing of American jazz history. It traces the conceptualization of jazz history derived from ""Jazzmen"" to its refuge in New Orleans.

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Book SynopsisOffers the first thorough accounting of collegiate a cappella’s history and reveals how the critical issues of sociability, gender, performance, and technology affect its music and experience. Just as importantly, Duchan provides a vital contribution to music scholarship more broadly.

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Book SynopsisExamines the role of British narratives of masculinity and power in the postwar era of decolonization and national decline that contributed to the creation of a network of Bristish musicians influenced by African-American blues music, and how its members used the tropes, vocabulary, and mythology of African-American blues traditions to forge their own musical identities.Trade Review“Andrew Kellett’s definitive study of the 1960s British blues movement highlights the music’s important trans-Atlantic connections and complex history. Carefully researched and engagingly written, The British Blues Network traces the emergence of rock music as we know it today and will appeal to scholars and fans alike.”- Ulrich Adelt, University of Wyoming

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Book SynopsisIn this innovative book, Stacy Holman Jones presents torch singing as a much more complicated phenomenon than the familiar trope of a woman lamenting her victimhood. With an ethnographer''s eye, she observes the bluesy torch singers, asking if they are possibly performing critiques of the very lyrics they sing. From this perspective, we see the singer giving expression not not only to desire but also to an incipient determination to resist and change. Holman Jones also reveals points of contact in the opposition between spectators and performers, emotion and intellect, and love and power. Instead of interpreting the expression of love as a woman''s violent mistakeas willing deception and passive fateHolman Jones allows us to hear an active search for hope.Trade ReviewThis is a powerful, richly nuanced, evocative work; a stunning and brilliantly innovative pedagogical intervention. It provides ground zero—the starting place for the next generation of performance scholars who study desire, intimacy, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, torch singers, love's wounds, healing and hearing new musical sounds, lyrics for torching, new ways of writing and breathing our selves into being. -- Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignTorch Singing is as lyrical and inviting as the songs that Stacy Holman Jones takes as her subject. The text itself is like a torch song, calling out for a response from the reader/listener. Moving among autobiography, critical ethnography, musicaland performance analysis, and music history (especially of the blues and Tin Pan Alley), this book is self-conscious and self-reflexive politically, intellectually, and methodologically. Holman Jones is deeply conversant with feminist theory, critical ethnography, performance theory, and the history of popular music, and her writing calls up the singers and songs with acuity and evocative detail. Holman Jones also performs herself in the text and foregrounds the process of research and scholarship, the affective, desirous nature of fandom, and the political exigencies of feminism to re-examine this music and these singers. This is a fascinating study of the history of torch songs and divas, including Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand, and k.d. lang, as well as many other singers whom the author saw perform and often interviewed. Torch Singing documents and celebrates the form of ?singers of suffering? as a resistant, pleasurable, political, feminist performance practice. A -- Stacy Wolf, Associate Professor, Performance as Public Practice Program, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas at Austin, anThis book is a virtuoso performance of the desiring self shaped by the contexts and lyrics of others—some real, some hauntingly remembered, and some fully imagined—through a voice every bit as soulful, ironic, sexy, and full of longing as the torch singers she brings to life. Greil Marcus says somewhere that the only books about music worth reading are those that make the experience of listening to the music better. Stacy Holman Jones does that in this remarkably sensuous little volume, so full of deep personal knowledge of women who are called to torch singing and called by it, so rich in historical and critical resources, and ultimately so deliciously feverish to the ear. -- H.L. (Bud) Goodall, Professor and Head of the Hugh Downs School of Communication at Arizona State UniversityTorch Singing is as lyrical and inviting as the songs that Stacy Holman Jones takes as her subject. The text itself is like a torch song, calling out for a response from the reader/listener. Moving among autobiography, critical ethnography, musical and performance analysis, and music history (especially of the blues and Tin Pan Alley), this book is self-conscious and self-reflexive politically, intellectually, and methodologically. Holman Jones is deeply conversant with feminist theory, critical ethnography, performance theory, and the history of popular music, and her writing calls up the singers and songs with acuity and evocative detail. Holman Jones also performs herself in the text and foregrounds the process of research and scholarship, the affective, desirous nature of fandom, and the political exigencies of feminism to re-examine this music and these singers. This is a fascinating study of the history of torch songs and divas, including Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand, and k.d. lang, as well as many other singers whom the author saw perform and often interviewed. Torch Singing documents and celebrates the form of “singers of suffering” as a resistant, pleasurable, political, feminist performance practice. A beautiful, engaging song of a book. -- Stacy Wolf, Associate Professor, Performance as Public Practice Program, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas at Austin, andTable of Contents1 Interpreter of Lies 2 The Scene of Desire 3 Sing Me a Torch Song 4 The Way You Haunt my Dreams 5 Hearing Voices 6 Love's Wounds 7 Hopeful Openness 8 Circular Breathing 9 Music for Torching

