Castles Made Of Sound


Book Description

The definitive biography of the great composer, arranger, and bandleader




Castles


Book Description

Journey across the world and throughout history to discover the world's best and most unusual castles, and learn about their features, from the tallest turrets to the dingiest dungeons. Find out how castles have changed over time and what happened to the people who lived in them. A glimpse into the history of different castles around the world, the dramatic battles to conquer them, and the weapons that defended and defeated them. Travel through time and venture into the wonderful world of castles, from the extravagant châteaux of France, to the impenetrable fortresses of Japan. Find out why castles were built and witness some of the most famous sieges in history. Trek across the world to visit castles perched on perilous clifftops and exotic islands. Meet the medieval rulers who built the grandest castles and forts, and the modern tycoons who splashed out money trying to replicate them. Discover why the spiral staircases in castles always turned clockwise, and why their toilets always smelled so bad! And learn about the great lengths that prisoners would go to in order to escape... This children's book takes you on an immersive adventure to a collection of castles each beautifully illustrated at a particular moment in history. See the world's best castles from a range of viewpoints, whether you are standing next to samurai warriors waiting to attack, or castle jesters entertaining the king. Castle is a fact-packed, modern look at a classic topic.




The Last Miles


Book Description

The story of the final recordings of one of the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century




Hannibal Lokumbe


Book Description

For Hannibal Lokumbe, music is a profound source of spiritual liberation. A pathbreaking orchestral composer and visionary jazz musician, he composes resonant works that give voice to the freedom struggle of the African diaspora, the broader African American experience, Indigenous histories, and humanity. Many of his works address historical traumas, such as the Middle Passage, the Vietnam War, global environmental disharmony, and targeted racial violence, and focus on major figures, including Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Dr. Kim Phúc Phan Thị, and Anne Frank. This innovative book demonstrates that Lokumbe’s musical compositions, created in collaboration with his ancestors, are multisensorial spiritual soundscapes that aspire to chronicle, heal, and liberate. This is a captivating, vital portrait and spiritual biography of Lokumbe. The cultural anthropologist Lauren Coyle Rosen draws on several years of close conversations with Lokumbe, as well as his journals, to provide a powerful collaborative account of his remarkable life and work. The authors explore Lokumbe’s creative journeys and the spiritual dimensions of his art. They trace Lokumbe’s entire career, from his early years in the Texas and New York City jazz scenes to his widely acclaimed orchestral compositions. The book also addresses Lokumbe’s work in prisons and schools with the Music Liberation Orchestra, founded in the 1970s. Illuminating his philosophies of music, spirituality, justice, and freedom, this book immerses readers in Lokumbe’s many revelatory worlds.




Miles Davis


Book Description

A compelling few hours' reading for anyone with an interest in 20th-century music.' Kenneth Clarke, The Daily Mail Miles Davis (1926-91) was one of the great jazz musicians, bandleaders and composers. His recordings include several of the most acclaimed and popular jazz album, from the relaxed style of Birth of the Cool to the orchestral Sketches of Spain and the iconic Kind of Blue. And he never ceased to innovate. As the 1960s moved into the 1970s, he developed a darker, more complex sound and began increasingly to use electric instruments. The crowning achievement of his experiments, Bitches Brew (1969), became the bestselling jazz album of all time. In this biography, noted jazz critic Brian Morton takes us through the musical history of this remarkable and influential artist and illuminates the personality behind the sound.




Miles Davis


Book Description

This research and information guide provides a wide range of scholarship on the life, career, and musical legacy of Miles Davis, and is compiled for an interdisciplinary audience of scholars in jazz and popular music, musicology, and cultural studies. It serves as an excellent tool for librarians, researchers, and scholars sorting through the massive amount of material in the field.




Castles Made Of Sand


Book Description

The BOLD AS LOVE series is a world of daring, dread and enchantment, a world that could almost be ours: a brilliant combination of myth, magic and pop culture. Ax Preston, Sage Pender and Fiorinda, charismatic leaders of the Rock-n-Roll Reich, have beaten the cascade of disasters that followed the collapse of the former United Kingdom. Now they have to find some resolution to the impossible dynamics of their own relationship, while the world keeps falling apart. There are fearsome things going on in England's rural hinterland, and in Continental Europe the green nazis are planning a final solution to desperate environmental damage. But there's nothing the Triumvirate can't handle - until Fiorinda's father, a monster of the kind the world has never before known, reaches out to reclaim his magical child, the flower-bride. And that's when darkness falls over Ax's England . . . Harrowing . . . enchanting - a dark fairy tale with an epic sweep, set in a world very like our own.




