ArtSpeak is an essential book for the Fine Arts enthusiast. It
is basically a encyclopedia of all the art movements and ideas from 1945
to the present and is currently in its third edition. This is one of
those great books that serves well as a reference but is also a
fascinating book to browse. Each topic is categorized in a who, when,
where and what format. For instance, If we turn to the entree on Pop Art
we find that its primary artists include Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenberg
and other, it thrived in the 50s and 60s mainly in America and England,
and the movement uses commercial symbols and icons as expression. Of
course, the book says this in much more detail and more entertainingly.
It is nicely illustrated with full colored photos but they tend to be on
the small side. The text is what matters here. It also includes a nice
timeline correlating world history with art history. Anyone who enjoys
art will find this book worthwhile. As for me, I received mine from the
publisher for review in a PDF format. I definitely plan to buy the real
honest-to-god book.
In case you wondering why I placed this in my music book review blog,
it just seems like music lovers and art lovers often go hand-in-hand.
However, it you find that excuse weak, the book does reference some
musical artists that intersect both fields like Yoko Ono, Laurie
Anderson, and Pussy Riot. So there!
Background music: Laurie Anderson - Strange Angels
D. H. Peligro was the drummer for Dead Kennedys and briefly the
drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers. He later fronted the Band Peligro,
which along with Fishbone and Bad Brains, became one of the few black
performers in the punk rock movement. Peligro's autobiography, Dreadnaught,
chronicles his work with these bands but also give good insight on what
it was like being black in a musical environment that was predominantly
white. His biography seems to be a basically honest account. Peligro
doesn't hold back when he discusses his own personal issues. He speaks
with frankness and isn't afraid to bring up his demons. For instance
when he writes about being abused by his step-father , he communicates
an uncomfortable mixture of terror and childhood vulnerability...
Sometimes
when he was really drunk, he would wake me up out of a dead sleep and I
would be staring into both barrels of his twelve-gauge shotgun pointed
directly in my face.
"What yo' sweat? Are you a man?" he would
ask me. I can still feel his hot alcohol breath on my face and hear his
hoarse, sloppy whisper in my ear.
"Wake up! Are you a man?"
No, I'm a kid. I would think to myself.
He
writes with this same frank honesty as he discusses his past drug use
which resulted in 27 rehabs. He writes about his anger at his band
mates who he blamed for his hardships while, in hindsight, acknowledging
that he was essentially his own worse enemy.
The problem with
most rock autobiographies is that the road to stardom to drug addiction
to eventual redemption is so common most of us have memorized the tune.
However, Peligro's account does have some unusual twists. I was
surprised to hear that Dead Kennedys were very anti-drug. Also, Peligro
had an unusual musical history compared to many punk rockers. Many, if
not most, punk rock musicians got into the lifestyle first, then became
musicians and learned music as they performed. The joke that the
difference between New Wavers and Punk Rockers is that New Wavers can
actually play their instruments has a ring of truth. However Peligro had
quite a bit of musical experience before he entered the punk rock
scene. His Uncle Sam, who played with the legendary bluesman Robert
Nighthawk, was influential in Peligro's decision to learn drums and
guitar and D. H. played progressive rock and metal before he gravitated
to the San Francisco punk scene. It is these little bits of information
that keep Dreadnaught from being just another
rags-to-riches-to-rags rock tale. His outlook on the punk scene in the
late 70s and 80's is a nice addition to the scores of other
autobiographies out there and feels a bit more real than the glittery
excesses of a Pete Townsend or Rod Steward. D. H. Peligro stayed in the
trenches.
If you have any interest in punk rock, Dead Kennedys,
or the Punk counter-culture, you should enjoy this book. Three and a
half stars.
Background music: Dead Kennedys -Plastic Surgery Disasters.
