Author : Ross Firestone
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 536 pages
File Size : 50,83 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Band musicians
ISBN : 9780393311686
Before Elvis and rock & roll, Benny Goodman--the King of Swing--ruled American popular music. In this intimate biography, Firestone illuminates Goodman's enormous impact on American music and culture, offering a mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes look at this complicated, difficult jazz superstar. Photos.
Author : Benny Goodman
Publisher :
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 29,42 MB
Release : 1939
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :
The story of Benny Goodman's life, with a chapter on swing music by Irving Kolodin.
Author : Jeffrey Magee
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 44,69 MB
Release : 2005-01-13
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0195358147
If Benny Goodman was the "King of Swing," then Fletcher Henderson was the power behind the throne. Now Jeffrey Magee offers a fascinating account of Henderson's musical career, throwing new light on the emergence of modern jazz and the world that created it. Drawing on an unprecedented combination of sources, including sound recordings and hundreds of scores that have been available only since Goodman's death, Magee illuminates Henderson's musical output, from his early work as a New York bandleader, to his pivotal role in building the Kingdom of Swing. He shows how Henderson, standing at the forefront of the New York jazz scene during the 1920s and '30s, assembled the era's best musicians, simultaneously preserving jazz's distinctiveness and performing popular dance music that reached a wide audience. Magee reveals how, in Henderson's largely segregated musical world, black and white musicians worked together to establish jazz, how Henderson's style rose out of collaborations with many key players, how these players deftly combined improvised and written music, and how their work negotiated artistic and commercial impulses. Whether placing Henderson's life in the context of the Harlem Renaissance or describing how the savvy use of network radio made the Henderson-Goodman style a national standard, Jeffrey Magee brings to life a monumental musician who helped to shape an era. "An invaluable survey of Henderson's life and music." --Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times "Magee has written an important book, illuminating an era too often reduced to its most familiar names. Goodman might have been the King of Swing, but Henderson here emerges as that kingdom's chief architect." --Boston Globe "Excellent.... Jazz fans have waited 30 years for a trained musicologist...to evaluate Henderson's strengths and weaknesses and attempt to place him in the history of American music." --Will Friedwald, New York Sun
Author : Degen Pener
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 36,37 MB
Release : 2009-06-27
Category : Music
ISBN : 0316076678
Ten years ago a revival of swing took place, originating in San Francisco, snowballing into today's international resurgence. This book presents the complete history of swing music and dancing, then and now.
Author : James Lincoln Collier
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 17,84 MB
Release : 1991-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780195067767
Traces the rags-to-riches career of the clarinetist and his role in popularizing jazz music in the post-Depression 1930s, assesses his elusive personality, and reevaluates dozens of his landmark recordings
Author : Rupert Holmes
Publisher : Random House
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 43,36 MB
Release : 2007-12-18
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0307431894
Two-time Edgar Award winner Rupert Holmes–author of the critically acclaimed Where the Truth Lies and creator of the Tony Award—winning musical whodunit The Mystery of Edwin Drood–now fuses gripping suspense and evocative music in an innovative novel of intrigue set in 1940, during the very heart of the Big Band era. Jazz saxophonist and arranger Ray Sherwood, touring with the Jack Donovan Orchestra, is haunted by personal tragedy. But when a beautiful and talented Berkeley student named Gail Prentice seeks his help in orchestrating a highly original composition called Swing Around the Sun, which is slated to premiere at the Golden Gate Exposition on the newly created Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, Ray finds himself powerfully drawn to the beguiling coed. Within moments of first setting eyes on her, Ray also witnesses a horrifying sight: a young woman plunging to her death from the island’s emblematic Tower of the Sun. As the captivated Ray learns more about Gail and her unusual family, he finds himself trapped in a tightening coil of spiraling secrets– some personally devastating, all dangerous and deadly– in which from moment to moment nothing is certain, including Gail’s intentions toward him and her connection to the dead woman who made such a grisly impact upon the stunning island. As events speed toward a shocking climax, Ray must use all his physical daring and improvisational skills to unlock an ominous puzzle whose sinister implications stretch far beyond anything he could imagine.
