Download or read book Birdland the Jazz Corner of the World written by Leo T. Sullivan and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-28 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birdland was a legendary nightclub in New York City and, from 1949-65, was the scene for the greatest jazz music and musicians in the world. This illustrated book offers a history of this legendary jazz club, and presents the greats who played its stage in capsule biographies, vintage photos, and rare memorabilia. Named after legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, the club showcased memorable double and triple bills lasting until dawn. Many classic live recordings were made at "The Jazz Corner of the World," such as the "A Night at Birdland" by the Art Blakey Quintet, "Basie at Birdland," and "Coltrane, Live at Birdland." Birdland established itself as the one place that every jazz musician had to play. Greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Art Tatum, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, and Sonny Rollins, to name only a few, graced its stage.
Download or read book Sittin In written by Jeff Gold and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 835 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A visual history of America’s jazz nightclubs of the 1940s and 1950s, featuring exclusive interviews and over 200 souvenir photos. In the two decades before the Civil Rights movement, jazz nightclubs were among the first places that opened their doors to both Black and white performers and club goers in Jim Crow America. In this extraordinary collection, Grammy Award-winning record executive and music historian Jeff Gold looks back at this explosive moment in the history of Jazz and American culture, and the spaces at the center of artistic and social change. Sittin’ In is a visual history of jazz clubs during these crucial decades when some of the greatest names in in the genre—Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, and many others—were headlining acts across the country. In many of the clubs, Black and white musicians played together and more significantly, people of all races gathered together to enjoy an evening’s entertainment. House photographers roamed the floor and for a dollar, took picture of patrons that were developed on site and could be taken home in a keepsake folder with the club’s name and logo. Sittin’ In tells the story of the most popular club in these cities through striking images, first-hand anecdotes, true tales about the musicians who performed their unforgettable shows, notes on important music recorded live there, and more. All of this is supplemented by colorful club memorabilia, including posters, handbills, menus, branded matchbooks, and more. Inside you’ll also find exclusive, in-depth interviews conducted specifically for this book with the legendary Quincy Jones; jazz great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins; Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan; jazz musician and creative director of the Kennedy Center, Jason Moran; and jazz critic Dan Morgenstern. Gold surveys America’s jazz scene and its intersection with racism during segregation, focusing on three crucial regions: the East Coast (New York, Atlantic City, Boston, Washington, D.C.); the Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City); and the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). This collection of ephemeral snapshots tells the story of an era that helped transform American life, beginning the move from traditional Dixieland jazz to bebop, from conservatism to the push for personal freedom.
Download or read book Blue Notes in Black and White written by Benjamin Cawthra and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miles Davis, supremely cool behind his shades. Billie Holiday, eyes closed and head tilted back in full cry. John Coltrane, one hand behind his neck and a finger held pensively to his lips. These iconic images have captivated jazz fans nearly as much as the music has. Jazz photographs are visual landmarks in American history, acting as both a reflection and a vital part of African American culture in a time of immense upheaval, conflict, and celebration. Charting the development of jazz photography from the swing era of the 1930s to the rise of black nationalism in the ’60s, Blue Notes in Black and White is the first of its kind: a fascinating account of the partnership between two of the twentieth century’s most innovative art forms. Benjamin Cawthra introduces us to the great jazz photographers—including Gjon Mili, William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard, Francis Wolff, Roy DeCarava, and William Claxton—and their struggles, hustles, styles, and creative visions. We also meet their legendary subjects, such as Duke Ellington, sweating through a late-night jam session for the troops during World War II, and Dizzy Gillespie, stylish in beret, glasses, and goatee. Cawthra shows us the connections between the photographers, art directors, editors, and record producers who crafted a look for jazz that would sell magazines and albums. And on the other side of the lens, he explores how the musicians shaped their public images to further their own financial and political goals. This mixture of art, commerce, and racial politics resulted in a rich visual legacy that is vividly on display in Blue Notes in Black and White. Beyond illuminating the aesthetic power of these images, Cawthra ultimately shows how jazz and its imagery served a crucial function in the struggle for civil rights, making African Americans proudly, powerfully visible.
