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: Brendan Wolfe's Finding Bix is a personal and often surprising attempt to connect music, history, and legend. A native of Bix 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.
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 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 Jazz and the Philosophy of Art written by Lee B. Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-authored by three prominent philosophers of art, Jazz and the Philosophy of Art is the first book in English to be exclusively devoted to philosophical issues in jazz. It covers such diverse topics as minstrelsy, bebop, Voodoo, social and tap dancing, parades, phonography, musical forgeries, and jazz singing, as well as Goodman’s allographic/autographic distinction, Adorno’s critique of popular music, and what improvisation is and is not. The book is organized into three parts. Drawing on innovative strategies adopted to address challenges that arise for the project of defining art, Part I shows how historical definitions of art provide a blueprint for a historical definition of jazz. Part II extends the book’s commitment to social-historical contextualism by exploring distinctive ways that jazz has shaped, and been shaped by, American culture. It uses the lens of jazz vocals to provide perspective on racial issues previously unaddressed in the work. It then examines the broader premise that jazz was a socially progressive force in American popular culture. Part III concentrates on a topic that has entered into the arguments of each of the previous chapters: what is jazz improvisation? It outlines a pluralistic framework in which distinctive performance intentions distinguish distinctive kinds of jazz improvisation. This book is a comprehensive and valuable resource for any reader interested in the intersections between jazz and philosophy.
Download or read book The Jazz Problem written by Jacob Hardesty and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-10-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jazz Problem shows how high schools and colleges were the primary sites of this generational debate around jazz, the century's first cultural war. Schools were crucial sites of dispute between the worldviews of the late nineteenth century and the emerging modern world, one synonymous with jazz. As a major site of character formation where students came of age, high schools and colleges were the places where jazz was simultaneously celebrated and denigrated. Educators saw jazz as inseparable from other vices, such as smoking, drinking, "immodest dress" (for women), and some degree of sexual activity. Yet young people felt jazz was their music and relished the sense of generational autonomy that came with their affinity for jazz. This book offers a fresh and compelling look at the jazz controversy and how it shaped not only America'“Engaging and interesting to read by a layperson, but also well researched, documented, and written for scholars in the history of jazz, American music, or music education.” — Phillip Hash, School of Music, Illinois State University s musical life but our broader cultural identity.
Download or read book 1929 written by Frederick Turner and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2004-04-21 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1929, the brief, brilliant career of Bix Beiderbecke––self–taught cornetist, pianist, and composer––had already become legend. From the summer of '26 at Hudson Lake, Indiana, when his genius blazed forth with a strange, doomed incandescence, Bix's career tragically reflected the chaotic impulses of a country suddenly awash in wealth, power, and a profound cynicism. Shy, elusive, inarticulate, Bix was beloved by both the raccoon–coated campus crowd and the men who nightly played alongside him. He is still celebrated in a yearly festival in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa.And that is where the novel begins, Davenport and the Bix Fest. Then it travels back in time to focus on the highlights of a meteoric career: a Capone–controlled nightclub in 1926; the grueling cross–country tours with Paul Whiteman's Symphonic Jazz orchestra; the disastrous Whiteman trip to California to make the first all–color talkie musical; the stock market crash of 1929 that finds Bix in an asylum, victim of the era's signature product, bootleg gin; and finally, Bix's dying efforts to combine his piano compositions into a suite that would be the pinnacle of his life's work and his evocation of his time and place.Colored by some of the age's most popular characters––Maurice Ravel, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Clara Bow–– 1929 brilliantly illuminates a period in history, personified in the gifted, compelling, and melancholy figure of Bix Beiderbecke.
Download or read book Thriving on a Riff written by William G. Carter and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers. This book was released on 2024 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presbyterian minister and jazz pianist Bill Carter traces the meaning and spirituality of jazz, weaving together stories from the history of American music with his own experiences and those of generations of jazz musicians. As we encounter the transcendence of jazz, we meet a God who not only embraces syncopation but blesses the swing.
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 Bing Crosby written by Gary Giddins and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-11-29 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Bing Crosby's early days in college minstrel shows and vaudeville, to his first hit recordings, from his 11 year triumph as star of America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood, Gary Giddins provides a detailed study of the rise of this American star.
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 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 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 Cardiac Regeneration using Stem Cells written by Keiichi Fukuda and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To achieve cardiac regeneration using pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, researchers must understand iPS cell generation methods, cardiomyocyte differentiation protocols, cardiomyocyte characterization methods, and tissue engineering. This book presents the current status and future possibilities in cardiac regeneration using iPS cells. Written by top r
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 for readers of The Midnight Library. Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to 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 a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.
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 Secret written by Byron Preiss and published by ibooks. This book was released on 2016-10-05 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
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.
