Hardcover. Hampton, VA, Hampton Institute Press, 1st, 1927, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Poor, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt lettering on front cover and spine, 236 pages plus appendix. A scarce collection of traditional hymns, gospel, folk songs and "Songs of Tribulation" of the American Negro. An historical document of African-American culture and the history of slavery. Songs in musical score with lyrics. A tight, generally unmarked and clean volume with nice cloth and clear gilt, In a poor dust jacket with chipping and tape repairs. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.
Hardcover. Milwaukee WI, Amadeus, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 406 pages, illustrations. INSCRIBED by co-editor Malcolm Crocker. A rare, revealing look at the composer, written by his granddaughter Tatiana. Featuring a wealth of correspondence and photographs from his family's archives, this book provides new, fascinating details about the composer's life, work, and relations with close friends and colleagues, including Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky. It also sheds new light on his wife, Nadezhda Purgold, an accomplished composer and pianist who helped her husband with his own compositions. Many letters involve Rimsky-Korsakov's other family members and important figures in art, history, literature, and music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 129 pages. Hardcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Clean inside and out. In excellent shape. From the Foreward: "River of No Return is organized like a long poem or a piece of music...a stunning look at an actual place, a meditation on rivers, nature history, the history of landscape photography of the American West and the idea of the American West. And the nature of fact and the nature of myth, and how we hold the world in our hands."
Hardcover. NY, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 763 pages, b&w illustrations. From the author of the critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biography: Last Train to Memphis brings us the life of Sam Phillips, the visionary genius who singlehandily steered the revolutionary path of Sun Records. The music that he shaped in his tiny Memphis studio with artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, introduced a sound that had never been heard before. He brought forth a singular mix of black and white voices passionately proclaiming the vitality of the American vernacular tradition while at the same time declaring, once and for all, a new, integrated musical day. With extensive interviews and firsthand personal observations extending over a 25-year period with Phillips, along with wide-ranging interviews with nearly all the legendary Sun Records artists, Guralnick gives us an ardent, unrestrained portrait of an American original as compelling in his own right as Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, or Thomas Edison.
Softcover. NY/Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 64 pages illustrated in color and b&w. An unrivaled illustrated reference source on fighting men and commanders of the period. The Sassanians ruled the last great imperial Empire of Persia before the Arab conquests of the 7th century. Rome's only equal in the classical world, the Sassanian Empire had an enormous impact on the development of architecture, mythology, arts, music, military tactics and technology. Within the Sassanian military, the cavalry was the most influential element, and Sassanian cavalry tactics were adopted by the Romans, Arabs, and Turks. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Da Capo Press, reprint, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 301 pages, b&w photos. Sarah Vaughan possessed the most spectacular voice in jazz history. In Sassy, Leslie Gourse, the acclaimed biographer of Nat King Cole and Joe Williams, defines and celebrates Vaughan's vital musical legacy and offers a detailed portrait of the woman as well as the singer. Revealed here is "The Divine One" as only her closest friends and musical associates knew her. By her early twenties Sarah Vaughan was singining with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Billy Eckstine, helping them invent bebop. For forty-five years thereafter, she reigned supreme in both pop and jazz, with several million-selling hits (among them "Broken Hearted Melody," "Make Yourself Comfortable," and "Misty"). But life offstage was never smooth for Sarah Vaughan. Her voluptuous voice was matched by her exuberant appetite for excess: three failed marriages, financial difficulties through many changes in management, late-night jam sessions, liquor, and cocaine. Remainder line on bottom edge, otherwise clean.
Softcover. NY, Stein and Day, 2nd pr., 1974, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, laminated card wraps, 112 pages, b&w illustrations. Ex-library copy with light stamping and bookplate on inside front cover. On the African influences on blues and jazz.