Download or read book Godfather of the Music Business written by Richard Carlin and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Association of Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence Best Historical Research in Record Labels – Best History (2017) This biography tells the story of one of the most notorious figures in the history of popular music, Morris Levy (1927-1990). At age nineteen, he cofounded the nightclub Birdland in Hell's Kitchen, which became the home for a new musical style, bebop. Levy operated one of the first integrated clubs on Broadway and helped build the careers of Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell and most notably aided the reemergence of Count Basie. In 1957, he founded a record label, Roulette Records. Roulette featured many of the significant jazz artists who played Birdland but also scored top pop hits with acts like Buddy Knox, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Joey Dee and the Starliters, and, in the mid-1960s, Tommy James. Stories abound of Levy threatening artists, songwriters, and producers, sometimes just for the sport, other times so he could continue to build his empire. Along the way, Levy attracted "investors" with ties to the Mafia, including Dominic Ciaffone (a.k.a. "Swats" Mulligan), Tommy Eboli, and the most notorious of them all, Vincent Gigante. Gigante allegedly owned large pieces of Levy's recording and retail businesses. Starting in the late 1950s, the FBI and IRS investigated Levy but could not make anything stick until the early 1980s, when Levy foolishly got involved in a deal to sell remaindered records to a small-time reseller, John LaMonte. With partners in the mob, Levy tried to force LaMonte to pay for four million remaindered records. When the FBI secretly wiretapped LaMonte in an unrelated investigation and agents learned about the deal, investigators successfully prosecuted Levy in the extortion scheme. Convicted in 1988, Levy did not live to serve prison time. Stricken with cancer, he died just as his last appeals were exhausted. However, even if he had lived, Levy's brand of storied high life was effectively bust. Corporate ownership of record labels doomed most independents in the business, ending the days when a savvy if ruthless hustler could blaze a path to the top.
Download or read book Tales of Times Square written by Josh Alan Friedman and published by Feral House. This book was released on 2012-09-23 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Friedman has drawn a vivid picture of the Times Square area and its denizens. He writes about the porn palaces with live sex shows, and the men and women who perform in them, prostitutes and their pimps, the runaways who will likely be the next decade's prostitutes, the clergymen who fight the smut merchants and the cops who feel impotent in the face of the judiciary.”—Publishers Weekly This classic account of the ultra-sleazy, pre-Disneyfied era of Times Square is now the subject of a documentary film of the same name to be theatrically released this year. With this edition, Tales of Times Square returns to print with seven new chapters.
Download or read book From Birdland to Broadway written by Bill Crow and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1950s, New York City's Birdland was the center of the world of modern jazz--and a revelation to Bill Crow, a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-two-year-old from Washington State. Located on Broadway between 52nd and 53rd streets, the club named for the incomparable Charlie Bird Parker boasted lifesize photo murals of modern jazzmen like Dizzy Gillespie, Lennie Tristano, and, of course, Bird himself, looming large against jet black walls. Exotic live birds perched in cages behind the bar. The midget master of ceremonies, 3'9 Pee Wee Marquette, dressed in a zoot suit and loud tie, smoked huge cigars and screeched mispronounced introductions into the microphone. And the jazz-struck young Crow would park in the bleachers till 4 am, blissfully enveloped by the heady music of Bird, Bud Powell, Max Roach, and a host of other jazz giants. From Birdland to Broadway is an enthralling insider's account of four decades of a life in jazz. Bill Crow, journeyman bass player, superb storyteller, and author of the successful Jazz Anecdotes, here narrates many moving and delightful tales of the pioneers of modern jazz he played with and was befriended by. We find Dizzy Gillespie, with whom Crow, because of prior commitments, regretfully declined steady work, dancing at the Royal Roost, Stan Getz sadly teetering on the brink of losing himself to drugs, and Harry Belafonte (known then as the Cinderella Gentleman) running a lunch counter in New York's Sheridan Square between music dates. And we also witness many of the highlights of Crow's career, such as in 1955 when the Marian McPartland Trio (with Crow on bass) was named Small Group of the Year by Metronome; Crow playing with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet at venues like Storyville in Boston and Harlem's Apollo Theater (where they appeared with Dinah Washington); and the tour of the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman, a journey that might have been a high point of Crow's travels abroad but was marred by Goodman's legendary mistreatment of his band. Moving beyond jazz clubs to the Broadway concert pit and a variety of studio gigs in the '60s, Crow encounters actors such as Yul Brynner and pop-rock acts like Simon and Garfunkel. From the great to the near-great, from Billie Holiday to Judy Holliday, Bill Crow's wealth of personal anecdotes takes the reader from Birdland, to the Half Note, to the Playboy Club, to the footlights of Broadway. This revealing book is a marvelous portrait of the jazz world, told by someone who's been there.