I expected ex-Talking Heads front man and eclectic solo artist David
Byrne would have some interesting things to say about music. But I was
impressed by the scope and range of How Music Works. Byrne
covers nearly every aspect of creating and enjoying music from the first
steps of composing and to the nuances of performance to producing and
promoting. Plus he puts it in sync with the world we live in never
forgetting that music is a vital and ever-changing aspect of existence.
Byrne
approaches music in what I call an ethno-centric view. Perhaps
"Techno-centric" may be a better term considering how much he focuses on
the modern recording aspects. Byrns uses the term "creation in
reverse." He does not see music as arising from just the emotional
interior of the creator's mind but through an interactive process that
is affected by our surroundings; social, cultural, politically,
technological, and physical. He discusses how certain types of music
responds to certain surroundings. When you think of it, it makes sense.
It is hard to think of punk rock rising from the symphony hall and much
easier to see it coming out of dark crowded clubs such as New York's
CBGB. His style of writing is fairly meandering but he structures those
meanderings in chapters like Technology Shapes Music", "In the Recording
Studio", "How to Make a Scene" (about performing live), and even
"Business and Finances". By the end of the book you not only have a good
sense what goes into that MP3 you just downloaded but how that music
has changed from the day of live performance only before music could be
recorded.
While not an autobiography, Byrne relies strongly on
his own experiences, giving the reader an intimate look at his own
creative process both in and out of the studio. He uses his own story to
illustrate his various ideas of creation in reverse. One of the things I
found revealing is his description on how the various forms of
recording affects the way we perceive music. The limits of the sound and
durations of the first Edison discs gave the early 20th century
listeners a different experience than the LPs, cassettes and CDs we are
used to, not to mention the revolution of digital files. Byrne's
assertions about our expectations of recorded music vs. live music was
quite insightful. We tend to think of the recording of a song as the
"real" version in that we expect the artist to recreate it in his live
performances. Yet the recorded version is a frozen moment of time aided
by the technical constraint of the recording studio, whether analog or
digital The artist's live performance may be different but just as
authentic relying on all the cultural and aural surroundings of the
moment.
Byrnes' impressive book is notable for the way it causes
the reader to reassess modern music. He asks us to take in more than
just sounds and pay attention to the way we receive the music in its
social and natural settings. There's a lot to take in here yet the
author manages to keep it exciting and relevant. I would recommend this
book to anyone who cares about music.
Background music: David Byrne and Brian Eno - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Back when I was a music major in college, I took a class in chamber
music. We formed a woodwind quartet and our professor was a stickler for
tone. We would practice one note for an hour and a half every week,
tuning and playing, tuning and playing. We were about to mutiny when all
of a sudden as we played that one C note, another tone in perfect
harmony (the third interval E for you musicians) resounded in our ears
as clear at if it was being played externally. We knew we all heard it
from the shocked looks on our faces. The professor jubilantly exclaims
"Now that's what I was listening for!". We continued to play that one
note for the rest of the session marveling in the harmonic sound. The
realization that our ears could generate perfect harmony from the
playing of one perfect pitch was like a spiritual revelation...one of
those mysterious yet enlightening experiences we rarely get.
So
you must forgive me if I do not find Algernon Blackwood's assertion that
sound is the key to the mysteries of the universe in The Human Chord
all that far fetched. Chanting certainly has been used throughout
history to find enlightenment and to become one with nature. Also, that
one's true name is all-powering or that the true name of the gods hold
vast powers if you know it and can harness it is another hypothesis
resonating since ancient times. Blackwood uses these ideas in this
enchantingly dark novel that pits the main protagonist in the choice
between being like the gods or fulfilling more humble joys in the world
as he knows it. Of the early 20th century writers of horror fantasy, I
find Blackwood to be the most original because his horror is based on
the secrets of the universe being awe inspiring and world-changing
rather than the "Unspeakable horrors" of Lovecraft's ancient ones or
Machen's ideas of nature as evil and decadent. Blackwood's own
fascination with the occult plays heavily here but so does his love of
nature and his interest in Zen and Cabalist thought. This is the first
novel I've read of Blackwood's but I have read many of his short
stories. As always, Blackwood relies on atmosphere rather than pure
scare to disorient the reader's perceptions. The author's
characterizations are also central to his tale. The three main
characters embody different parts of our humanity. Spinrobin is the
everyman who is dissatisfied with his reality but doesn't know why,
Miriam is the embodiment of innocence, and the Rev. Skale (Scales?? I'm
sure the pun is intentional) is a version of Captain Ahab, an obsessive
seeker of a goal that can easily destroy him as well as make him equal
to the gods. The Human Chord can work on many levels beside just being a good fantasy tale which is the very definitive of a classic in horror or fantasy.
