Download or read book Finding Bix written by Brendan Wolfe and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bix Beiderbecke was one of the first great legends of jazz. Among the most innovative cornet soloists of the 1920s and the first important white player, he invented the jazz ballad and pointed the way to “cool” jazz. But his recording career lasted just six years; he drank himself to death in 1931—at the age of twenty-eight. It was this meteoric rise and fall, combined with the searing originality of his playing and the mystery of his character—who was Bix? not even his friends or family seemed to know—that inspired subsequent generations to imitate him, worship him, and write about him. It also provoked Brendan Wolfe’s Finding Bix a personal and often surprising attempt to connect music, history, and legend. A native of Beiderbecke’s hometown of Davenport, Iowa, Wolfe grew up seeing Bix’s iconic portrait on everything from posters to parking garages. He never heard his music, though, until cast to play a bit part in an Italian biopic filmed in Davenport. Then, after writing a newspaper review of a book about Beiderbecke, Wolfe unexpectedly received a letter from the late musician's nephew scolding him for getting a number of facts wrong. This is where Finding Bix begins: in Wolfe's good-faith attempt to get the facts right. What follows, though, is anything but straightforward, as Wolfe discovers Bix Beiderbecke to be at the heart of furious and ever-timely disputes over addiction, race and the origins of jazz, sex, and the influence of commerce on art. He also uncovers proof that the only newspaper interview Bix gave in his lifetime was a fraud, almost entirely plagiarized from several different sources. In fact, Wolfe comes to realize that the closer he seems to get to Bix, the more the legend retreats.
Download or read book Bix written by Jean Pierre Lion and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bix Beiderbecke is a figure of legend: the white cornetist's short life (1903-1931) fit the myth of the tragic artist, surrounded by the nostalgia of an era (Prohibition), and rooted in the dark history of jazz. Considered a genius by his fans and fellow musicians, Bix was a master cornet player, pianist, and composer, and one of the most inspiring jazz musicians of his age." "French jazz scholar Jean Pierre Lion traveled the trajectory of Bix's life, from birth to death, to boarding school, on tour, and beyond, to uncover the truth behind the legend. He creates historical ambience with descriptions of 1920s Chicago - ruled by Al Capone and peopled with fast cars, flappers, and hot jazz musicians - and Bix's personality is revealed through excerpts from the few letters he wrote in his lifetime and the memories of friends and witnesses of the jazz age." "When he died, Bix left behind a tremendous list of recordings (included here in a definitive discography) and several original compositions. This biography culls the entirety of Bix scholarship into one volume, painting a complete picture of the man, his music, and his times."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book Bix written by Scott Chantler and published by Gallery 13. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed Eisner Award–nominated creator of Two Generals and Northwest Passage comes a gorgeous and spare illustrated exploration of the rapid rise and tragic fall of 1920s legendary jazz soloist Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke. Told in stunning illustrations, Bix is a near-wordless graphic exploration highlighting the career of Leon Bix Beiderbecke, one of the most innovative jazz soloists of the 1920s next to the legendary Louis Armstrong. While composing and recording some of the landmark music in the early history of genre, Bix struggled with personal demons, facing the disapproval of his conservative parents and an increasing dependence on alcohol. Presented in predominantly silent panels to reflect his rebellious outsider quality and inability to communicate in anything other than his own musical terms, Bix tells the story of a music star’s rapid rise and tragic fall—a metaphor for the glories and risks inherent in the creative life.
Download or read book Hirohito And The Making Of Modern Japan written by Herbert P. Bix and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority. Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past. Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.
Download or read book Hear Me Talkin to Ya written by Nat Shapiro and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-08-16 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this marvelous oral history, the words of such legends as Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Billy Holiday trace the birth, growth, and changes in jazz over the years.
Download or read book Half a Million Strong written by Gina Arnold and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From baby boomers to millennials, attending a big music festival has basically become a cultural rite of passage in America. In Half a Million Strong, music writer and scholar Gina Arnold explores the history of large music festivals in America and examines their impact on American culture. Studying literature, films, journalism, and other archival detritus of the countercultural era, Arnold looks closely at a number of large and well-known festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival, Woodstock, Altamont, Wattstax, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and others to map their cultural significance in the American experience. She finds that—far from being the utopian and communal spaces of spiritual regeneration that they claim for themselves— these large music festivals serve mostly to display the free market to consumers in its very best light.