Download or read book Gretsch Drums written by Chet Falzerano and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1995 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miscellaneous Percussion Music - Mixed Levels
Download or read book The John Coltrane Reference written by Lewis Porter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-26 with total page 1141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The BBC's Jazz Book of the Year for 2008. Few jazz musicians have had the lasting influence or attracted as much scholarly study as John Coltrane. Yet, despite dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and his own recorded legacy, the "facts" about Coltrane's life and work have never been definitely established. Well-known Coltrane biographer and jazz educator Lewis Porter has assembled an international team of scholars to write The John Coltrane Reference, an indispensable guide to the life and music of John Coltrane. The John Coltrane Reference features a a day-by-day chronology, which extends from 1926-1967, detailing Coltrane's early years and every live performance given by Coltrane as either a sideman or leader, and a discography offering full session information from the first year of recordings, 1946, to the last, 1967. The appendices list every film and television appearance, as well as every recorded interview. Richly illustrated with over 250 album covers and photos from the collection of Yasuhiro Fujioka, The John Coltrane Reference will find a place in every major library supporting a jazz studies program, as well as John Coltrane enthusiasts.
Download or read book On the Way to Birdland written by Frank Morelli and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-proclaimed teenage philosopher Cordell Wheaton lives in a sleepy, southern town where nothing ever happens; not since his hero, jazz musician John Coltrane, left some seventy years earlier to "follow the sound." Cordy's life has been unraveling since the night his father and his brother, Travis, exploded on each other. The night Travis's addiction transformed him from budding musician into something entirely different. The night Travis took his saxophone and disappeared. When Cordy's father falls ill, the sixteen-year-old vows to reunite the Wheaton family. He embarks on a modern-day odyssey with forty bucks in his pocket and a dream to find his brother and convince him to be Travis again--by taking him to a show at Birdland Jazz Club in New York City, and reminding him of the common bonds they share with their legendary hero. Cordy's journey is soon haunted by ghostly visions, traumatic dreams, and disembodied voices that echo through his mind. He starts to wonder if the voices are those of the fates, guiding him toward his destiny--or if he's losing his grip on reality.
Download or read book From Birdland to Broadway written by Bill Crow and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-09-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1950s, New York City's Birdland was the center of the world of modern jazz--and a revelation to Bill Crow, a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-two-year-old from Washington State. Located on Broadway between 52nd and 53rd streets, the club named for the incomparable Charlie "Bird" Parker boasted lifesize photo murals of modern jazzmen like Dizzy Gillespie, Lennie Tristano, and, of course, Bird himself, looming large against jet black walls. Exotic live birds perched in cages behind the bar. The midget master of ceremonies, 3'9" Pee Wee Marquette, dressed in a zoot suit and loud tie, smoked huge cigars and screeched mispronounced introductions into the microphone. And the jazz-struck young Crow would park in the bleachers till 4 am, blissfully enveloped by the heady music of Bird, Bud Powell, Max Roach, and a host of other jazz giants. From Birdland to Broadway is an enthralling insider's account of four decades of a life in jazz. Bill Crow, journeyman bass player, superb storyteller, and author of the successful Jazz Anecdotes, here narrates many moving and delightful tales of the pioneers of modern jazz he played with and was befriended by. We find Dizzy Gillespie, with whom Crow, because of prior commitments, regretfully declined steady work, dancing at the Royal Roost, Stan Getz sadly teetering on the brink of losing himself to drugs, and Harry Belafonte (known then as "the Cinderella Gentleman") running a lunch counter in New York's Sheridan Square between music dates. And we also witness many of the highlights of Crow's career, such as in 1955 when the Marian McPartland Trio (with Crow on bass) was named "Small Group of the Year" by Metronome; Crow playing with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet at venues like Storyville in Boston and Harlem's Apollo Theater (where they appeared with Dinah Washington); and the tour of the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman, a journey that might have been a high point of Crow's travels abroad but was marred by Goodman's legendary mistreatment of his band. Moving beyond jazz clubs to the Broadway concert pit and a variety of studio gigs in the '60s, Crow encounters actors such as Yul Brynner and pop-rock acts like Simon and Garfunkel. From the great to the near-great, from Billie Holiday to Judy Holliday, Bill Crow's wealth of personal anecdotes takes the reader from Birdland, to the Half Note, to the Playboy Club, to the footlights of Broadway. This revealing book is a marvelous portrait of the jazz world, told by someone who's been there.