Back in the late 70s, I was given tickets by a friend who worked at a
radio station to see drummer Buddy Rich at the Starwood, a club in
Hollywood. I was a big jazz fan but I tended to gravitate to the modern
stuff a la Coltrane, Miles, and Coleman. In my mind, Buddy Rich was a
relic of the Swing Era. I found out I was wrong. His big band was great
but Buddy Rich was incredible. It was like watching a magician and
thinking, "How in the hell can he do that?". There may have been more
innovative drummers but on a level of pure technical virtuosity, Buddy
Rich was to the drums what Art Tatum was to the piano and Buddy Defranco
was to the clarinet. If you know anything about jazz, you know that is
high praise indeed.
Traps - The Drum Wonder:The Life of Buddy Rich
is written by his long-time friend Mel Torme, a jazz giant in his own
right. He also proves to be an excellent writer. Torme exhibits a great
fondness for his friend. But unlike other biographies written by friends
and family, Torme is not afraid to examine The drummer's darker side
which could be quite dark indeed. Rich was known for being abrasive, an
immature practical joker and a scrapper. His scrabbles with Frank
Sinatra are legendary and he once got into a fist fight with Dusty
Springfield! But he was also a contradiction from the jazz man
stereotype. He rarely drank, didn't use drugs except for marijuana and
he was generous to a fault. What I didn't know about him was that he
became a star on the vaudeville circuit at the age of two. That was
where the vaudeville stage name of Trap the Drum Wonder came into being.
He was the highest paid child star in the early 20s, only topped by
Charlie Chaplin's prodigy Jackie Googan in the mid 20s. (Yes, that would
be the same Jackie Googan that played Uncle Fester in The Adams
Family). In his late teens, he took up the occupation as a jazz drummer
much to the disfavor of his father who wanted him to continue in
vaudeville. Soon he was highly in demand with the up and coming swing
bands and later started his own band.
Buddy Rich's Big Band was
unusual in the fac that its greatest success was in the 60s and 70s well
beyond the pinnacle of the big band era. Mel Torme, who was not a bad
drummer himself as well as being a great jazz singer, charts Rich's
career from the early bands of Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey to his
success with his own band. The author also has a deft knowledge of music
and drumming and explain why Rich is important to the jazz scene. Torme
also has a good grip of Rich's infamous wit. In the middle of his first
heart attack while being wheeled into the operating room, a nurse asked
him if he was allergic to anything. "Yes", he replied, "Country and
western music."
This is one of the better music biographies I
have read with a good balance of personal recollections and musical
insight. Highly recommended to drum aficionados, jazz fans and music
lovers.
As a parting gift, I leave you with a clip of a duel between Buddy Rich and my second favorite drummer.
"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"
I
know very little about Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. What I do
know is that my father liked them. When I was a kid he would start
singing the above ditty every time we went into a Baskin-Robbins. It is
amazing that I survived something like that.
The other thing I
know about Fred Waring is that there is a major thoroughfare just down
the street from me that dissects the Palm Springs area called Fred
Waring Dr. to which most people, on telling them to make a right on Fred
Waring Dr., says "Who's Fred Waring?"
Fred Waring had a very
popular band in the 20s and onward. Mr. Waring continued into the 70s
with his band yet they are virtually unknown now. When I saw this now
out-of-print biography in the library I decided to find an answer to the
question, "Who is Fred Waring?"