Softcover. Indianapolis IN, Hackett Publishing, reprint, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 368 pages. This collection of more than two hundred of Nietzsche's letters offers a representative body of correspondence on subjects of main concern to him--philosophy, history, morals, music and literature. Also included are letters of biographical interest which, in Middleton's words, mark the stresses and turnings of his life. Among the addressees are Richard Wagner, Erwin Rohde, Jacob Burkhardt, Lou Salome, his mother, and his sister Elisabeth. The annihilating split in Nietzsche's personality that has been associated with his collapse on a street in Turin in 1889 is described in a moving letter from Franz Overbeck which forms the Epilogue. Index. Light cease to front cover, otherwise clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, Little Brown, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This is a biography of C.L. Franklin, one of the black preachers in American history. It tells the story of black migration and activism, alongside the rise of gospel, blues, and soul music, with a cast of characters including Martin Luther King, Jr., B.B. King, Art Tatum, and Coleman Young.
Hardcover. NY, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, still in publisher's shrink wrap. Celebrates the height of Weimar cinema through images and commentaries on more than seventy of its finest filmsBetween the First and Second World Wars, Germany under the Weimar Republic was the scene of one of the most creative periods in film history. Through the silent era to the early years of sound, the visual flair and technical innovation of its filmmakers set an international standard for the powerful possibilities of cinema as an art form, with movies such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and M building a legacy that shaped the world of film.Here is a showcase of more than seventy films, selected to give a wide-ranging overview of Weimar cinema at its finest. Every genre is represented, from escapist comedies and musicals to gritty depictions of contemporary city life, from period dramas to fantastical visions of the future, with themes such as sexuality and social issues tackled by iconic stars like Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks. A wealth of film stills captures the bold vision of great directors like Fritz Lang and Ernst Lubitsch, while the text sets the historical scene and gives intriguing insights into what the films meant to the society that created them.
Hardcover. NY, Metro Books , 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 178 pages illustrated in color and b&w. A pictorial history of the Broadway musical. Light edgewear to dust jacket. Clean copy.
NY, Metro Books , 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket,178 pages illustrated in color and b&w. A pictorial history of the Broadway musical. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 3rd pr., 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 279 pages, b&w photos. Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his "solo" turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, "Man, you ought to leave your karma to science." Clean copy.
Softcover. New Lebanon NY, Omega Publications, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 234 pages, b&w photos. Everything about Noor Inayat Khan was extraordinary. A great-great-great granddaughter of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, she was born in Moscow to an American mother and an Indian Sufi Muslim father. Due to the unrest in Russia the family moved to London and from there to France where she spent the happiest years of her life studying music, child psychology and writing children's books. In 1940, her father having deserted the family and died in India years before, the family moved once again to England where Noor was trained as a wireless operator with the aim of sending her to German-occupied France to join up with the resistance. Noor was small and delicate, emotional, imaginative, shy, easily flustered and distracted. On the other hand there was her steely determination to serve her country, the desperate need for wireless operators and her perfect French. She was sent on her mission in June 1943. Her biography contains all the elements of an exciting spy novel but it was horrific and deadly reality. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Vintage Books, reprint, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wrappers, 264 pages, b&w illustrations. In this classic work of American music writing, renowned critic Albert Murray argues beautifully and authoritatively that the blues as such are synonymous with low spirits. Not only is its express purpose to make people feel good, which is to say in high spirits, but in the process of doing so it is actually expected to generate a disposition that is both elegantly playful and heroic in its nonchalance. In Stomping the Blues Murray explores its history, influences, development, and meaning as only he can. More than two hundred vintage photographs capture the ambiance Murray evokes in lyrical prose. Only the sounds are missing from this lyrical, sensual tribute to the blues. Originally published in 1976. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean with mild shelf wear.
Hardcover. Fayetteville, AK, University of Arkansas press, Reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 77 pages. Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY AUTHORS. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Decorated endpapers. Gilt title on spine and front cover board. Cover boards bound in brown cloth. Binding tight, clean inside and out. In beautiful shape. Like new.
