Download or read book Fats Waller written by Maurice Waller and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas “Fats” Waller was a legendary stride pianist, a wildly entertaining comedic singer, and the composer of such classic melodies as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and hundreds more. This is the intimate, behind-the-scenes story of his exuberant life, as told by his son, Maurice Waller. The public knew him as a charming, rascally, and effervescent showman. Friends like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin knew him as a serious piano stylist and composer. Maurice Waller reveals the rarely seen side of Fats as a family man, struggling to juggle domestic affairs with the demands of being one of the era’s busiest jazz men. From his earliest days as a child prodigy to his wild nights playing Harlem rent parties to his appearances on stages around the world and his eventual commercial success, it’s all here. Few stories capture the frenetic energy of the age quite as well as the life story of this rollicking, hard living jazz icon.
Download or read book Fats Waller on the Air written by Stephen Taylor and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radio and television broadcasts are an essential component in the career of jazz musician Thomas "Fats" Waller. The medium suited his character well, allowing his friendly, energetic personality to shine through. This book meticulously documents Waller's on-air appearances: from his first known broadcast in 1923 at age 19 to the final airing before his premature death in 1943. Fats Waller On The Air: The Radio Broadcasts and Discography adds another dimension to the life of this dynamic performer. Author Stephen Taylor combines established material with fresh research, resulting in a wealth of new information. The broadcasts, including tributes to Waller after his death, are covered in detail, featuring dates, times, songs played, and other artists who appeared on the program. Through descriptions from contemporary newspapers and magazines, accounts from individuals who were in attendance, and remarks by radio announcers from original transcripts, the book provides historical perspective and a clear sense of the character and feel of the broadcasts. The book also offers a timechart of early sound recording and radio transcriptions, allowing easy comparison of Waller's presence in the field. Never before published photos and a thorough, accurate discography-including 78 and 45 rpm records, transcriptions, LPs, CDs, and DVDs-make this an important reference tool for fans of Fats Waller, jazz music, stride piano, black social history, and broadcast history.
Download or read book Morning Glory written by Linda Dahl and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001-04-23 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Imagine a pianist playing concerts with Benny Goodman and Cecil Taylor in successive years (1977-78). That pianist was Mary Lou Williams. In a career which spanned over fifty years, Mary was always on the cutting edge."--Bob Jacobsen, www.allaboutjazz
Download or read book Stride The Music of Fats Waller written by Paul S Machlin and published by Springer. This book was released on 1985-10-28 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Already known as a Wagner scholar for his work on the sketches of the Flying Dutchman, Paul Machlin has for many years taken a scholarly interest in the school of Harlem 'stride' jazz pianists. Stride: The Music of Fats Waller is a full analysis of the piano music of Waller as composer, soloist and recording artist. 38 music examples illustrate Waller's complex keyboard style and improvisatory techniques. The discussion of Waller's piano music is set in the context of a biographical study, and a discography listing all known recordings by the pianist.
Download or read book Times Remembered written by Joe La Barbera and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1970s legendary pianist Bill Evans was at the peak of his career. He revolutionized the jazz trio (bass, piano, drums) by giving each part equal emphasis in what jazz historian Ted Gioia called a “telepathic level” of interplay. It was an ideal opportunity for a sideman, and after auditioning in 1978, Joe La Barbera was ecstatic when he was offered the drum chair, completing the trio with Evans and bassist Marc Johnson. In Times Remembered, La Barbera and co-author Charles Levin provide an intimate fly-on-the-wall peek into Evans’s life, critical recording sessions, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of life on the road. Joe regales the trio’s magical connection, a group that quickly gelled to play music on the deepest and purest level imaginable. He also watches his dream gig disappear, a casualty of Evans’s historical drug abuse when the pianist dies in a New York hospital emergency room in 1980. But La Barbera tells this story with love and respect, free of judgment, showing Evans’s humanity and uncanny ability to transcend physical weakness and deliver first-rate performances at nearly every show.