When people write the history
of American popular music, you will see names like Duke Ellington, Louis
Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. These men are truly innovative giants
in American music. But what the history books do not tell you is that
the bulk of Americans back in the early 20th century didn't fill their
pop charts with music of these giants. The really popular musicians were
men like Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo and Fred Waring. Like
today, the bulk of American don't listen to jazz, blues, or any of the
other genres that are deemed quality American music. The pop music of
the masses is a mainstream sound that usually was geared to the lowest
common denomination and often sounded like it was manufactured. You
could dance to it and not have to think too hard. Just like the
mainstream pop music of today. If Fred Waring was alive today, he would
be Justin Beiber.
Fred Waring's music is pleasant and very
professional. His gamut ran from light classic to traditional American
folk to dance tunes to novelty numbers, all well arranged, cotton
candied, and geared to sound alike. Virginia Waring, the author of this
book and Fred 's third and last wife, gives us a fairly comprehensive
account of Waring's life. Waring's most important contribution to pop
music according to Virginia Waring is that he popularized the chorale or
glee club sound (and you thought that was done by the TV show GLEE
didn't you?) and combined it with an orchestra and big band sound.In
the foreword which is written by the great chorale master Robert Shaw
who was himself a Pennsylvanians in his early years says, "It is certain
to me that tours in the United States of the Bach B Minor Mass and the Mozart Requiemwould
not have been possible had not Fred Waring help simulated and helped to
create an audience for choral music." I would find that an utterly
ridiculous statement except for the fact that it comes from the man who did present classical choral music to the modern masses.
It
would have been nice if Ms Waring spent some part of the book on why
she thinks that Waring's music is so important. She doesn't but she does
spend much time on everything else and mostly on his business sense,
which was quite remarkable, and his family. But don't expect any gossip.
According to this book, The Warings makes the Nelsons seem like the
Osbournes. There is even a full chapter that is written solely to prove
that Mr. Waring was not anti-Semitic! By the time the book was through, I
was convinced that Waring's major claim to music is that he learned
how to make a major corporation out of a musical organization. And that
is still a talent you can see in our music moguls today.
There
was one amazing fact I learned. Fred Waring invented the Waring blender
and used it to make daiquiris on the road for Rudy Vallee!
There
was another thing I found rather curious. If you look at the musicians
that came out of the bands of the 30s and 40s including the highly
popular easy listening Paul Whiteman Orchestra, you would have an
impressive list of some of the best jazz and pop musiciana to grace the
American music scene in the mid 20th century. In perusing the names of
musician that came out of the Waring Orchestra I found no memorable
names with the exception of Robert Shaw.
One very nice touch to this book is an accompanying 28 track CD of the music of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.
Overall,
this biography is very entertaining.It does give you a good look at the
music entertainment scene in the early 20th century. But I do not think
it really add much to the mosaic of American music.
This 600 plus page book of letters by and to American
composer/conductor/pianist Leonard Bernstein is a revelation. The first
thing that becomes obvious is that Bernstein is a really good letter
writer. The second thing is how well structured and thought-out this
epistemological work is. The editor Nigel Simeone organized the lettesr
chronologically and in divisions emphasizing phases of the composer's
life. Then he provides a biographical summary for each phase. There are
plenty of footnotes clarifying the things and persons mentioned in the
letter which are just as fascinating as the letters themselves. The
result ends up almost like a autobiography in that it covers most of the
important aspect of his life. This is one of the few books of letters
that I read enthusiastically from cover to cover.
Leonard
Bernstein was a complex individual and the letters reveal this. There is
much written about his music but there is also much revealed about the
man's own personality, strengths and weaknesses. The letters begin in
1932 when Bernstein was 14 and continue to his death in 1990. The first
letters are interesting in that they show a young protege in transition
as he converses with his family and mentors. I was amused at all the
important persons in his life that urged him to specialize in one thing
rather than to stretch himself thin in the areas of composing,
conducting, and performing. Bernstein did not take their advice and in
hindsight we can say he made the right choice. The letters become much
more revealing as he develop and is considered an equal by his peers.
