history music

Softcover. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1st pbk, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 376 pages, b&w illustrations. The personal history of Barney Josephson, proprietor of the legendary interracial New York City night clubs Cafe Society Downtown and Cafe Society Uptown and their successor, The Cookery. Famously known as 'the wrong place for the Right people', Cafe Society featured the cream of jazz and blues performers--among whom were Billie Holiday, Big Joe Turner, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Big Sid Catlett, and Mary Lou Williams--as well as comedy stars Imogene Coca, Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford, the boogie-woogie pianists, and legendary gospel and folk artists. Spanning half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s, Josephson's narrative depicts both the business and the artistic sides of Cafe Society while exposing the tensions between the club's own progressive interracial openness and the more restrictive social and political climate in which it evolved. Publisher's stamp on bottom edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Gallimard, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 392 pages. Profusley illustrated, this book explores a hitherto overlooked topic in Chagall studies - the connection between Chagall and music. This intimate relationship, which ran deep in both his family history and the Jewish culture of his native city, was particularly meaningful in Chagall's creations for the stage. His works for the Jewish Theatre (Moscow, 1919-1920) and the ballets 'Aleko' (Mexico, 1942), 'The Firebird' (New York, 1945), 'Daphnis et Chloe' (1958) and 'The Magic Flute' (New York, 1967) celebrate the links he established between music, large-scale set design, and the material design of costumes. Chagall's monumental projects in the 1960s, such as the ceiling of the Paris Opera (1964) and his decorative architectural program for the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in New York (1966), are a reflection of his notion of 'total art', and his explorations in the universality of music and its translation into the spatial dimension. Music was a constant source of inspiration to Chagall. Clean, bright copy. No dust jacket.

Softcover. San Francisco, Backbeat Books, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 271 pages, b&w illustrations. Chasin' That Devil Music has the feel of a documentary about the making of a thrilling motion picture. The main focus is on the Delta blues singers of the early 20th century--artists such as Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson who've achieved near-mythic status in blues circles. In addition, many of the articles gathered in this splendidly illustrated volume capture the process and people involved in tracking long-lost recordings nearly as elusive as the performers who made them. Here, for example, is the story of author/blues scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow's three-year hunt for the death certificate of Robert Johnson, the celebrated Mississippi bluesman and a figure whose legend has grown greater with each year since his much-debated death in 1938. The text here is nearly as raw in spots as the music that sparked it, but, as with those sounds (which can be heard on a terrific CD sampler included with the book), enthusiasts will find Chasin' That Devil Music riveting. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Lanham MD, Scarecrow Press, reprint, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 203 pages. Using over 90 original interviews, as well as his extensive research in a variety of New Orleans' archives, Dr. Kennedy deftly explores the role public school teachers had in the formative years of jazz, as well as the influence they continue to have on the musical life of one of America's foremost musical cities. As jazz and music mentors, these teachers employed creativity, innovation, and dedication in propelling some of the world's finest musicians forward into brilliant careers. Chord Changes on the Chalkboard includes a foreword by jazz legend Ellis Marsalis, Jr. and is a must for jazz fans and historians, music libraries, and for collections supporting the study of popular culture and African-American history. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1st US, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 423 pages, SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Very clean and tight copy. With "humanism, generosity, and a passionate, beating heart" (The Times, London), Janice Galloway's Clara reignites, from between the lines of history, the great love of Robert and Clara Schumann. In her lifetime, Clara was a celebrated concert pianist and composer, editor and teacher, friend of Brahms -- as well as mother of the eight Schumann children and caretaker of her husband through a series of crippling mental illnesses. In its luminous integrity the novel brings Clara Schumann to life as a woman of genius. Galloway is at once a meticulous researcher of her subjects' remarkable and highly dramatic artistic careers and a virtuoso storyteller whose imagination and empathy lead her to that place off limits to history and biography -- inside the human mind. Distilling the memories, poetry, and musical notes therein, she examines the ways artists divine patterns out of life's chaos. "Passion," writes Galloway of Clara's performance philosophy, "one might take for granted -- its control is the mechanism through which all else flows." Though music may have bent to Clara's will, love served her far more tragically. Dismissing the cliches of Great Art and rejecting the romantic conflation of Madness and Creativity, Clara boldly ventures that in a life marred by alienation and isolation, "Work alone endures."

Softcover. Chicago's Books Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 200 pages, b&w illustrations. CD included. An interesting behind-the-scenes look at the golden age of Midwest radio. This book is a must read if you grew up in the late 1950's and 1960's listening to WLS radio in Chicago. Clark Weber takes us along with him as he starts his radio career in a little daytime station and then progresses to the "Big 89". He chronicles the rise of WLS into a 38 state "Blowtorch" during the 25+ years that the station ruled the midwest airways as THE 'Top 40' radio station. You will hear stories of the 'jocks' that worked with him, how fun it was working the big 'hops' around Chicago and the midwest, his understanding wife, and his lone solo airplane flight that almost ended the fun for him. Clean copy.