Historical Dictionary of Jazz


Book Description

Jazz is a music formed from a combination of influences. In its infancy, jazz was a melting pot of military brass bands, work songs and field hollers of the United States slaves during the 19th century, European harmonies and forms, and the rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean. Later, the blues and the influence of Spanish and French Creoles with European classical training nudged jazz further along in its development. Jazz has always been a world-music in the sense that music from around the globe has been embraced and incorporated. The Historical Dictionary of Jazz covers the history of Jazz through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,500 cross-referenced entries on significant jazz performers, band leaders, bands, venues, record labels, recordings, and the different styles of jazz. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone seeking a broader understanding of the history of jazz and the connections within the genre.




The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records


Book Description

"A jazz-lover's delight."—Ray Olson, Booklist Noted jazz author Ashley Kahn brings to life the behind-the-scenes story of Impulse Records, one of the most significant record labels in the history of popular music. “Kahn mingles engaging stories of corporate politics with insider accounts of music-making and anecdotal takes on particular albums. His history of Impulse is also the story of the genesis of an American art form and the evolution of the record industry through the tumultuous 1960s—and will compel readers to seek out this label’s masterful albums,” says Publishers Weekly in a starred review. Kirkus Reviews calls the book “a swinging read,” adding that “Kahn covers all the aesthetic, business, social, and historical bases with crisp economy.” Don’t miss the exciting inside scoop behind some of the most enduring masterpieces of jazz!




The Enchanting of Muckulberry Hall


Book Description

A war is being fought between two powerful forces for control of planet earth. It has been raging on and off, for well over two thousand years. And as the centuries have past, neither side has been able to gain an outright victory. Dominant for the last two thousand years, have been the forces of the Dark Ones, and their human allies and slaves. Their objective is to exploit without any limit or regard, the natural resources of the planet. And to the Dark Ones, every living thing on the planet is a resource! As the human-race began to develop, the Dark Ones discovered among these humans, more than enough allies to assist them, in their need to accumulate and destroy. These humans, whose ego’s, and lust, for wealth and power, almost match that of the Dark Ones, themselves. Assisting the Dark Ones are savage creatures, creatures that inhabit a parallel word to our own. These creatures, under the control of the Dark Ones, have been coming and going between the two worlds for as long as humankind, has been around. Legends, myths, and horror stories, began to enter human psychic memory, almost from the very beginning. Stories which included shape changers, humans infected after being bitten, by Lycan or Vampires. Many other creatures, also moved between the two worlds, leaving their own mark, on the human psychic! Those people unfortunate enough to be bitten, and who do not die, develop the ability to change between the two forms, at will. It is summer, 2019. The forces opposed to the Dark Ones and their human allies, are now vastly outnumbered. The majority, of the human population, has up until now, lived in almost complete ignorance of a war, which has raged about them, for millennia. The planet is now under complete siege, global warming, oceans heavily polluted with toxic waste, and plastic. Wilderness areas being destroyed at an unprecedented rate, along with the biggest extinction, of wildlife, since the age of the dinosaurs. We have reached a tipping point, we either destroy the Dark Ones, and their human allies, or we resign ourselves to life on a dying planet. The worlds sanctuaries are under siege. And with the war threatening to become overt, the conflict now risks spilling over into the worlds, general population. The Muckulberry hunters, along with fellow hunters from sanctuaries all over the planet, have their backs to the wall. But news of the coming of a mighty hunter, who has been gifted with tremendous powers, and abilities, having been touched by Gaia, herself! Has bought renewed hope. His coming was foretold over a thousand years before, by the spirit of Muckulberry henge. But has his arrival, come in time for him to fulfil, his destiny Lady Claudia Muckulberry, with the full support of her new champion, and a small army of dedicated hunters, has decided that it’s time to finally break, the insane power of the Dark Ones, and their willing human allies. She intends to sever the head from the ravenous snake, once and for all, therefore restoring sanity, and balance back into the world.