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Luck’s in My Corner is a comprehensive biography of one of the most compelling jazz musicians of the Swing Era, Oran "Hot Lips’ Page. Page was the greatest of the Kansas City trumpeters, whose crackling, growling solos made him the go-to man during Count Basie’s earliest days as a bandleader. Page went on to be a featured trumpeter with Artie Shaw, a star of New York’s 52nd street, and a pioneer of the R & B scene of the 1950s. This book presents an in-depth chronology of Page’s career, with special attention paid to the development of his trumpet style. Luck’s in My Corner examines the life and music of a forgotten figure of the Swing Era and returns him to his rightful place as a leading light in the world of jazz. Todd Bryant Weeks has combined genealogical, musicological, discographical and historical research, resulting in a revealing and entertaining examination of a life that spanned major changes in American popular music. This book includes a new and complete discography by the author and dozens of unpublished photos.
The Annual Review of Jazz Studies provides a forum for the ever-expanding range and depth of jazz scholarship, from technical analyses to oral history to cultural interpretation. Addressed to specialists and fans alike, all volumes include feature articles, book reviews, and previously unpublished photographs.
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The definitive book on The Station nightclub fire on the 10th anniversary of the disaster
Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy came from Kansas City to find nationwide fame in the later 1930s. The many records they made between 1929 and 1949 came to exemplify the Kansas City style of jazz, but they were also criticized for their populism and inauthenticity. In The Recordings of Andy Kirk' and his Clouds of Joy, George Burrows considers these records as representing negotiations over racialized styles between black jazz musicians and the racist music industry during a vital period of popularity and change for American jazz. The book explores the way that these reformative negotiations shaped and can be heard in the recorded music. By comparing the band's appropriation of musical styles to the manipulation of masks in black forms of blackface performance--both signifying and subverting racist conceptions of black authenticity--it reveals how the dynamic between black musicians, their audiences and critics impacted upon jazz as a practice and conception.
An essential work for rock fans and scholars, Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll surveys the origins of rock 'n' roll from the minstrel era to the emergence of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Unlike other histories of rock, Before Elvis offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. Dispelling common misconceptions, it examines rock's origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock 'n' roll appeared. This unique study ranges far and wide, highlighting not only the contributions of obscure but key precursors like Hardrock Gunter and Sam Theard but also the...
New York's hometown newspaper combines its vast archives with the resources of the Uptown Chamber of Commerce to provide an informative and rich visual history of Harlem.
As the founder and head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun signed and/or recorded many of the greatest musical artists of all time, from Ray Charles to Kid Rock. Working alongside his older brother, Nesuhi, one of the preeminent jazz producers of all time, and the legendary Jerry Wexler, Ertegun transformed Atlantic Records from a small independent record label into a hugely profitable multinational corporation. In successive generations, he also served as a mentor to record-business tyros like Phil Spector, David Geffen, and Lyor Cohen. Brilliant, cultured, and irreverent, Ertegun was as renowned for his incredible sense of personal style and nonstop A-list social life as his work in the studio. Blessed with impeccable taste and brilliant business acumen, he brought rock 'n roll into the mainstream while creating the music that became the sound track for the lives of multiple generations.--From publisher description.
Hearing across media is the source of innovation in a uniquely African American sphere of art-making and performance, Brent Hayes Edwards writes. He explores this fertile interface through case studies in jazz literature—both writings informed by music and the surprisingly large body of writing by jazz musicians themselves.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings is firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful - often wittily trenchant - criticism. This is something rather different: Brian Morton (who taught American history at UEA) has picked out the 1000 best recordings that all jazz fans should have and shows how they tell the history of the music and with it the history of the twentieth century. He has completely revised his and Richard Cook's entries and reassessed each artist's entry for this book. The result is an endlessly browsable companion that will prove required reading for aficionados and jazz novices alike. 'It's the kind of book that you'll yank off the shelf to look up a quick fact and still be reading two hours later' Fortune 'Part jazz history, part jazz Karma Sutra with Cook and Morton as the knowledgeable, urbane, wise and witty guides ... This is one of the great books of recorded jazz; the other guides don't come close' Irish Times