The letters between Bernstein and Aaron Copland are especially
affectionate. In some ways they are more intimate than those between his
wife in later years.
Which brings up a particular issue in his
life. Bernstein came out about his homosexuality in the late 70s. Yet
these letters, especially the earlier ones, show a man who was at times
uncomfortable with his sexuality. The letters with his partners show
much affection yet the 40s and 50s were not a time to be honest and open
about this issue. Not to mention that the House of Unamerican
Activities had their eye on him for many of his social concerns which
they deemed suspicious. Some of the letters address this including an
affidavit by the composer sent to the HUA that is disturbing in that any
one would be so accused and expected to defend themselves in this way
just to be able to continue to make a living. Later Bernstein's
sexuality and habits became aa problem his marriage and these are
addressed only briefly in later letters.
There are specific areas that I especially found interesting. There is an entire chapter on West Side Story
mentioning many of the aspects that were involved in bringing this work
to light. Being a clarinetist, I was very intrigued in his early
Clarinet Sonata and his dialogues with clarinetist David Oppenheim. The
sonata was Bernstein's first published work. There is a lot of good
information on Bernstein's compositions and how they came about. If you
are a music fanatic who likes to analyze compositions, you will have a
field day here. I also enjoyed hearing about Bernstein's Mass
as I was attended the Los Angeles premiere in the 70s at the Mark Taper
Forum. But there are also plenty of letters that are simply casual and
gives you a look at his daily life. One of the more endearing letter is a
short one by 10 year old Yo Yo Ma inviting Bernstein to his cello
recital.
Nigel Simeone does a surperb job organizing these
letters and placing them in a context that not only educates but
entertains; not a modest feat at all. If you enoy the music of Leonard
Bernstein or have a love for 20th century classical music then this book
is a must.
Background CD: Leonard Bernstein, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carreras - Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story
Reading Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion caused
me to wax nostalgic. In the mid-sixties, every community had their ma
and pa record store. We had a little one that sold nothing but 45rpm
singles. If you don't know what a 45rpm single is, ask your parents. If
you are under twenty, ask your grandparents. In Pacoima, our store of
choice was off the corner of Nordhoff and Woodman. The walls had writing
on them that kept track of all the weekly hit lists including
Billboard, the local radio charts (which unlike now, tended to have a
lot of regional bands next to the national stars), and the R& B
charts. My interest was always the R&B chart. For even if this was
California, where surf music and the British invasion held reign, I
lived in an ethnically diverse community which stoked my love of soul
music next to my original love of Jazz. The R&B and Billboard charts
mainly had the sophisticated urban sounds of Motown but some of us
craved the coarser more soulful sounds of Stax, Volt and Atlantic. The
singles out of Stax include "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MGs,
"Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding,"Knock on Wood" by Eddie Floyd
and "Respect Yourself by the Staples Singers including many others by
Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Bar-Kays, and other too
numerous to mention. The Stax registrar later included the more polished
Isaac Hayes, Luther Ingram, and the Staples Singers. But these earthy
records were frowned on by our parents. They were too coarse, too
loud, too sexual, too black. "Why couldn't you listen to those nice
Beach Boys or even those Beatles?" was their question. We had no
answer. It just felt right.
Respect Yourself chronicles
the rise and fall of Stax Records. Stax was like many of the small
record companies in the U.S. in the 50s and 60s that served up a local
sound, in this case the Memphis sound. Ran by a white man and his
sister, they opened their studio to the community and began a place
where black and white could buy records together and record their own
music together. While most of their artists were black, they were backed
by the integrated house band, the MGs. This was a major thing in the
60s, especially in Memphis, Tennessee whose segregation and violent
history is also well documented in this book. Like many locals, Stax
reached national distribution through an agreement with the larger
Atlantic Records. The Stax sound, at least at first, was instantly
recognizable. the owner Jim Stewart and producer/arranger and house band
leader Booker T had a style that was all Stax.
