music

Softcover. Boston, Back Bay Books, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 246 pages, b&w illustrations. Documents the history of swing music and dancing, covering the important artists, style and fashion, albums, and dance moves of swing. A bright, clean copy that has a light smoker's odor.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 2009, Hardcover, 192 pages. The photography of Angus McBean encompasses more than three decades of the history of British theater. His work includes most of the memorable productions of the Old Vic Company and of what is now the Royal Shakespeare Company; opera productions at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; ballet and operetta at Sadler's Wells; and West End productions of plays and musicals both old and new -- hundreds of productions in all. He was the favorite photographer of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Edith Evans, and he photographed countless plays starring John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Alec Guinness, not to mention younger stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, McBean photographed virtually every great actor of his era, perhaps the most brilliant years in the annals of British theater.His studio was active and eclectic; among his patrons were not only actors, singers, and dancers, but also playwrights, producers, composers, artists, and writers. In his early career, McBean had been a pioneer of surrealist photography, with a highly popular series of "surrealized" portraits that appeared in The Sketch, and, later, of montage and multiple-exposure photography in a long-running series for The Tatler.In 1969, McBean approached Harvard University to initiate the sale of his collection, and in the following year his archive of glass plate negatives, index prints, and programs, together with the copyrights, became a part of the Harvard Theatre Collection, where it remains the most often-requested collection of visual material. The photographs in this book, selected and captioned by the archive's curator, Fredric Woodbridge Wilson, have been carefully reproduced from the original negatives.

Hardcover. Boston, David Godine, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 192 pages. The photography of Angus McBean encompasses more than three decades of the history of British theater. His work includes most of the memorable productions of the Old Vic Company and of what is now the Royal Shakespeare Company; opera productions at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; ballet and operetta at Sadler's Wells; and West End productions of plays and musicals both old and new-hundreds of productions in all. McBean was the favorite photographer of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Edith Evans, and he photographed countless plays starring John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Alec Guinness, not to mention younger stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, McBean photographed virtually every great actor of his era, perhaps the most brilliant years in the annals of British theater.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. Abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, shuttled from one abusive foster home and detention center to another, Bobbie Gotteson grew up angry, hurting, damaged. His hunger to succeed as a musician brought him across the country to Hollywood, but along with it came his seething rage, his paranoid delusions, and his capacity for acts of shocking violence. Unavailable for 40 years, THE TRIUMPH OF THE SPIDER MONKEY is an eloquent, terrifying, heartbreaking exploration of madness by one of the most acclaimed authors of the past century. This definitive edition for the first time pairs the original novel with a never-before-collected companion novella by Joyce Carol Oates, unseen since its sole publication in a literary journal nearly half a century ago, which examines the impact of Gotteson's killing spree on a woman who survived it, as seen through the eyes of the troubled young man hired by a private detective to surveil her. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. Abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, shuttled from one abusive foster home and detention center to another, Bobbie Gotteson grew up angry, hurting, damaged. His hunger to succeed as a musician brought him across the country to Hollywood, but along with it came his seething rage, his paranoid delusions, and his capacity for acts of shocking violence. Unavailable for 40 years, THE TRIUMPH OF THE SPIDER MONKEY is an eloquent, terrifying, heartbreaking exploration of madness by one of the most acclaimed authors of the past century. This definitive edition for the first time pairs the original novel with a never-before-collected companion novella by Joyce Carol Oates, unseen since its sole publication in a literary journal nearly half a century ago, which examines the impact of Gotteson's killing spree on a woman who survived it, as seen through the eyes of the troubled young man hired by a private detective to surveil her. Like new.

Softcover. Kila MT, Kessinger, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, blue pictorial wrappers. This is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1895, originally published by Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 13 illustrations, 2 maps. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Versify/Houghton, reprint, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. a poignant and powerful ode to the resilience and strength of black life and history in America. Originally performed for ESPN's The Undefeated in 2016, the poem adopts a picture book format with a new title, accompanied by stunning oil paintings in Nelson's trademark photorealistic style. The evocative illustrations stand out against stark white backgrounds and vary in their composition. On some spreads, the focus is on a single expressive portrait; others feature collages of African American icons from various disciplines, or refer to significant historical moments. The art functions in perfect harmony with the poet's spare, striking verse to electrify the Black American experience, and to celebrate black athletes, writers, musicians, activists, and heroes. Clean copy. Caldecott Winner 2020