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Book Synopsis Originally formed by singer-songwriter Ian Anderson in psychedelic 1968, the band Jethro Tull has been recording its own kind of rock and roll and touring the globe for more than three decades. This is a history of the band through the present, written by an acquaintance of several of its members. The book includes a chronology of all of the band''s recordings and information on all accompanying tours, with the author''s critiques as well as the band''s own reminiscences and opinions of each album. Also included are previously unpublished interviews with founder Ian Anderson, long-time band member David Pegg, other band members Glenn Cornick, Andy Giddings and Doane Perry, and more.

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Book Synopsis The John Coltrane Church began in 1965, when Franzo and Marina King attended a performance of the John Coltrane Quartet at San Francisco''s Jazz Workshop and saw a vision of the Holy Ghost as Coltrane took the bandstand. Celebrating the spirituality of the late jazz innovator and his music, the storefront church emerged during the demise of black-owned jazz clubs in San Francisco, and at a time of growing disillusionment with counter-culture spirituality following the 1978 Jonestown tragedy. For 50 years, the church has effectively fought redevelopment, environmental racism, police brutality, mortgage foreclosures, religious intolerance, gender disparity and the corporatization of jazz. This critical history is the first book-length treatment of an extraordinary African-American church and community institution.

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Book SynopsisChronicles Barbara Barnes Sims's career at Sun Records, a pivotal time at this recording mecca, as she darted from disc jockeys to distributors. Sims not only entertains with personal stories of big personalities, but also brings humour to the challenges of a young woman working in a fast and tough industry.

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Book SynopsisOffers an innovative study of Bruce Springsteen and his position in American culture that blends scholarship with personal reflection, providing both an academic examination of Springsteen's work and a moving account of how it offers a way out of emotional solitude and the potential lonesomeness of modern life.

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Book SynopsisJazz can be uplifting, stimulating, sensual, and spiritual. Yet when writers turn to this form of music, they almost always imagine it in terms of loneliness. Sam Reese investigates literary representations of jazz and the cultural narratives associated with it, noting how they have shaped readers' judgments and assumptions about the music.

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Book SynopsisAs the first academic study that provides a literary analysis of Kurt Cobain's creative writings, Arthur Flannigan Saint-Aubin's The Pleasures of Death approaches the journals and songs crafted by Nirvana's iconic front man from the perspective of cultural theory and psychoanalytic aesthetics.

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Book SynopsisAmerican roots music can be challenging to categorise, spanning the genres of jazz, bluegrass, country, blues, rock and roll, and an assortment of variations in between. In The Downhome Sound, Mandi Bates Bailey explores the messages, artists, community, and appeal of this seemingly disparate musical collective.

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Book SynopsisAmerican roots music can be challenging to categorise, spanning the genres of jazz, bluegrass, country, blues, rock and roll, and an assortment of variations in between. In The Downhome Sound, Mandi Bates Bailey explores the messages, artists, community, and appeal of this seemingly disparate musical collective.

