Music biography

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 606 pages, b&w illustrations. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Clean copy. An extraordinary selection of revealing letters to and from one of the titans of 20th-century music. Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician--a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life--musical and personal--and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1975, Book: Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Illustrated and designed by Don Bolognese and Elaine Raphael. Ex-library with light marking, residue to endpapers. An epistolary narrative of the musical prodigy's first year in Italy, composed from his detail-laden letters to his younger sister Nannerl. Although the letters themselves are fictional they are based on detailed research and on the hundreds of letters which Mozart and his father both wrote home during their trip. A map of the trip is also included as well as a little biography on some of the main characters.

Hardcover. NY, Broadway Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 564 pages, b&w illustrations. A definitive biography of this giant among jazz musicians - based on previously unexplored archives of Armstrong's writings. Photographs, discography, bibliography, endnotes, index. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown , 1st US, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 1st published in the UK 1971.

Hardcover. London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 72 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to edges. Black and white illustrations throughout by Mezzo. From 'Crossroads Blues' to 'Sweet Home Chicago', 'Hellhound on My Trail' to 'Come On In My Kitchen', Robert Johnson wrote some of the most enduring and formative songs of the original blues era, songs that would go on to help shape the birth of rock 'n' roll in the 1960s. Beloved of Clapton, Dylan and the Stones, Robert Johnson remains one of the most iconic and mythologized figures in popular music (and the first of many to die at the age of 27). Born in the in the South in Mississippi, Johnson made his way to the urban North as a traveling musician, but it was only when he returned to the South that he recorded the twenty-nine songs, in two sessions, which would create his legacy. Exploring the stories and legends that surround his life and death -- his childhood, his womanizing, his pact with the devil at the crossroads -- Mezzo and DuPont have produced a fittingly creative and beautiful depiction of this most extraordinary life.

Hardcover. New York, Gotham, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 453 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Illustrated endpages and flyleaves. Gilt titles on spine. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. Chicago, Chicago Review Press, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in bright, unclipped dust jacket. Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles. The first book of two, Maximum Volume traces Martin's early years as a scratch pianist and his groundbreaking work as the head of Parlophone Records. It dramatically narrates the story of Martin's unlikely discovery of the Beatles and his painstaking efforts to prepare their newfangled sound for the British music marketplace. As the story unfolds, Martin and the band craft numerous number-one hits, progressing toward the landmark album Rubber Soul--all of which bear Martin's unmistakable musical signature.

Hardcover. New York, Viking Studio, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 175 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap, though part of shrink-wrap is slightly torn. A collection of photographs taken in Memphis brings to life the legends of blues, jazz, rock and roll, and soul, including W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, and others.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Panjandrum/Aris Books, 1st, April 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 251 pages plus index, b&w photographs. Light edge wear, rubbing to dust jacket. Else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow , 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Biography of Illinois-born Miles Dewey Davis III (1926 - 1991). A life story interwoven with the musical milieu of his times. Text supported by b/w photographs. 310 pages with index. Front dust jacket flap with a crease, clean copy.

Hardcover. New Rochelle, Arlington House, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 554 pages. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Moderate foxing to edges. An important reference book on this legend of the big band era. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. This is Brigit Brophy's original 1964 edition (she later revisited it in 1988) of her profoundly original and controversial psychoanalytic study of Mozart's five most famous operas. 328 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. Schirmer Reference, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 271 pages. The last decade of Mozart's short but amazingly prolific career counts as one of the most remarkable periods--truly golden years--in the history of Western music. Richly illustrated with contemporary paintings and engravings and authoritatively written, this book provides a vivid account of the composer's life in the European music capital, Vienna, from 1781 to 1791. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London , Jazz Book Club/ Andre Deutsch, reprint, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 242 pages, in a very good dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 970 pages illustrated with color, b&w illustrations. Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl on stage and winning the Oscar for that performance on film. Then came a long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living; the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl; her direction of The Prince of Tides; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she's found in her marriage to James Brolin. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pbk proof, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 420 pages. Publishers uncorrected proof with flyer promoting the title laid in. The first major biography of the great jazz pianist and singer, written with the full cooperation of his family. When he died in 1965, at age forty-five, Nat King Cole was already a musical legend. As famous as Frank Sinatra, he had sold more records than anyone but Bing Crosby. Written with the narrative pacing of a novel, this absorbing biography traces Cole's rise to fame, from boy-wonder jazz genius to megastar in a racist society. Daniel Mark Epstein brings Cole and his times to vivid life: his precocious entrance onto the vibrant jazz scene of his hometown, Chicago; the creation of his trio and their rise to fame; the crossover success of such songs as "Straighten Up and Fly Right"; and his years as a pop singer and television star, the first African American to have his own show.Epstein examines Cole's insistence on changing society through his art rather than political activism, the romantic love story of Cole and Maria Ellington, and Cole's famous and influential image of calm, poise, and elegance, which concealed the personal turmoil and anxiety that undermined his health.

