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"Floyd Levin's half-century collection of reportage, reviews and recollections are an irreplaceable and totally enjoyable trove of writing about the vibrancy, past and still-present, of traditional American jazz."—Charles Champlin, author of Back There Where the Past Was "I've known Floyd and his wife Lucille for more than fifty years. Floyd's book is a colorful, intimate account of his lifelong love affair with jazz. I'm especially fascinated when he writes about his personal encounters with some of the jazz legends of the Century. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about jazz - its present, its past, and his evolution."—Milt Hinton "Floyd Levin's dedicated and unselfis...
Volume 1 of Clifton William Scott...is the rich heritage of a New England family. Fond remembrances of the author's parents are provided by family and friends. Brief family histories of eight branches of the family tree--Scott, Bradford, Taylor, Robinson, Williams, Porter, Shaw, and Ranney--are followed from the immigration of each patron ancestor during the great migration of 1620-1643 from England to either the Pilgrim's Plymouth Colony or the Puritan's Massachusetts Bay Colony, then to the Connecticut Valley towns, and finally to the Berkshire Hills towns of Buckland and Ashfield. Scott and Bradford descendants to the present time are documented, as are the numerous Pilgrim connections to the 1620 Mayflower passengers.
Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong was not only jazz's greatest musician and innovator, but also arguably its most famous entertainer and the frontal figure in the development of contemporary popular music. Overcoming social and political obstacles, he created a long and impressive career and an enormous musical output. Now, his ground breaking musical career is amassed and detailed in this discography of all his works, from professionally made commercial releases, to amateur and unissued recordings. All of Me is a comprehensive, chronological discography born out of love and admiration for Louis Armstrong, and devotion to years of collecting his musical accomplishments. Author Jos Willems has meticu...
There was no blood at the scene, not even a cut on his body. Yet on May 25, 1999, when the top of a massive beech tree snapped off and slammed into 33-year-old, Adirondack logger Scott Remington, his bones exploded. The terrain was unforgiving and the area too remote for cell phones. So the fact that medics reached him is a miracle. So is the aftermath of a freak accident that felt like death to a woodsman who could never sit still. More than the story of one man, this is also about a small town that rescued Scott from despair, and, by accident, discovered the meaning of life. In this well written and extremely compelling book, Amy Montgomery draws us into the essence of living with a spinal...
As legalization of recreational marijuana spreads across America, more and more young people will be smoking weed, with the belief that it’s harmless fun, with no detrimental side effects and little or no risk of addiction. True Bud will open your eyes to the truth: in this country, where almost no attention is given to quality regulation, origin, or growing practices, weed can be highly unsafe. Even medical marijuana may be laced with pesticides and other chemicals dangerous for human consumption. Learn how gang-distributed bud is trying to compete with medical weed, leading to cutting the product with K2 and other deadly substances. Many adults still have the idea that marijuana is compl...
The critical role of Europe in the music, personalities, and analysis of jazz
Early Jazz is an overview of the beginnings of jazz from its nineteenth-century roots through 1929, when elements of the Swing Era began to emerge. It is the first book on early jazz history in over fifty years and fills a compelling need for an update that reflects recent research. With a broad definition of jazz that encompasses the artistic and the commercial, the book's inclusive tone allows for a wide spectrum of musicians, including not only pioneering African American and white musicians but also those who are commonly skipped or skimmed over in jazz history textbooks—lesser-known sidemen, prominent instrumentalists, entertainers or novelty performers, women, vocalists, and American jazz musicians who introduced jazz on their travels around the world. Nineteen songs are analyzed in depth, but no musical knowledge is required to understand or to read Early Jazz. The book is written as an introduction for fans, students, musicians, historians, scholars, and anyone who is interested in this fascinating era of jazz history.
Edward "Kid" Ory (1886-1973) was a trombonist, composer, recording artist, and early New Orleans jazz band leader. Creole Trombone tells his story from birth on a rural sugar cane plantation in a French-speaking, ethnically mixed family, to his emergence in New Orleans as the city's hottest band leader. The Ory band featured such future jazz stars as Louis Armstrong and King Oliver, and was widely considered New Orleans's top "hot" band. Ory's career took him from New Orleans to California, where he and his band created the first African American New Orleans jazz recordings ever made. In 1925 he moved to Chicago where he made records with Oliver, Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton that capture...
Apex Blues chronicles the extraordinary lives and musical legacies of two generation-spanning Jazz clarinet virtuosos: Jimmie Noone Sr. and his son Jimmy Noone Jr. Jimmie Noone Sr. rose to fame in the 1910s New Orleans French Quarter jazz scene, forging his iconic ‘Sweet Lorraine’ style during the dawn of the genre. Later, his son Jimmy initially made waves as a San Diego local musician before feeling called to follow in his father’s footsteps. He set out to revive his dad’s New Orleans Jazz sound and mentorship. As the author witnesses firsthand, Jimmy exceeds even his father’s musical heights through raw talent and relentless dedication to his craft. In his final days, he completes his quest: to honor Jazz history by propelling his father’s sound into the future. Jimmy cements the Noone legacy, ensuring the nation remembers what sublime Jazz can be. Spanning generations, geographies, and evolutions of musical style, Apex Blues captures how two clarinet greats shepherded Jazz from regional obscurity into an acclaimed American art form.
This annotated discography covers the first 50 years of audio recordings by black artists in chronological order, music made in the "acoustic era" of recording technology. The book has cross-referenced bibliographical information on recording sessions, including audio sources for extant material, and appendices on field recordings; Caribbean, Mexican and South American recordings; piano rolls performed by black artists; and a filmography detailing the visual record of black performing artists from the period. Indexes contain all featured artists, titles recorded and labels.