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Book SynopsisCentered primarily in the field of education, this book introduces the hip-hop mindset as a professional practice that holds relevance for students, educators, and ambitious leaders in any profession. It is for those who seek to innovate, trailblaze, and create a rich source of professional magic.Table of ContentsContents (Tentative)Foreword by Walter KimbroughPreface: Trash-TalkingAcknowledgments1. Born to Rhyme, Destined to Shine: The Hip-Hop Mindset Framework Culture as a PoliticThe Hip-Hop Mindset2. Cultural Roots: Inherited Values, Beliefs, and Traditions Six Africanisms Fundamental to Hip-Hop Culture3. Drive: Hunger, Competitiveness, and Honor and Kinship HungerCompetitivenessHonor and KinshipFunk De-fied4. Approach: Creativity, Authenticity, and Ingenuity Ingenuity and Cultural EfficacyTurning the Tables: Creativity and OriginalityRepresenting: Authenticity and Clarity5. Posture: Confidence, Commanding Attention, and Claiming Space On Being a BadassShine Bright Like a DiamondWatch the Throne6. Can I Kick It? The Hip-hop Mindset in Professional Practice Toni BlackmanMartha DiazTimothy David JonesEmery PetchauerBettina L. LoveTony Keith Jr.Ian LevyAndre PerryEdmund AdjapongMazi MutafaAysha UpchurchBaron DavisMike BenitezWilliam BoylesCrystal Leigh Endsley7. Air-Walking: Concluding Thoughts Education as a Space to Let LooseGlossary of Key TermsEndnotesReferencesIndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisIn Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps, Aaron J. West explores the cultural and musical impact of Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and Sting. West details the distinctive hybrid character of The Police’s musical output, which would also characterize Sting’s post-Police development as a musician.Trade ReviewHistorian and musician West’s book is an excellent look at how the Police accomplished success by synthesizing disparate influences into 'marketable, mainstream music, which has remained viable for generations.' The band combined Stewart Copeland’s reggae-influenced drumming, Andy Summer’s progressive rock–style rhythm guitar, and the punk-inspired bass and literary pretensions of primary songwriter Sting. West’s musical biography consists of a series of essays that examine Sting and the Police within larger cultural and musical contexts, from early songs such as 'Bring on the Night' ('a colorful mosaic of musical styles like dub, classical guitar, ska, and even psychedelic rock') to Sting’s later solo work. West is especially good at examining how the band used the nascent MTV to define themselves through videos filmed at exotic locations around the world: 'The image of the Police as international travelers certainly reinforced their equally multicultural music.' He also insightfully analyses how Sting’s musical mission to have a global appeal dovetailed perfectly with various activist movements, observing that 'the cultural gravitas of Band Aid set the stage for his more mature persona.' * Publishers Weekly *Aaron J. West’s Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps isn’t concerned with how often Sting bickered and brawled with drummer Stewart Copeland, or what choice insults guitarist Andy Summers had for the Police bassist. Instead, West worries over the trio’s aesthetic impetus, stylistic genesis, and enduring cultural influence some thirty decades removed from their disintegration as a creative unit. . . .So who were The Police, and where did they get their sound? Which band members wrote what songs? Why did the band pack it in at the height of success rather than ride celebrity’s lucrative wave? Was 'Roxanne' a real person? What did Sting mean by being 'Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis?' Who was 'the old man in that book by Nabokov?' Was there a real 'Englishman in New York?' A fan since procuring Every Breath You Take: The Singles on cassette in the mid ‘80s, West sifts his Police survey into seven easy-to-digest theses, with each musing over a different topic. * Examiner.com *[Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps] is the perfect book for you . . . if you want to know how their music grew up, as author West thoroughly delves into how the band's songs were constructed from style mosaics. * antiMusic *If you’re looking for thoughtful analysis of the band’s music and career Sting and the Police: Walking in Their Footsteps delivers. * My Big Honkin Blog *Table of ContentsSeries Editor Foreword Timeline Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Police and the Progressive Rock, Punk, and Reggae Styles Chapter 2: The Police and the Style Mosaic Chapter 3: Sting and the Album Mosaic Chapter 4: Selling The Police and Sting to the World Chapter 5: Sting in the Age of Global Activism Chapter 6: The Police and the Rock Trio Chapter 7: The Music After The Police For Further Reading For Further Listening Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisPaul R. Laird is professor of musicology at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses in music history, musical theater, and directs the Instrumental Collegium Musicum. He is the coauthor of Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical (2007) and author of The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History (2004) and Wicked: A Musical Biography (2011), all published by Scarecrow Press.Trade ReviewSeated next to Stephen Sondheim in the front row of the American musical theater pantheon is the prolific and prodigiously talented composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948). Throughout a career spanning four decades that includes such hits as Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked, Schwartz has been honored with multiple Tony nominations, three Grammys, and three Academy Awards. Musical theater scholar Laird has written an in-depth study focusing on Schwartz’s projects and music. Acknowledging Carol de Giere’s