Robert Gordon
knows his music and he writes expertly about what that Stax sound was
and how it originated. Some of hallmarks he discuss include the rise and
death of Otis Redding, the ascent of Isaac Hayes from arranger to star,
and the recording of hits like "Hold on. I'm a'coming" by Sam &
Dave and "Walkin' the Dog" by Rufus Thomas, and "Respect Yourself" by
the Staple Singers. Gordon also writes well about Stax's place in
Memphis as a cultural icon and a place of community. One of the things
that interested me was how long these legendary singers had to continue
their day jobs while making regional hits that we now consider soul
classics. Otis Redding worked as a limousine driver while Isaac Hayes
worked in a slaughter house. But that was not much of a surprise to me
since, in the 70s, I was playing sax in bars on the weekends and washing
dishes on weeknights while going to college. But then again I never had
a hit record, but I digress..
Yet there was a dark side too. As
Stax become more popular, they grew out of their tight knit family
environment and became a corporation. The author is also writing about
the decline of the local record company and the rise of the
conglomerate. At the height of their success in the early 70s, Stax
became gobbled up by large corporations and pretty much became one
themselves, leading to a glut of financial scandal, criminal activity
and often violent episodes. Their sound changed and the company
collapsed under its own weight bringing in mind the old saying that
nothing fails like success. Gordon's book is as much about the fall of
the regional record company and the rise of the music conglomerates as
it is about the music.
It's a mesmerizing story of "rise and
fall" and Robert Gordon tells it well. The story goes from Jim and his
sister Estelle recording country Western acts as a hobby to a small but
active company thriving on the enthusiasm of its black community to a
profit above all else concern led by Music mogul Al Bell and plagued by
guns and drugs. But the core of this book is about the music and the
dedication lesser known musicians like Donald "Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper
and, of course, Booker T gave to the music. If you have any interest in
popular music, especially soul and R&B, this is an essential read.
Background CD: Various Artists - The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968
Stride pianist Teddy Weatherford is barely a footnote in jazz history.
He was acclaimed as a brilliant pianist yet he only made a handful of
recordings which are close to impossible to find. Yet he was quite
successful until his death from Cholera in 1945. His reason for success
is what makes this 37 page Kindle Single, with a title almost as long as the book, interesting. He left America in
the 20s and spend the rest of his life abroad, mainly in China and India
thus setting the stage for mainly black jazz musicians who chose to
work abroad where they were usually more revered and free from much of
the racism they experienced in the states. Author Brendan L. Koerner
does a good job in presenting the life of a man whose history cannot be
that easy to research. Yet this short book doesn't really do justice to
the subject. The author explains why Weatherford's talents were
important in the history of jazz yet there is simply not enough space to
fully explain how stride piano and Weatherford in particular fits into
jazz history. However he is especially good at describing the smoldering
atmosphere of China and India during the 20s and 30s and how it affects
Weatherford's life abroad. But I wanted more sociological detail on why
and how early jazz musicians, especially black musicians, chose a life of
voluntary exile to enrich their music and their dreams. Nonetheless, I
recommend this book to any one who is interested in jazz history.
Background CD: I don't have any Teddy Weatherford in my collection, so I settled for The Very Best of Fats Waller.
I want to start with my own assessment of Quincy Jones. What Duke
Ellington was to the 30s and 40s, Quincy Jones was to the 60s and
beyond. Their ability for composing and arranging stretched Jazz out of
its limits and into all type of popular music including classical and
motion picture scoring. Ellington was the premier jazz composer and
arranger for the first half of the 20th century. Quincy Jones was the
same for the last part of the 20th century.
I first heard of
Quincy Jones when I was in high school in the 60s and while I was
considering a career as a professional musician. My peers and I idolized
Mr. Jones and wanted to emulate him. He was an exceptional arranger.