Download or read book Harlem Jazz Adventures written by Timme Rosenkrantz and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timme Rosenkrantz (1911–1969) was a Danish journalist, author, concert and record producer, radio show host, and entrepreneur with a consuming passion for jazz and little head for business. Known in Denmark and New York as the “Jazz Baron” because of his noble lineage, he was the first European journalist to cover the jazz scene in Harlem. Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron’s Memoir, 1934–1969 recounts Rosenkrantz’s happy years in New York City, where he would produce jazz concerts, record top musicians and bands in his midtown apartment, organize a “dream band” for Timme Rosenkrantz and His Barrelhouse Barons, a 1938 RCA Victor recording, (DL) live in Harlem and run a record shop with his life companion, journalist and singer Inez Cavanaugh. A good friend of jazz impresario John Hammond, Rosenkrantz would become the James Boswell of the Harlem jazz scene. Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday—there wasn’t a New York jazz musician unknown to “Honeysuckle Rosenkrantz,” as christened by Fats Waller. Drawing on the published Danish-language original Dus med Jazzen, and an unpublished English free translation (DL) by Rosenkrantz and Cavanaugh, translator-adapter Fradley Hamilton Garner gives polish and context to Rosenkrantz’s stories of meetings with Cecile and Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Eddie Condon, Erroll Garner—whom Rosenkrantz discovered and was first to record—and many others. This book is a must-have for jazz lovers. Social historians interested in the intersection of race and the music business will find in Rosenkrantz’s memoir an invaluable primary source on Harlem’s social scene and its musical legacy.
Download or read book Groovin High written by Alyn Shipton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-07-19 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dizzy Gillespie was one of the most important and best-loved musicians in jazz history. With his horn-rimmed glasses, goatee, jive talk, and upraised trumpet bell, he was the hipster who most personified bebop. The musical heir to Louis Armstrong, he created the modern jazz trumpet-playing style and dazzled aficionados and popular audiences alike for over 50 years. In this first full biography, Alyn Shipton covers all aspects of Dizzy's remarkable life and career, taking us through his days as a flashy trumpet player in the swing bands of the 1930s, his innovative bebop work in the 1940s, the worldwide fame and adoration he earned through his big band tours in the 1950s, and the many recordings and performances which defined a career that extended into the early 1990s. Along the way, Shipton convincingly argues that Gillespie--rather than Charlie Parker as is widely believed--had the greatest role in creating bebop, playing in key jazz groups, teaching the music to others, and helping to develop the first original bebop repertory. Shipton also explores the dark side of Dizzy's mostly sunny personal life, his womanizing, the illegitimate daughter he fathered and supported--now a respected jazz singer in her own right--and his sometimes needless cruelty to others. For anyone interested in jazz and one of its most innovative and appealing figures, Groovin' High is essential reading.
Download or read book Dave Brubeck written by Philip Clark and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE DEFINITIVE, INVESTIGATIVE BIOGRAPHY OFJAZZ LEGENDDAVE BRUBECK("TAKE FIVE") In 2003, music journalist Philip Clark was granted unparalleled access to jazz legend Dave Brubeck. Over the course of ten days, he shadowed the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their extended British tour, recording an epic interview with the bandleader. Brubeck opened up as never before, disclosing his unique approach to jazz; the heady days of his "classic" quartet in the 1950s-60s; hanging out with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis; and the many controversies that had dogged his 66-yearlong career. Alongside beloved figures like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, Brubeck has achieved name recognition beyond jazz. But finding a convincing fit for Brubeck's legacy, one that reconciles his mass popularity with his advanced musical technique, has proved largely elusive. In Dave Brubeck: A Life inTime, Clark provides us with a thoughtful, thorough, and long-overdue biography of an extraordinary man whose influence continues to inform and inspire musicians today. Structured around Clark's extended interview and intensive new research, this book recounts one of the last untold stories of jazz, unearthing the secret history of "Take Five" and many hitherto unknown aspects of Brubeck's early career-and sharing details about his creative relationship with his star saxophonist, Paul Desmond. Woven throughout are cameo appearances from a host of unlikely figures, from Sting, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, and Keith Emerson to John Cage, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Partch, and Edgard Varèse. Each chapter explores a different theme or aspect of Brubeck's life and music, illuminating the core of his artistry and genius. To quote President Obama, as he awarded the musician with a Kennedy Center Honor: "You can't understand America without understanding jazz, and you can't understand jazz without understanding Dave Brubeck."