biographical contributions in her 2008 book, Defying Gravity, the author concentrates on the music and musical styles of Schwartz’s theater and film work. Arranged chronologically, the title begins with an introduction to Schwartz with individual chapters on Godspell; his collaboration with Leonard Bernstein on Bernstein’s Mass; Broadway and off-Broadway shows Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, Working, Rags, and Children of Eden; Schwartz’s work on animated features for Disney and DreamWorks; then the success of the musical Wicked; his opera, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and works outside Broadway and Hollywood. VERDICT Laird offers a definitive musical analysis of Schwartz’s incredible career to date. A trenchant investigation that is both erudite and accessible, this book is an essential acquisition for all academic, professional, and large public library collections. * Library Journal, Starred Review *Laird has crafted a scholarly yet accessible review of composer/lyricist Schwartz’s work. While sentences like 'The choral writing is in four parts with a few passing tones' will only resonate with readers who have studied music, there is still lots here for fans of musical theatre—and even a few tidbits for Disney and Dreamworks fans who are fond of the musical scores of Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt. Laird’s most insightful coverage is of Schwartz’s work on Godspell and Pippin, composer’s earliest successes. Interviews with Schwartz reveal both insider secrets and fun trivia, including that Godspell’s most famous song, 'Day by Day,' is modeled on Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s 'What the World Needs Now.' * Publishers Weekly *Laird has a fine list of publications, e.g., Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research. Here he presents a comprehensive biography of Schwartz and a guide to all his works—for the musical stage, film, concert stage, and opera. Schwartz is multitalented, and the author chronicles his achievements ‘as a composer, lyricist, director, and theatrical creator.’ Productions included range from Godspell (1971) to the opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon (2009). Particularly strong are Laird's descriptions of the changing versions of each production as it progressed toward the stage, with close attention to the many musical styles Schwartz employs. Throughout the volume Laird notes that this new work supplements but does not replace two earlier books: his own Wicked: A Musical Biography (2011) and Carol de Giere's Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked (2008). Those volumes should be consulted, especially for more details on Wicked. Excellent notes and bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. Large performing arts collections. * CHOICE *Several years ago, the author, a music professor and writer on Broadway musicals, interrupted his writing of a book on all of Stephen Schwartz’ musicals to concentrate on this composer/lyricist’s latest Broadway success, Wicked. The result was Wicked: A Musical Biography. . . .He later returned to and completed the original project, which became this detailed analysis of the complete works of Schwartz with individual chapter devoted to each of his shows beginning with Godspell (1971) and continuing through such works as Bernstein’s Mass (1971) (for which he wrote the lyrics), Pippin (1972), The Magic Show (1974), The Baker’s Wife (1976), and his only opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon (2009). The longest chapter (almost 60 pages) is devoted to a work not yet seen on Broadway but performed widely in schools and churches, the Biblical epic, Children of God (1991). Each of these chapters supplies detailed material on the individual show: its genesis, development, personnel involved, tryouts, rewrites, casts and cast changes, the contents of individual acts and scenes, a thorough analysis of each song used, revivals, foreign productions, and its critical receptions (with quotes from reviews). . . .The book also contains an introductory chapter on Schwartz’s life, a chapter on his film work (mainly lyrics for several Disney features), and a concluding chapter on his work outside of Broadway and Hollywood. The work is up to date. . . .It is also extremely readable and thoroughly researched; for example, the book concludes with a separate 65-page section of footnotes, sources, Websites, and interviews used. There is also a detailed index and a few black-and-white photographs scattered throughout the text. This is an excellent and enjoyable book on this important contemporary Broadway figure. . . .This work is highly recommended for theater collections. * American Reference Books Annual *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: An Introduction to Stephen Schwartz Chapter 2: Godspell Chapter 3: Leonard Bernstein’s Mass Chapter 4: Pippin Chapter 5: The Magic Show Chapter 6: The Baker’s Wife Chapter 7: Working Chapter 8: Rags Chapter 9: Children of Eden Chapter 10: Animated Features for Disney and Dreamworks Chapter 11: Geppetto Becomes My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto’s Musical Tale Chapter 12: Wicked Chapter 13: Séance on a Wet Afternoon Chapter 14: Stephen Schwartz’s Works Outside of Broadway and Hollywood Epilogue Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMovie musicals are among the most quintessentially American art forms, often celebrating mobility, self-expression, and the pursuit of one's dreams. But like America itself, the Hollywood musical draws from many distinct ethnic traditions. In this illuminating new study, Desirée J. Garcia examines the lesser-known folk musicals from early African American, Yiddish, and Mexican filmmakers, revealing how these were essential ingredients in the melting pot of the Hollywood musical. The Migration of Musical Film shows how the folk musical was rooted in the challenges faced by immigrants and