Download or read book Charlie Parker Jazz Club Memorabilia written by Ken Vail and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Duke s Diary written by Ken Vail and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume II of this two-volume set traces the artist's life and career month by month from the orchestra's return from an extended European tour in June 1950, to Ellington's death in 1974. Jazz historian and graphic designer Vail presents b & w photographs, newspaper reports, advertisements, reviews, and brief diary-type entries; he includes all known club, concert, theater, television, film, and jam sessions, as well as a selected list of recordings. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Swing Street written by Leo T. Sullivan and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Swing Street was the name given to 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan in New York City, where there were more jazz clubs and bars per square block than anywhere else in the world, all showcasing the finest jazz musicians of the era. This illustrated book offers a history of Swing Street and presents the greats who played the clubs there in capsule biographies, vintage photos, and rare memorabilia. On Swing Street you were guaranteed to experience an evening of unforgettable jazz on a nightly basis, seven nights a week, until the wee hours of the morning; stopping into Club Downbeat to catch a set of Billie Holiday, or dropping by the Three Deuces to hear Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing bebop. On any given night you could hear other iconic jazz artists such as Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and many others.
Download or read book Arts America Enjoying the Best Art Museums Theater Classical Music Opera Jazz Dance Film and Summer Festivals in America written by and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2014-03-17 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timesong is the inspirational story of a three-legged coyote named j.b. who befriends Tom, an autistic boy. Following his father's death, Tom retreats into a shell of isolation. j.b. counters Tom's despair with an uplifting explanation of immortality. For those trying to reconcile the loss of a loved one, Timesong may be the key that opens the door to acceptance and peace of mind.
Download or read book Kansas City Jazz written by Frank Driggs and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There were but four major galaxies in the early jazz universe, and three of them--New Orleans, Chicago, and New York--have been well documented in print. But there has never been a serious history of the fourth, Kansas City, until now. In this colorful history, Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix range from ragtime to bebop and from Bennie Moten to Charlie Parker to capture the golden age of Kansas City jazz. Readers will find a colorful portrait of old Kaycee itself, back then a neon riot of bars, gambling dens and taxi dance halls, all ruled over by Boss Tom Pendergast, who had transformed a dusty cowtown into the Paris of the Plains. We see how this wide-open, gin-soaked town gave birth to a music that was more basic and more viscerally exciting than other styles of jazz, its singers belting out a rough-and-tumble urban style of blues, its piano players pounding out a style later known as "boogie-woogie." We visit the great landmarks, like the Reno Club, the "Biggest Little Club in the World," where Lester Young and Count Basie made jazz history, and Charlie Parker began his musical education in the alley out back. And of course the authors illuminate the lives of the great musicians who made Kansas City swing, with colorful profiles of jazz figures such as Mary Lou Williams, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing, and Andy Kirk and his "Clouds of Joy." Here is the definitive account of the raw, hard-driving style that put Kansas City on the musical map. It is a must read for everyone who loves jazz or American music history.
Download or read book Fish and Wildlife News written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lester Leaps In written by Douglas H. Daniels and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2003-02-17 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was jazz's first hipster. He performed in sunglasses and coined and popularized phrases like "that's cool" and "you dig?" He always wore a suit and his trademark porkpie hat. He influenced everyone from B. B. King to Stan Getz to Allen Ginsberg, creating a lyrical style of playing that forever changed the sound of the tenor saxophone. In this groundbreaking biography of Lester Young (1909-1959), historian Douglas Daniels brings to life the man and his world, and corrects a number of misconceptions. Even though others have identified Young as a Kansas City musician, Daniels traces his roots to the blues of Louisiana and his early years traveling with his father's band and the legendary Oklahoma City Blue Devils. Later we see the jazz culture of New York in the early 1940s, when Young was launched to national and international fame with the Count Basie Orchestra and began to accompany his close friend Billie Holiday. After a year spent in an Army prison on a conviction for marijuana use, Young made changes in his music but never lost his sensitivity or soul. The first ever to gain access to Young's family and many musicians who performed with him, Daniels reconstructs the world in which Young lived and played: the racism that he and other black musicians faced, the feeling of home and family that they created together on the road, and what his music meant to black audiences. Young emerges as a kind friend, a loving parent, and a gentle and sensitive man who had, in the words of Reginald Scott, "the saddest eyes I ever saw