Hardcover. NY, Wiley, 2nd pr., 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The long-awaited, untold, inside story of the rise of the legendary actor, singer, scholar, and activist. The first volume of this major biography breaks new ground. The greatest scholar-athlete-performing artist in U.S. history, Paul Robeson was one of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century.Now his son, Paul Robeson Jr., traces the dramatic arc of his rise to fame, painting a definitive picture of Paul Robeson's formative years. His father was an escaped slave; his mother, a descendent of freedmen; and his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Eslanda Cardozo Goode. With a law degree from Columbia University; a professional football career; title roles in Eugene O'Neill's plays and in Shakespeare's Othello; and a concert career in America and Europe, Robeson dominated his era. 383 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 330 pages. In The Vanishing Moon, Joseph Coulson writes with insight and beauty about the American working-class, about the strength and strain of family bonds, and about tragic incidents that haunt the human psyche over a lifetime. Set in Cleveland and Detroit, the novel chronicles two generations of the Tollman family, opening at the start of the Great Depression and moving forward through five decades to the Vietnam War. The first narrator, Stephen Tollman, looks back on his early adventures with his older brother, as both boys try to shield their siblings from the confusion and vulnerability of financial ruin. Later, as World War II approaches, Katherine Lennox, musician and political activist, offers an outsider's view of the Tollmans, mesmerizing both Stephen and his brother with her energy and ambition. James Tollman comes of age in the 1960s, and as the youngest son in the family's second generation, he strives to understand his father and mother amidst a summer of assassinations and civil unrest. Stephen returns to finish the story, struggling to hold his own against the currents of memory and abandoned dreams. Told with the compression and intensity of a poem, The Vanishing Moon is a novel of desire, unyielding necessity, and the people and places that inevitably disappear from our lives. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dustjacket. An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics--from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories--observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's probing, amusing, and distinctive style. An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author's experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Hardcover. NY, Harper and Brothers, 1st, 1905, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, small volume (4 X 6 1/4"), blue cloth designed and lettered in white. Frontispiece and 5 plates in b/w by Frank Nankivell. Comical theatrical play the scene of which is "a summer hotel in mid-August, where a group of summer-girls, longing for masculine companionship, construct a large worsted man from an old afghan, stuffing him with cotton. He comes to life, and proves to be one of the worst flirts ever created. Exceedingly funny to read, and is suitable for amateur theatricals." Includes a depreciating African-American character, Sambo Front, and use of music borrowed from Gilbert and Sullivan. Inscription on front fly leaf dated 1905, otherwise clean, bright copy. Plate at page 6 is loose.

Hardcover. London, Unicorn Publishing Group, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Starting in 1966, Thea Porter designed clothes for the rich and famous for nearly two decades. Her creations were made from sumptuous fabrics that drew inspiration from the Middle East, combining richly patterned silks with antique fabrics. Her clothes were a must for music and film stars such as Pink Floyd, Crystal Gayle, Elizabeth Taylor, and Barbra Streisand. Porter soon became a key member of an innovative group of British designers that included Ossie Clark, Zandra Rhodes, and Jean Muir, and her place in the history of British fashion was ensured when she was named Designer of the Year in 1972. Thea Porter's Scrapbook is her story in her own words, an unpublished autobiography she put together before her death in 2000. Edited by her daughter Venetia and with an essay by fashion historian Amy de la Haye, it reveals Porter's further talents as a keenly observant and descriptive writer. This book, which includes working drawings, sketches, snapshots, and manuscript notes, serves as a memoir of her early life and career, charting many memorable episodes, including the dramatic surge of American interest in her clothes and the opening of her shop in Paris as she pursued her ambition to create dresses "beyond trend and tat, that thirty years from today will still be beautiful."

Hardcover. New York, Macmillan, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Non-Paginated. Hardcover. Illustrations by Nola Langner. 'Library Edition' specification printed on back cover of book. Light wear to dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, PowerHouse Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 200 pages. A wide ranging collection of photographs by musician John Cohen of other musicians and authors and artists like Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg, Woody Guthrie and others. Features text by Greil Marcus. Includes 127 duotone and 39 color images. Clean copy.

Hardcover. San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 208 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy like new in publishers shrink-wrap. The 1940s ushered in an era of musical experimentation and innovation at the Walt Disney Studios. For this volume, author Didier Ghez has unearthed hundreds of enchanting images--from early sketches to polished concepts for iconic features--by five exceptional artists who shaped the style of the Studio's animation during this period of unbridled creativity. With evocative descriptions and excerpts from the artists' journals and autobiographies, this magnificent collection offers a rare look at the visionaries who breathed life into some of the most beloved films of our time.

Softcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, reprint, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 883 pages.The author reveals how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea. The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world. Interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Clean copy.

hardcover. NY, Metroplitian Museum of Art, reprint, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Musical scores to 30 children's song, illustrated in color by Paul Woodroffe. Illustrated cardboard covers with white cloth spine. Endpapers illustration in yellow. A reprint of a book originally published in 1912. Includes words and music to popular nursery songs, such as Old King Cole, Little Bo-Peep and Three Blind Mice.

Softcover. London, T. C. & E. C. Jack, unknown, n.d., Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Musical scores to 30 children's songs illustrated in color by Paul Woodroffe. Illustrated cardboard covers with white cloth spine. Endpapers illustration in yellow. Light wear to cover corners.

Softcover. NY, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 256 pages. Why did Frankie say "Relax"? Did anyone really want to hurt Boy George? And why didn't anybody walk in L.A.? This Ain't No Disco can't answer all these head-scratchers, but it does bring the New Wave era back with page after totally awesome page of 300 of the best album covers. This rad collection includes covers from the late 1970s to the mid-'80s and will have true believers of a certain generation totally spazzing. New Wave was defined as much by style, fashion, and graphic design as the music itself witness the ruffled cuffs and heavy makeup of the New Romantics, the skinny ties and peg-pants of the neo-Mods, and the unsettling robotic personae of Devo and Gary Numan. Bursting with wild hairstyles, futuristic typography, pastel shapes, and outlandish clothing, these are the album covers that defined an era and continue to influence music and fashion styles today. A nostalgic trek with a mental soundtrack, This Ain't No Disco will inspire readers to don those rubber bracelets once again and proclaim, "Let's dance this mess around!"

Softcover. Baltimore MD, Gateway Press, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. 272 pages. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on the title page. 226 men with ties to College Point, New York took part in the Civil War. They served in 82 different Army units, and in the Navy, both on land and on sea. They were infantry men, engineers and artillerists, and one was a musician in the Marine Band. The majority claimed Germany as their country of birth, and 24 died in the service of their adopted homeland. This Gunner at His Piece tells their stories, before, during and after the American Civil War. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, W.W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 430 pages. During America's Swing Era, no musician was more successful or controversial than Artie Shaw: the charismatic and opinionated clarinetist-bandleader whose dozens of hits became anthems for "the greatest generation." But some of his most beautiful recordings were not issued until decades after he'd left the scene. He broke racial barriers by hiring African-American musicians. His frequent "retirements" earned him a reputation as the Hamlet of jazz. And he quit playing for good at the height of his powers. The handsome Shaw had seven wives (including Lana Turner and Ava Gardner). Inveterate reader and author of three books, he befriended the best-known writers of his time. Tom Nolan, who interviewed Shaw between 1990 and his death in 2004 and spoke with one hundred of his colleagues and contemporaries, captures Shaw and his era with candour and sympathy, bringing the master to vivid life and restoring him to his rightful place in jazz history. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Santa Fe, NM, Twin Palms Publishers, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 96 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean. like new copy in publisher's shrink-wrap. 78 full-page, black and white photographs. Limited to 3000 copies. Tight copy. A look at the black experience in late-20th-century America with powerful documentary images that will remain with the viewer long after the books are closed. Mauskopf presents a quiet collection of images made in one part of the South, the most isolated black communities of the Mississippi Delta, where time seems to have stopped in midcentury. The photographs are full of love, joy, and religious faith and are richly reproduced here as sheet-fed gravures. Mauskopf portrays the poorest Americans, who are nonetheless rich in family, church, and community bonds. He documents the unifying and dominant role of religion as well as the joys and sustenance provided by music, dance, romance, family life, and the land itself. These images capture a sense of place so powerfully that captions aren't necessary, though a brief and poetic essay by novelist Kenan nicely complements the photographs.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 336 pages, b&w illustrations. Author Larry Hamberlin guides us through this large but oft-forgotten repertoire of operatic novelties, and brings to life the rich humor and keen social criticism of the era. In the early twentieth-century, when new social forces were undermining the view that our European heritage was intrinsically superior to our native vernacular culture, opera-that great inheritance from our European forebearers-functioned in popular discourse as a signifier for elite culture. Tin Pan Opera shows that these operatic novelty songs availed this connection to a humorous and critical end. Combining traditional, European operatic melodies with the new and American rhythmic verve of ragtime, these songs painted vivid images of immigrant Americans, liberated women, and upwardly striving African Americans, striking emblems of the profound transformations that shook the United States at the beginning of the American century. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, John C. Winston Co., 1st, 1941, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardbound, gray coth covers stamped with blue decoration. Black & white illustrations by Berry. Illustrated endpapers. Soiled covers. Mild waterstains to cloth,. corners bumped.