migrants who had to adapt to new environments, balancing American individualism with family values and cultural traditions. Uncovering fresh material from film industry archives, Garcia considers how folk musicals were initially marginal productions, designed to appeal to specific minority audiences, and yet introduced themes that were gradually assimilated into the Hollywood mainstream. No other boTrade Review"As well-written as it is original, The Migration of Musical Film is, quite simply, the best book on film musicals I have read." * Journal of American Ethnic History *"Garcia’s thought-provoking book encompasses a film tradition of the folk musical that includes well-known mainstream films such as The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis, even as it puts those films in rich and fruitful conversation with many less-known Jewish, African American, and Hispanic films. Along the way, Garcia makes a compelling argument for the influence, heretofore unacknowledged, of these ethnic traditions on mainstream Hollywood. Highly recommended." * Choice *"Flowing smoothly between theoretical concepts, historical research, and textual analysis, The Migration of Musical Film explores how various minority populations helped found the folk musical...a stunning and needed contribution to the scholarly conversation." -- Sean Griffin * author of America on Film *"Desirée Garcia’s illuminating insight in this engrossing book is seeing Hollywood musicals not in isolation, but in cultural dialogue with ethnic filmmaking—Black 'race movies,' Yiddish cinema, and Mexican films." -- Charles Ramírez Berg * The University of Texas at Austin *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: There's No Place Like Home 1. The Shtetls, Shund, and Shows of Musicals 2. The Musicals of Black Folk: Race Cinema and the Black-Cast Musicals of 1929 3. "Not a Musical in Any Sense of the Word": Alla en el Rancho Grande Crosses the Border 4. "Our Home Town": The Hollywood Folk Musical 5. "Tahiti, Rome, and Mason City, Iowa": Musical Migrants in the Postwar Era 6. "Ease on Down the Road": Folk Musicals of the Ethnic Revival 7. Home Is Where the Audience Is: The Sing-Along Conclusion: Beyond the RainbowNotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book offers a compelling account of Filipino American DJ culture as a site for negotiating cultural authenticity, racial identity, and gender politics. Antonio T. Tiongson Jr. gives us a highly engaging and nuanced critique of what is at stake when young Filipino Americans enter the ‘Hip-hop nation’ and rethink Filipinoness in the post-Civil Rights era. It will be of interest to anyone grappling with questions of interracial solidarity, colorblindness, diasporic culture, and globalization that loom large today.—Sunaina Maira, University of California, DavisFilipinos Represent boldly asks what is at stake in defining the public meanings of hip-hop, identifying the stakes of hip-hop as an ethnic and racial practice that elucidates how Filipino American DJs experience race. Particularly compelling about Tiongson Jr.’s research are the interviews he provides with practitioners of the craft. Their narratives and his contextualization of what meanings accrue around these symbols and performative modes are rich and nuanced.—Anita Mannur, Miami University of OhioTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Claiming Hip-hop1. The African Americanization of Hip-hop2. The Racialization of DJ Culture3. "The Scratching is What Got Me Hooked": Filipino American DJS in the Bay Area4. "DJing as a Filipino Thing": Negotiating Questions of Race5. The Normative Boundaries of FilipinonessConclusion: Reimagining the Hip-hop NationNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisCountry music superstar Dolly Parton’s Dollywood is a 150-acre fantasyland that hosts three million people a year. What does it tell us about the modern South, and in turn what does that tell us about America as a whole? Hoppe blends tourism, public history, and personal reflection into an unforgettable interrogation of Southern American identity.Trade Review“Different from other works on Dollywood, Hoppe’s volume is neither a tour guide nor a Parton biography—readers looking for such will be disappointed. Instead, he deftly examines the culture of Appalachia, specifically in East Tennessee, how it fits in with the greater Southern story (or not), and how all of this together with Parton’s genuineness overflow into Dollywood, creating an attraction that makes thousands of people a year feel at home whether they are from the South or not.” * Library Journal *“More than just a book about an amusement park, or its celebrity sponsor, this slim volume covers a lot of ground.… [Gone Dollywood] is written in a very accessible style.…This book would be an excellent purchase for public and other libraries in Tennessee, and for anyone with an interest in Appalachia.” * Tennessee Libraries *“Hoppe’s profile of [Dollywood] is a quirky contribution to the lore and legend of Parton.” * The Weekly Standard *“Graham Hoppe’s Gone Dollywood places Dolly Parton’s theme park, persona, and career within a broader history of the collisions of fact and fantasy, folk and celebrity, and art and commerce that have buffeted the Tennessee mountains Dolly calls home. Like Parton herself, the book is disarmingly open and friendly on its surface, with an impressive core of smart and savvy.”“Gone Dollywood is a landmark study. Graham Hoppe eloquently explains why Dollywood draws thousands of visitors each year and captures East Tennessee worlds in significant ways. This fine book, like Dolly Parton, will touch the heart of its readers.”“With an engaging and singular voice, Hoppe shows us just how Dollywood reflects, shapes, and challenges stereotypes of Appalachia, hillbillies, and country music, leading readers to understand Dollywood as an indispensable point of departure for broader conversations about gender, race, and class.”