Download or read book Wolfe s History A Family Story written by Brendan Wolfe and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-07-18 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wolfe's History, by the author of Finding Bix (2017), wraps its arms around a single, sprawling Irish and American family. In an opening essay, Wolfe introduces a cast of larger-than-life characters-from an Old West barkeep and a Gold Rush pharmacist to an IRA fugitive and a British recruit whose loyalties are tested during the Easter Rising. Together these fast-talking, writerly cousins live intricate lives that move quickly between past and present-complete with periodic and sudden outbursts of violence. A man is set ablaze on the prairie. A Jesuit is tortured in Dublin Castle. In the author's sure hands, their stories are converted into something broader and more searching than just a single family's journey. He wonders what binds the Wolfes together in the first place and whether the experiences of his own immediate family subvert the connections he feels with his ancestors. A biographical dictionary and fifty pages of family trees complete this impressive volume.
Download or read book Remembering Bix written by Ralph Berton and published by W H Allen. This book was released on 1974 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bix Beiderbecke, born in 1903 and dead at 28, lives on as perhaps the greatest cornetists in jazz history. The author, a teenage fan of Bix and the younger brother of Vic Berton, Bix's drummer and manager, offers his unique perspective of the music as he tagged along with the band to honky-tonks and jam sessions. Listening from under the piano, Berton heard some of the most extraordinary music, and he brings it alive in this book, which combines the excitement of youth and the perspective of the five decades that followed - decades that confirmed Bix's place in the pantheon of jazz greats.
Download or read book The Measure written by Nikki Erlick and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! "A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope—read with us." —Jenna Bush Hager A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life? Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything. Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.
Download or read book The Night Box written by Louise Greig and published by Clarion Books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invites young readers to discover what happens between sunset and sunrise as a little boy opens the Night Box and darkness swoops out to cavort and explore, caring for all its creatures until morning comes, and it's time for Night to rest again.
Download or read book Following the Wild Bees written by Thomas D. Seeley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A how-to book on an exhilarating outdoor activity and a unique meditation on the pleasures of the natural world Following the Wild Bees is a delightful foray into the pastime of bee hunting, an exhilarating outdoor activity that used to be practiced widely but which few people know about today. Weaving informative discussions of bee biology with colorful anecdotes, personal insights, and beautiful photos, Thomas Seeley describes the history and science behind this lost pastime and how anyone can do it. The bee hunter’s reward is a thrilling encounter with nature that challenges mind and body while also giving insights into the remarkable behavior of honey bees living in the wild. Whether you’re a bee enthusiast or just curious about the natural world, this book is the ideal companion for newcomers to bee hunting and a rare treat for armchair naturalists.
Download or read book North American Box Turtles written by C. Kenneth Dodd and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once a familiar backyard visitor in many parts of the United States and Mexico, the box turtle is losing the battle against extinction. In North American Box Turtles, C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr., has written the first book-length natural history of the twelve species and subspecies of this endangered animal. This volume includes comprehensive information on the species’ evolution, behavior, courtship and reproduction, habitat use, diet, population structure, systematics, and disease. Special features include color photos of all species, subspecies, and their habitats; a simple identification guide to both living and fossil species; and a summary of information on fossil Terrapene and Native uses of box turtles. End-of-chapter sections highlight future research directions, including the need for long-term monitoring and observation of box turtles within their natural habitat and conservation applications. A glossary and a bibliography of literature on box turtles accompany the text. All royalties from the sales of this volume will go to the Chelonian Research Foundation, a nonprofit foundation for the conservation of turtles.
Download or read book Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs written by Amy Sue Bix and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amy Sue Bix locates the origins of such conflict in the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the country's social and economic crisis forced many Americans to re-examine ideas about science, technology, and progress."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book A Court of Thorns and Roses written by Sarah J. Maas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE FIRST BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING SERIES AND A TIKTOK SENSATION 'With bits of Buffy, Game Of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series of total joy' STYLIST Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death... Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. _________________________ Sarah J. Maas's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into 37 languages. Discover the tantalising, sweeping romantic fantasy, soon to be a major TV series, for yourself.
Download or read book The Boy on the Wooden Box written by Leon Leyson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-29 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, a man named Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson's life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory - a list that became world renowned: Schindler's List. This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler's List child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Most notable is the lack of rancour, the lack of venom, and the abundance of dignity in Mr Leyson's telling. The Boy on the Wooden Boxis a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you've ever read.
Download or read book Bix written by Philip R. Evans and published by Jazz Productions. This book was released on 1998 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cowgirl s Guide to Life written by Gladiola Montana and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Straight talk from the lassoin’ lady—from knowing the best time to hold your tongue to using the right bait when you’re fishing for compliments. This sassy cowgirl and her sidekick cowboy partner capture the feminine perspective on life. This common-sense wisdom in humorous form is all about living and loving. Women will laugh about it—from the boardroom to the suburban book club. Gems include: “It is better to be a widower’s second wife than his first.” “If you’re fixin’ to get yourself a good stallion, don’t go lookin’ in the donkey corral.” “High steppers give bumpy rides.” “If you’ve done it, it ain’t braggin’.” “Always say ‘please’ when you tell somebody to shut up.”