Author : Duncan McLean
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 39,72 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780393317565
High Fidelity meets Blue Highways in this gloriously offbeat quest for the true roots of Texas Swing.
Author : Mike Zwerin
Publisher : Cooper Square Press
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 42,42 MB
Release : 2000-09-05
Category : Music
ISBN : 1461731976
For a brief time in a Europe threatened and then occupied by Nazi Germany, jazz was heard as ubiquitously as rock ' n' roll is today. In a personal search for the story of that time, Mike Zwerin spent two years traveling across Europe talking with individuals who performed and enjoyed jazz in Hitler's dark shadow, including the Ghetto Swingers, a Jewish jazz band that "toured" Auschwitz and Theresienstadt; the Luftwaffe pilot who listened to Glenn Miller while bombing London; Django Reinhardt, the brilliant guitarist who refused to flee Nazi-controlled France; and many others.
Author : Kwame Alexander
Publisher : Clarion Books
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 25,44 MB
Release : 2018-10-02
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 0310761875
In this YA novel in verse from bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess (Solo), which Kirkus called “lively, moving, and heartfelt” in a starred review, Noah and Walt just want to leave their geek days behind and find “cool,” but in the process discover a lot about first loves, friendship, and embracing life . . . as well as why Black Lives Matter is so important for all. Best friends Noah and Walt are far from popular, but Walt is convinced junior year is their year, and he has a plan that includes wooing the girls of their dreams and becoming amazing athletes. Never mind he and Noah failed to make their baseball team yet again, and Noah’s crush since third grade, Sam, has him firmly in the friend zone. While Walt focuses on his program of jazz, podcasts, batting cages, and a “Hug Life” mentality, Noah feels stuck in status quo … until he stumbles on a stash of old love letters. Each one contains words Noah’s always wanted to say to Sam, and he begins secretly creating artwork using the lines that speak his heart. But when his art becomes public, Noah has a decision to make: continue his life in the dugout and possibly lose the girl forever, or take a swing and finally speak out. At the same time, American flags are being left around town. While some think it’s a harmless prank and others see it as a form of protest, Noah can’t shake the feeling something bigger is happening to his community. Especially after he witnesses events that hint divides and prejudices run deeper than he realized. As the personal and social tensions increase around them, Noah and Walt must decide what is really important when it comes to love, friendship, sacrifice, and fate. Swing: is written by New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winner Kwame Alexander Features a diverse array of characters and perspectives tackles the biggest social issues of today, including racial prejudice and Black Lives Matter is perfect reading for the classroom or community-wide discussions is a 2020 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers contains original artwork tied to the story If you enjoy Swing, check out Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess.
Author : Catherine Tackley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 49,34 MB
Release : 2012-10-19
Category : Music
ISBN : 0199911037
On January 16, 1938 Benny Goodman brought his swing orchestra to America's venerated home of European classical music, Carnegie Hall. The resulting concert - widely considered one of the most significant events in American music history - helped to usher jazz and swing music into the American cultural mainstream. This reputation has been perpetuated by Columbia Records' 1950 release of the concert on LP. Now, in Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, jazz scholar and musician Catherine Tackley provides the first in depth, scholarly study of this seminal concert and recording. Combining rigorous documentary and archival research with close analysis of the recording, Tackley strips back the accumulated layers of interpretation and meaning to assess the performance in its original context, and explore what the material has come to represent in its recorded form. Taking a complete view of the concert, she examines the rich cultural setting in which it took place, and analyzes the compositions, arrangements and performances themselves, before discussing the immediate reception, and lasting legacy and impact of this storied event and album. As the definitive study of one of the most important recordings of the twentieth-century, Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert is a must-read for all serious jazz fans, musicians and scholars.