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Book SynopsisProvides the first book-length study of women, modernity, and popular music in Asia, showcasing cutting-edge research conducted by scholars whose methods and perspectives draw from such diverse fields as anthropology, Asian studies, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, and film studies.

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Book SynopsisA rare glimpse into the life of the conductor considered to be the greatest of all time.   Arturo Toscanini is one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, beginning his career as a cellist then becoming world- renowned as a conductor. Known for his intensity, perfectionism, ear for orchestral detail, and photographic memory (he could conduct 160 operas from memory), he was appointed music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at different stages in his career.   Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Toscanini’s birthday (March 25, 1867), this book provides insight into the legendary conductor’s genius through never-before-seen photos focusing on key moments of his extraordinary private and public life. Toscanini is a celebrity beloved both in the United States and overseas, and this book is a celebration of his integri

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Book SynopsisTells the story of the folk music community in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from its beginnings in living rooms and Harvard Square coffeehouses in the late 1950s to the heyday of the folk music revival in the early 1960s.Trade ReviewA great history of the classic 1960s Boston folk scene by two of those who made it classic.-New England Folk Waves

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Book SynopsisÊDark MagusÊ is a warts-and-all look at the real Miles Davis. As told by his son this book strips away the public perception of Davis and gets down to the realities of his personality his relationships and his many quirks. ÊDark MagusÊ details this enigmatic superstar''s Jekyll and Hyde behavior: his swings between sobriety and prodigious drug use; his tender family moments and his destructive selfishness; his search for marital stability and his obsession with young women; his exalted musical talent and his ever-present personal demons. The author also delves into Davis'' relationships with artists such as Charlie Parker Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane as well as his role as a mentor to young musicians his obsession with sports the ups and downs of his career and the family''s turmoil over his final will.Þ This book is a brilliant and engaging revelation of Miles'' character through the recollections of his oldest son. It''s a book about a legendary musician who was one of m

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Book SynopsisKEYBOARD PRESENTS THE BEST OF THE 80S

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Book SynopsisMAAFA is an epic poem about reparations and the female body. MAAFA undoes the erasure of trauma and of black femininity. Maafa has killed her father and been granted eternal life.Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Voelker Award for Poetry CollectionMaafa is Swahili for catastrophe or holocaust, and echoes the Hebrew word Shoah. Without a word for a traumatic event, its erasure is always in progress. Maafa killed her father in the barracoons because the sight of him in captivity beside her was too much to bear. Now she is on her hero's journey which is filled with efforts to shake the sense of shame and longing and forgetting that haunts her in her pursuit of freedom. The crime chases her into all manners of light and darkness. Through an accumulation of images she exorcises her own haunts, and is healed into complete being.