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, b&w photos. Ornette Coleman's career encompassed the glory years of jazz and the American avant-garde. Born in segregated Fort Worth, Texas, during the Great Depression, the African-American composer and musician was zeitgeist incarnate. Steeped in the Texas blues tradition, he and jazz grew up together, as the brassy blare of big band swing gave way to bebop--a faster music for a faster, postwar world. At the luminous dawn of the Space Age and New York's 1960s counterculture, Coleman gave voice to the moment. Lauded by some, maligned by many, he forged a breakaway art sometimes called "the new thing" or "free jazz." Featuring previously unpublished photographs of Coleman and his contemporaries, this book tells the compelling story of one of America's most adventurous musicians and the sound of a changing world. Clean copy.

Hardcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 492 pages, b&w photos. In a lightly worn dust jacket, clean copy. Otto Klemperer was one of the great conductors of the century, best known in the last years of his life for his performances and recordings of the classical symphonic repertory from Mozart to Mahler. Volume 1 only.

Hardcover. New York, Harper & Row, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 217 pages. Hardcover with price-clipped dust jacket. Clean, tight copy. Scarce biography of Robeson by Hamilton, a noted African-American children's book author.

NY, Knopf, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Passionate and enormously talented, Paul Robeson lived one of the great lives of the twentieth century. Martin Duberman's classic biography is a monumental and powerfully affecting portrait of one of this century's most notable performers, political radicals, and champions of racial equality. Drawing on a vast archive of family papers and interviews with friends and relatives as well as FBI files, Paul Robeson charts the heroic and tragic course of Robeson's life: from his early days as the son of a former slave to his rise to unprecedented international acclaim as a stage actor and singer, and from his political awakening to his downfall as a victim of McCarthyism and the efforts of the U.S. government to destroy him. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2nd pr., 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 328 pages, b&w illustrations. With the explosive early 1960s folk revival as backdrop, Hajdu entertainingly recounts this downright Shakespearean tale of Folk Queen Joan Baez falling for the Ass, Bob Dylan. Meanwhile, Joan's younger sister, Mimi, succumbs to the spell of the charming writer Richard Farina, and the two become a highly regarded folk-singing duo in their own right. Little does Mimi suspect that she is a convenient way for Richard to get closer to Joan. Tragedy strikes the foursome as Dylan dumps Baez once his fame eclipses hers, and Farina is killed in a motorcycle accident on Mimi's 21st birthday, two days after the publication of his first novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. Though Dylan and Baez will sell this book, the real star is the colorful but controlling rogue, Farina, whose star was swiftly rising at the time of his death. Hajdu pulled off a coup in winning the participation of reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon, who was a close friend of Farina's. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Toronto, HarperCollins, 1st CAN, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 420 pages, b&w photos. Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist and composer of the late twentieth century. In Reckless Daughter, the music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of how the blond girl with the guitar became a superstar of folk music in the 1960s, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s, and the songwriter who spoke resonantly to, and for, audiences across the country. A Canadian prairie girl, a free-spirited artist, Mitchell never wanted to be a pop star. She was nothing more than "a painter derailed by circumstances," she would explain. And yet, she went on to become a talented self-taught musician and a brilliant bandleader, releasing album after album, each distinctly experimental, challenging, and revealing. Her lyrics captivated listeners with their perceptive language and naked emotion, born out of Mitchell's life, loves, complaints, and prophecies. Remainder dot to bottom edge, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 242 pages. Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. Gilt title on spine. Color illustrations throughout. From the front flap: "In Red, Sammy tells the outrageous story of his tear through rock 'n' roll, detailing the backstage antics and nonstop touring hat have made his voice instantly recognizable. Beginning with his musical coming-of-age in blue-collar towns of California, Sammy traces his rough and determined rise to fame, working harder than anyone else out there and writing songs about the things he loved--fast cars, loud parties, and lots of good times."

Hardcover. US, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 160 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. a celebration of jazz legend Sonny Rollin's incredibly prolific career. This intimate appreciation in pictures and words combines the images of John Abbott, who was Rollin's photographer of choice for the past twernty years has captured the saxophonist at home and at work, and the essays of Bob Blumenthal, a jazz critic who has chronicled Rollins and his art for nearly four decades.