Softcover. New York, Metro Books, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 272 page, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Light shelf-wear to wrappers, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Assouline, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 3 volumes in slipcase. Very clean, like new in publishers shrink-wrap. For over a century Coca-Cola has been a touchstone of modern culture and a global icon. First sipped at an Atlanta soda fountain, the beverage has become an instantly recognizable symbol around the world, woven into people's lives and memories. This newest addition to Assouline's best-selling Memoire collection, Coca-Cola: Film, Music, Sports celebrates the iconic brand's broad-reaching influence in the domains of film, music, and athletics. With imagery of some of these industries' most revered names, and forewords penned by Ridley Scott, Quincy Jones, and LeBron James, these volumes explore the beverage's prominence in some of the greatest films of all time, its inspiration for legendary musicians of all genres, and its motivational support of athletes from the Olympics to professional sports.This slipcase set is a must-have accessory not only for collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia but also for lovers of American culture everywhere.

Hardcover. New York, Assouline, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 3 volumes in slipcase. Very clean, like new in publishers shrink-wrap. For over a century Coca-Cola has been a touchstone of modern culture and a global icon. First sipped at an Atlanta soda fountain, the beverage has become an instantly recognizable symbol around the world, woven into people's lives and memories. This newest addition to Assouline's best-selling Memoire collection, Coca-Cola: Film, Music, Sports celebrates the iconic brand's broad-reaching influence in the domains of film, music, and athletics. With imagery of some of these industries' most revered names, and forewords penned by Ridley Scott, Quincy Jones, and LeBron James, these volumes explore the beverage's prominence in some of the greatest films of all time, its inspiration for legendary musicians of all genres, and its motivational support of athletes from the Olympics to professional sports.This slipcase set is a must-have accessory not only for collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia but also for lovers of American culture everywhere.

Softcover. Advance Music, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 534 pages. The understanding of the musical techniques of composition cannot be reduced to a handbook of simplified rules. Music is complex and ever changing. It is the purpose of this book to trace the path of musical growth from the late Romantic period to the serial techniques of the contemporary composer. Through the detailed analysis of the musical characteristics that dominate a specific style of writing, a graduated plan is organized and presented here in the form of explanations and exercises. A new analytical method substitutes for the diatonic figured bass and makes exercises and the analysis of non-diatonic literature more manageable. The explanations describing each technique are thorough. They are designed to help the teacher and the student see the many extenuating circumstances that affect a particular analytical decision. More important than a dogmatic decision on a particular key center or a root tone, for example, is the understanding of why such an underdeterminate condition may exist. Minor wear to covers, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Rodale Books , 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Robert Hilburn's storied career as a rock critic has allowed him a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of some of the most iconic figures of our time. He was the only music critic to visit Folsom Prison with Johnny Cash. He met John Lennon during his lost weekend period in Los Angeles and they became friends. Bob Dylan granted him his only interviews during his "born-again" period and the occasion of his 50th birthday. Michael Jackson invited Hilburn to watch cartoons with him in his bedroom. When Springsteen took to playing only old hits, Hilburn scolded him for turning his legendary concerts into oldies revues, and Springsteen changed his set list. In this totally unique account of the symbiotic relationship between critic and musical artist, Hilburn reflects on the ways in which he has changed and been changed by the subjects he's covered; Bono weighs in with an introduction about how Hilburn's criticism influenced and altered his own development as a musician.

Softcover. Jackson MS, University Press of Mississippi , 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 235 pages. Throughout his life, Louis Armstrong tried to explain how singing with a barbershop quartet on the streets of New Orleans was foundational to his musicianship. Until now, there has been no in-depth inquiry into what he meant when he said, "I figure singing and playing is the same," or, "Singing was more into my blood than the trumpet." Creating the Jazz Solo: Louis Armstrong and Barbershop Harmony shows that Armstrong understood exactly the relationship between what he sang and what he played, and that he meant these comments to be taken literally: he was singing through his horn. Clean copy, like new.

Hardcover. London/NY, Collins Living, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 271 pages, fully illustrated with color reproductions of photographs. Features articles and cover art from October 1969 through December 1987 issues. Fine in original pictorial paper-covered boards and fine pictorial dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY/London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. 304 pages. This is the first of two titles by the Manic Street Preachers' bassist and lyricist, Nicky Wire. For more than twenty years and from Blackwood, Wales to Tokyo, Japan, Nicky Wire has kept a personal visual history of the band in their various stages from "Generation Terrorists" through "Holy Bible" and right up to last year's remarkable album, "Postcards from a Young Man". Edited down from over 1,000 of Wire's personal polaroid's and with accompanying text by the man himself, "Death of The Polaroid" promises to be a rich, visual biography of one of the most loved and iconoclastic British bands of the past two decades.