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Book Synopsis Journalist Soren Baker’sThe History of Gangster Rap takes a deep dive into this fascinating music subgenre.  Foreword by Xzibit   Sixteen detailed chapters, organized chronologically, examine the evolution of gangster rap, its main players, and the culture that created this revolutionary music. From still-swirling conspiracy theories about the murders of Biggie and Tupac to the release of the film Straight Outta Compton, the era of gangster rap is one that fascinates music junkies and remains at the forefront of pop culture.   Filled with interviews with key players such as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, and dozens more, as well as sidebars, breakout bios of notorious characters, lists, charts, and beyond, The History of Gangster Rap is the be-all-end-all book that contextualizes the importance of gangster rap as a cultural phenomenon.   “History has so often been writTrade Review"The History of Gangster Rap is the essential book that contextualizes the importance of gangster rap as a cultural phenomenon." -- The Source

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Book SynopsisPat Metheny is one of the most critically acclaimed commercially successful and musically significant artists of the last 50 years. He has not only revolutionized his instrument but also changed the face of jazz itself.ÞIn 2007 composer arranger and performer Richard Niles wrote and produced a three-part series of in-depth interviews for the BBC titled ÊPat Metheny ä Bright Size LifeÊ. This book is comprised of these never-before-printed interviews and discussions with Metheny whom Niles has known and worked with since 1974. In this series of intimate in-depth interviews MethenyÞÛ reveals why he was driven toward music with a stratospheric drive and dedicationÞÛ uncovers the inner workings of his creative mind showing step by step how he set and achieved each of his own demanding goalsÞÛ describes his methodology as a guitarist improviser and composerÞÛ demonstrates his concepts and methodologies on the guitar. Niles has transcribed these unique musical performances for the

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Book SynopsisRiot grrrls, punk feminists best known for their girl power activism and message, used punk ideologies and the literacy practice of zine-ing to create radical feminist sites of resistance. In what ways did zines document feminism and activism of the 1990s? How did riot grrrls use punk ideologies to participate in DIY sites? In Writing a Riot: Riot Grrl Zines and Feminist Rhetorics, Buchanan argues that zines are a form of literacy participation used to document personal, social, and political values within punk. She examines zine studies as an academic field, how riot grrrls used zines to promote punk feminism, and the ways riot grrrl zines dealt with social justice issues of rape and race. Writing a Riot is the first full-length book that examines riot grrrl zines and their role in documenting feminist history.Trade Review“Focusing on the creation and circulation of riot grrrl zines in the 1990s, which she interprets as a complex literacy practice, Rebekah J. Buchanan adds substantially to the burgeoning literature on the challenge of narrating the history of punk feminisms. By building on her own experiences in zine-ing and reading with care and appreciation a diverse array of zines created during the period, she makes a strong case for the significance of such zines as evidence of girls’ feminism and activist efforts to understand the conditions of their everyday lives.” —Janice Radway, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Communication Studies; Director, Gender Studies; Professor, American Studies, Northwestern University“One of the most radical aspects of zines is how personal they are, in both the narrative writing and the physical construction. Rebekah J. Buchanan pays tribute to this aspect by sharing with us her personal journey through the punk scene and zine creation, while situating zines in their rightful place in historical memory. By weaving personal narrative and scholarship together to discuss the importance of young women and teens in social justice movements, Buchanan proves that zines were and still are an accessible entryway into sites of resistance where girls/grrrls can lead the revolution.” —Dawn Stahura, Research and Instruction Librarian, Simmons College, and zinesterTable of ContentsPreface – Acknowledgments – Introduction – Zines and Punk – Girl Zine Studies – Putting the Riot Back Into Punk – Defining and Documenting Riot Grrrl – What Is Riot Grrrl Anyway? – Riot Grrrl Zines as Social Circulation – Riot Grrrl Zines and Justice Issues – Yes, We Use the Word Rape – Race and Riot Grrrl Zines – Who Cares? Or, Why Does Riot Grrrl Really Matter – Index.

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