Download or read book Fats Waller written by Alyn Shipton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fats Waller (1904-1943) was an outsize man in all respects: five feet, eleven inches tall, he weighed 285 pounds. The greatest of the Harlem "stride" pianists, he composed hundreds of songs, he led a band that made over 400 recordings, and he wrote several Broadway shows. Waller's gargantuan appetites have been celebrated in anecdotes and earlier biographies. He is seen by jazz historians as a man of immense musical talent that was never fulfilled. In this fully revised and updated biography of Waller, Alyn Shipton re-examines his career, arguing that his talents as a songwriter, show composer, and brilliant recording and broadcasting artist have not been fully appreciated. In a newly written final chapter, there is a comprehensive survey of Waller's recordings as they have been reissued for the CD era.
Download or read book Fats Waller written by Joel Vance and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Zora Neale Hurston written by Carla Kaplan, Ph.D. and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 906 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “ I mean to live and die by my own mind,” Zora Neale Hurston told the writer Countee Cullen. Arriving in Harlem in 1925 with little more than a dollar to her name, Hurston rose to become one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance, only to die in obscurity. Not until the 1970s was she rediscovered by Alice Walker and other admirers. Although Hurston has entered the pantheon as one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century, the true nature of her personality has proven elusive. Now, a brilliant, complicated and utterly arresting woman emerges from this landmark book. Carla Kaplan, a noted Hurston scholar, has found hundreds of revealing, previously unpublished letters for this definitive collection; she also provides extensive and illuminating commentary on Hurston’s life and work, as well as an annotated glossary of the organizations and personalities that were important to it. From her enrollment at Baltimore’s Morgan Academy in 1917, to correspondence with Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Langston Hughes, Dorothy West and Alain Locke, to a final query letter to her publishers in 1959, Hurston’s spirited correspondence offers an invaluable portrait of a remarkable, irrepressible talent.
Download or read book It s about Time Dave Brubeck p written by Fred Hall and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book King of Ragtime written by Stephen Costanza and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning, rhythmic picture book biography of African American composer Scott Joplin, whose ragtime music paved the way for jazz. There was something special about Scott Joplin… This quiet kid could make a piano laugh out loud. Scott, the son of a man who had been enslaved, became a king—the King of Ragtime. This celebration of Scott Joplin, whose ragtime compositions paved the way for jazz, will captivate audiences and put a beat in their step, and the kaleidoscope-like illustrations will draw young readers in again and again.
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 Fats Waller written by Alyn Shipton and published by Universe Pub. This book was released on 1988 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the life and career of Fats Waller, describes the background of the period, and discusses his major recordings
Download or read book Hell written by Tom Maxwell and published by . This book was released on 2014-08-16 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Swing Movement -- all jazz hands and high-waisted pants -- advanced and receded in good order. I wrote this book to tell the other side of the story. I want you to know about the oddball collection of iconoclasts who got together and made the Squirrel Nut Zippers what they were: a combustible, improbable gumbo of joy and menace. Along the way, I write about our many influences: jazz and blues and hot music and calypso and, yes, swing. Come run these fields, like rabbits, while the harvest moon hangs caught in the branches. Come linger over this snapshot.
Download or read book Really the Blues written by Mezz Mezzrow and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as an “American counter-culture classic,” this “funny” and candid musical memoir offers a delicious glimpse into the 1930s jazz scene (The Wall Street Journal) Mezz Mezzrow was a boy from Chicago who learned to play the sax in reform school and pursued a life in music and a life of crime. He moved from Chicago to New Orleans to New York, working in brothels and bars, bootlegging, dealing drugs, getting hooked, doing time, producing records, and playing with the greats, among them Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fats Waller. Really the Blues—the jive-talking memoir that Mezzrow wrote at the insistence of, and with the help of, the novelist Bernard Wolfe—is the story of an unusual and unusually American life, and a portrait of a man who moved freely across racial boundaries when few could or did, “the odyssey of an individualist . . . the saga of a guy who wanted to make friends in a jungle where everyone was too busy making money.”