Hardcover. NY/London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. 304 pages. This is the first of two titles by the Manic Street Preachers' bassist and lyricist, Nicky Wire. For more than twenty years and from Blackwood, Wales to Tokyo, Japan, Nicky Wire has kept a personal visual history of the band in their various stages from "Generation Terrorists" through "Holy Bible" and right up to last year's remarkable album, "Postcards from a Young Man". Edited down from over 1,000 of Wire's personal polaroid's and with accompanying text by the man himself, "Death of The Polaroid" promises to be a rich, visual biography of one of the most loved and iconoclastic British bands of the past two decades.

Hardcover. Columbia MO, University of Missouri, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 216 pages. This unique reference book is a compendium of makers and manufacturers of every variety of musical instrument made in the United States circa 1981. It provides names and addresses of instrument makers indexed alphabetically. Each entry gives all known information on the total and annual number of instruments the maker has produced, the number of workers in the shop, the year the individual or firm began manufacturing instruments, whether the instruments are available on demand or made to order, and whether a brochure is available from the maker. Complete cross-references are provided for companies known by more than one name, for partnerships, and for parent and subsidiary firms. Instruments are also indexed, and makers are listed by state for the convenience of the reader. Lists of schools of instrument making and relevant organizations and publications are included as appendixes. An invaluable source of information for historians and for the rapidly growing number of collectors of musical instruments, who will be able to use the data gathered here in appraising instruments and tracing their history.

Hardcover. San Diego CA, Canterbury Classics, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards with gilt lettering. 138 pages, color illustrations. The Little Mermaid has enchanted audiences of all ages since its release in 1989, and now you can dive deep into the full script, complete lyrics, and the film's history with this stunning volume. Disney fans will be delighted by the hundreds of archival photographs, original sketches, and historical images curated from the Walt Disney Archives and Walt Disney Animation Research Library, along with insider stories from Ron Clements and John Musker, the writers/directors of the film. This special edition provides an in-depth experience of the beloved Disney classic, giving readers a deeper appreciation for the animators, musicians, and voice actors who brought the story of Ariel to audiences around the world. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. New York, Hyperion Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 304 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. A complete visual history of the rock group. The Doors are rock royalty. Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore reinvented rock 'n' roll in the 60s, and their influence can be felt even today. Now, for the first time, the living members of the band are opening up their personal archives to their fans, telling their story in their own words. This book is filled with untold anecdotes and never-before-seen photos from their private collections. Fans can learn first-hand what really went on in America's most enigmatic and mythical band.

Hardcover. NY, Wynwood Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 256 pages, b&w photos. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Rozsa was both a classical composer and extremely successful Hollywood film composer. Hence the title. He scored such films as Ben Hur, El Cid and Lust for Life and many others.

Hardcover. US, PM Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages, color illustrations. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. A declaration of love to Peter Kuper's adoptive city in which he has lived since 1977, this diary is a vibrant survey of New York City's history. Through Kuper's illustrations, this book depicts a climb to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, the homeless living in Times Square, roller skaters in Central Park, the impact of September 11, the luxury of Wall Street, street musicians, and other scenes unique to the city. With comics, illustrations, and sketches, this work of art portrays everything from the low life to the high energy that has long made people from around the world flock to the Big Apple.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 308 pages, b&w illustrations. Burt Korall is widely recognized as the most authoritative writer on jazz drumming. His first book Drummin' Men--The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Swing Era is considered a classic. It was praised by Nat Hentoff as "a book that illuminates not only the pantheon of jazz drummers in classic jazz, but makes clear the very essence of the jazz spirit." Now, in this exciting sequel, Korall offers a richly informative history of drumming in the Bebop era.Bebop--hard driving, discordant, melodically unconventional--introduced new sounds and innovative rhythms that changed the face of jazz. Korall looks at this music through the eyes of the musicians themselves, covering a whole range of important jazz drummers, but focusing upon the most original and significant--principally Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Korall provides a knowledgeable background about the history of bebop--and the unfortunate and almost universal heroin addiction that swept through the jazz world in the wake of Charlie Parker's habit. The book contains Korall's own memoir of nearly 50 years in the jazz world, linked by his narrative of the careers of these drummers and their place in the bebop jazz scene. But the most remarkable aspect of the book is the oral history that weaves together the stories of the drummers themselves as well as their friends and contemporaries. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Farrand Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 374 pages. Black & white illustrations. Minor fading to cover cloth. Clean, tight copy. B&w frontispiece & 282 illustrations. An important study of the wide range of uses to which lithography was put through the 19th century, with chapters on military manuals, music printing, shorthand, facsimiles including the publications of Sir Thomas Phillipps; with a catalogue of 423 examples traced by Professor Twyman. No dust jacket.