Hardcover. Fayetteville, AK, University of Arkansas Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 77 pages. Hardcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Decorated endpapers. Gilt title on spine and front cover board. Cover boards bound in brown cloth. Binding tight, clean inside and out. In beautiful shape. Like new.
Hardcover. Somerville MA, Candlewick, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 456 pages, SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the title page. In September 1941, Adolf Hitlers Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history-almost three years of bombardment and starvation. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, writing a symphony to rouse, rally, eulogize, and commemorate his fellow citizens: the Leningrad Symphony. This is the true story of a city under siege, the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power-and layered meaning-of music in beleaguered lives. Symphony for the City of the Dead is a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably researched by National Book Award-winning author M. T. Anderson. Signed copy sticker on front cover, otherwise like new.
Hardcover. Germany, PPVMedien, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 220 pages profusely illustrated in color. The story of Taylor Guitars from small San Diego company to a company producing over 70000 quality guitars a year. Showcases many rare guitars, including instruments made by Bob Taylor before the company's founding, standard production models and custom built instruments. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 434 pages, b&w illustrations. Like new condition. When we picture the 1950s, we hear the sound of early rock and roll. The Ten-Cent Plague shows how -- years before music -- comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards. Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. Parents, teachers, and complicit kids burned comics in public bonfires. Cities passed laws to outlaw comics. Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers.
Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2016, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, still in publisher's shrinkwrap. This stunning book charts the rich history of the blues, through the dazzling array of posters, album covers, and advertisements that have shaped its identity over the past hundred years. The blues have been one of the most ubiquitous but diverse elements of American popular music at large, and the visual art associated with this unique sound has been just as varied and dynamic. There is no better guide to this fascinating graphical world than Bill Dahl--a longtime music journalist and historian who has written liner notes for countless reissues of classic blues, soul, R&B, and rock albums. With his deep knowledge and incisive commentary--complementing more than three hundred and fifty lavishly reproduced images--the history of the blues comes musically and visually to life.
Softcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st pbk, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 352 pages. A groundbreaking study of cultural life during a turbulent and formative decade in contemporary China, this book seeks to explode several myths about the Cultural Revolution (officially 1966-1976). Through national and local examination of the full range of cultural forms (film, operas, dance, other stage arts, music, fine arts, literature, and even architecture), Clark argues against characterizing this decade as one of chaos and destruction. Rather, he finds that innovation and creativity, promotion of participation in cultural production, and a vigorous promotion of the modern were all typical of the Cultural Revolution. Using a range of previously little-used materials, Clark forces us to fundamentally reassess our understanding of the Cultural Revolution, a period which he sees as the product of innovation in conflict with the effort by political leaders to enforce a top-down modernity. Clean copy.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Large softcover, 263 pages, b&w photos ad illustrations. In-depth, career-spanning interviews with the cartoonists - Crumb, Shelton, and more - who forever altered the course of American comics with their anthology title, Zap Comix.The definitive Comics Journal interviews with the cartoonists behind Zap Comix, featuring: Supreme 1960s counterculture/underground artist Robert Crumb on how acid unleashed a flood of Zap characters from his unconscious; Marxist brawler Spain Rodriguez on how he made the transition from the Road Vultures biker gang to the exclusive Zap cartoonists' club; Yale alumnus Victor Moscoso and Christian surfer Rick Griffin on how their poster-art psychedelia formed the backdrop of the 1960s San Francisco music scene; Savage Id-choreographer S. Clay Wilson on how his dreams insist on being drawn; Painter and Juxtapoz-founder Robert Williams on how Zap #4 led to 150 news-dealer arrests; Fabulous, Furry, Freaky Gilbert Shelton on the importance of research; Church of the Subgenius founder Paul Mavrides on getting a contact high during the notorious Zap jam sessions; and much more. In these career-spanning interviews, the Zap contributors open up about how they came to create a seminal, living work of art. Partial color.