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Post by Admin on May 2, 2013 5:35:45 GMT -5
Thanks Alan. That convinces me to buy it
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Post by Admin on May 2, 2013 5:43:31 GMT -5
Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His BluesDr. Philip Ratcliff Hardcover, 5 page Forward, 8 page Introduction, 237 pages of text, 23 pages of Appendices-including Hurt's contracts and a lengthy discography, Chapter Notes and an Index are also included. There's a number of b&w photographs (including some never before seen) and reproductions of advertisements and posters throughout the book, which add depth and detail to the text. By Stuart Jefferson
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Post by Admin on May 3, 2013 10:20:33 GMT -5
Gayle Dean Wardlow has contributed so much to the history of the Blues. This is one of the best books available in my humble opinion. Chasin' That Devil Music Product Details ISBN-13: 9780879305529 Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation Publication date: 8/28/1998 Pages: 272 Wardlow, in a series of short articles previously written for Blues magazines and record album liner notes, discusses his search for old blues records and old bluesman in the Delta area during the 1960-1970's. Great biographical information, interviews with old bluesmen. This book really brings the times (1925-1950) to life and turns artists who were only names on old records to life as real people. If you really like old pre-war blues, this is a great book. Fascinating. The enclosed CD has lots of great old blues, but most are available in previous reissues. Still a great 'listening' disc.
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Post by Admin on May 4, 2013 15:54:08 GMT -5
Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues by Alan Govenar While not perfect, it is the best biography I've found on Lightnin' Hopkins.
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Post by Admin on May 4, 2013 16:04:11 GMT -5
The Jazz BookBy Joachim-Ernst Berendt and Gunther Huesmann Lawrence Hill Books, 2009 Publication Date: August 1, 2009 For fifty years The Jazz Book has been the most encyclopedic interpretive history of jazz available in one volume. In this new seventh edition, each chapter has been completely revised and expanded to incorporate the dominant styles and musicians since the book’s last publication in 1992, as well as the fruits of current research about earlier periods in the history of jazz. In addition, new chapters have been added on John Zorn, jazz in the 1990s and beyond, samplers, the tuba, the harmonica, non-Western instruments, postmodernist and repertory big bands, how the avant-garde has explored tradition, and many other subjects. With a widespread resurgence of interest in jazz, The Jazz Book will continue well into the 21st century to fill the need for information about an art form widely regarded as America’s greatest contribution to the world’s musical culture.
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Post by AlanB on May 5, 2013 1:19:50 GMT -5
Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues by Alan Govenar While not perfect, it is the best biography I've found on Lightnin' Hopkins. There's now a "rival" biography that's recently been published. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/029274515X/ref=pe_25911_33820731_pe_vfe_dt7Rather like London buses, wait ages for one, then two turn up.
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Post by Admin on May 5, 2013 7:03:55 GMT -5
Blind Lemon Jefferson: His Life, His Death, and His Legacy by Robert L. Uzzel Overview Between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929, Blind Lemon Jefferson was the largest-selling black blues singer in the United States. Blind from birth, Lemon wandered the streets of Wortham, Groesbeck, Marlin, and Kosse in Central Texas, playing his guitar and soliciting contributions with his tin cup. In 1912 he caught a train for Dallas, where he performed in the famous Deep Ellum district. He was discovered by a talent scout for Paramount Records and taken to Chicago in 1925. Between 1926 and 1929, Lemon recorded more than a hundred titles and traveled extensively. His musical influence was widespread, affecting white and black musicians alike and extending to musical forms other than the blues. Product Details ISBN-13: 9781571686565 Publisher: Wild Horse Press Publication date: 8/1/2002 Edition description: 1ST Pages: 136
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Post by AlanB on May 5, 2013 10:59:13 GMT -5
Blind Lemon Jefferson: His Life, His Death, and His Legacy by Robert L. Uzzel Overview Between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929, Blind Lemon Jefferson was the largest-selling black blues singer in the United States. Blind from birth, Lemon wandered the streets of Wortham, Groesbeck, Marlin, and Kosse in Central Texas, playing his guitar and soliciting contributions with his tin cup. In 1912 he caught a train for Dallas, where he performed in the famous Deep Ellum district. He was discovered by a talent scout for Paramount Records and taken to Chicago in 1925. Between 1926 and 1929, Lemon recorded more than a hundred titles and traveled extensively. His musical influence was widespread, affecting white and black musicians alike and extending to musical forms other than the blues. ISBN-13: 9781571686565 Publisher: Wild Horse Press Publication date: 8/1/2002 Edition description: 1ST Pages: 136 I hate to say this but this book received very negative reviews when first published and once illustrations etc have been taken into account it only boils down to about 100 pages. Personally I'd recommend trying to locate Jas Obrecht's excellent "Big Boss Blues: Blind Lemon Jefferson: The First Star of Blues Guitar." Guitar Player 25 (July 1991 pps 46-55) Found it jasobrecht.com/blind-lemon-jefferson-star-blues-guitar/
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Post by Admin on May 5, 2013 11:49:38 GMT -5
I hate to say this but this book received very negative reviews when first published and once illustrations etc have been taken into account it only boils down to about 100 pages. Personally I'd recommend trying to locate Jas Obrecht's excellent "Big Boss Blues: Blind Lemon Jefferson: The First Star of Blues Guitar." Guitar Player 25 (July 1991 pps 46-55) Found it jasobrecht.com/blind-lemon-jefferson-star-blues-guitar/Great link. Thanks.
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Post by Admin on May 5, 2013 12:15:12 GMT -5
The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 by Gunther Schuller Courtesy Goodreads: Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from its beginnings until 1933. The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's finest work...how Duke Ellington used the highly individualistic trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten John Nesbitt helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, and Joe Mooney. Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time, which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory bands"--and popular white bands like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.(less) Paperback, 938 pages Published September 1st 2005 by Oxford University Press, USA
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Post by Admin on May 6, 2013 8:47:59 GMT -5
Frontiers of JazzRalph De Toledano Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Pelican Publishing; 3 edition (April 30, 1994) Language: English ISBN-10: 1565540433 ISBN-13: 978-1565540439
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Post by Admin on May 6, 2013 8:54:37 GMT -5
Blind Blake (Book & CD) (Stefan Grossmans Early Masters of American Blues Guitar) [Paperback] Blind Blake (Author), Stefan Grossman (Editor)
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Post by Admin on May 7, 2013 9:40:05 GMT -5
Just bought this one. Culled from the DownBeat archives - includes in-depth interviews with literally every great jazz artist and personality that ever lived! Features classic photos and magazine covers from DownBeat's vast archives. In honor of its 75th anniversary, DownBeat's editors have brought together in this one volume the best interviews, insights, and photographs from the illustrious history of the world's top jazz magazine, DownBeat. This anthology includes the greatest of DownBeat's Jazz Hall of Famers: from early legends like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman; to bebop heroes like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; to truly unique voices like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk; to the pioneers of the electric scene like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Joe Zawinul. The Great Jazz Interviews delivers the legends of jazz, talking about America's music and America itself, in their own words. I've skimmed it and it looks like a real buy!
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Post by Admin on May 7, 2013 9:48:32 GMT -5
A great Paul Oliver book Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the BluesPaul Oliver
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Post by AlanB on May 7, 2013 10:13:41 GMT -5
A great Paul Oliver book Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the BluesPaul Oliver Indeed first published in 1960, revised in 1990 and never been out of print. I think much the same can be said of the other blues pioneering book of its time, Sam Charters The Country Blues, published 1959 and revised in 1975.
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