His score for the film In the Heat of the Night was a
cornerstone of jazz and blues understatement. He was a pretty good
trumpeter too. Then about mid-70s things changed. We thought he sold out
as his music evolved into popular music as he spent more time producing
pop records and arranging for pop artists. We were wrong. He wasn't
selling out. He was changing the course of American music. It is almost
impossible now to hear any R&B or soul-tinged hit without hearing
the influence of Quincy Jones.
This new perspective on Quincy Jones is titled simply Quincy Jones: His Life in Music
and is written by Clarence Bernard Henry. The emphasis is on "Music" as
most all of it is about the music and only a little about his life
outside the concerts and studios. There is a first chapter that is a
biography but if that is what you want, you would be better off reading
Quincy Jones' own autobiography, Q. His Life in Music
is a rather thin book at 192 pages with more that a third of it being
discography and footnotes. It is quite scholarly and very crowded. I'm
not sure anyone can do his music justice in under 200 pages but Mr.
Henry tries. Aside from the first biographical chapter, they are divided
into chapters on his work in his bands and orchestras, work as a
composer and arranger, His recording career with emphasis on his
collaborations with jazz and popular artists, and a look at his work in
film scoring. Henry also spends some time on Jones' many achievements as
an African American composer/arranger and the artist's difficulty in
working in this field, especially in the film industry, which was still
an all white industry when Jones arrived. That's a lot of information
and some of it feels rushed. Fortunately, for me at least, a lot is said
about his works in the 50s and 60s starting with his first gig with the
Lionel Hampton Orchestra and going to his early 60s jazz projects like
his collaboration with Lalo Schifrin, Big Band Boss Nova. That is the Quincy Jones I remember fondly.
Much
time is also spent discussing the three albums he produced for Michael
Jackson. How could you not? They represented Jones' full ascendency into
Cross-Over and a milestone of his influence in pop music. But pretty
much every aspect and significant project of his is mentioned and
briefly analyzed, I would have been happier with more musical dissection
of his work but that would take for a much bigger book. Besides I'm a
bit of a music nerd. I think for the average person, Henry hits a nice
balance between history and music to bring out the importance of the
artist. The author is also quite aware of much of the social
significance of Jones' music and writes about his many humanitarian
involvements,including "We Are The World". Overall, it is a nice
overlook on the artist and recommended to anyone who has a interest in
the composer and his legacy. The only thing missing is a stack of Quincy
Jones' CDs to play while reading.
You don't have to be a jazz fan to enjoy Slumberland but it
helps. Paul Beatty not only knows a hell of a lot about jazz but he
writes like a jazz musician. He states the theme, write like a maniac
around it, wanders off into imaginative detours then miraculously
returns to the theme. His writing is loaded with outrageous and
hilarious ideas, then he's off to the next one. Beatty manages to say a
lot about race, music, and culture, both American and European. And
before I forget, there's a plot. DJ Darky has created the perfect beat
but needs the elusive jazz man Charles Stone aka The Schwa, to complete
it. So he goes off to Berlin, getting a job in a bar called Slumberland
to find his dream. Before the novel is through, the author manages to
unsettle a number of sacred Black icons and question our ideas about
what defines culture and race in our pop culture.It is nice to see a
young writer so willing to stir up the stew. I would have given this
five stars but I felt the last 100 pages dragged slightly and The Schwa
was a little bit of a let down from what the author built him up to be.
Yet, Slumberland is still a hell of a read. I will certainly be checking out The White Boy Shuffle and Tuff very soon.
Background CD: Various Artists - Blue Note Records: Now and Then
In the past month, I've read three biographies about musicians; one on
Leonard Cohen, punk rocker Ricard Hell's autobiography, and now this
excellent biography on Jazz musician Benny Goodman. I must say it is a
pleasure to read a biography that is more about the actual music than
who the musician slept with.
In fact, this rather scholarly work
is more about the swing era of the thirties than the individual. While
covering Goodman's life from birth to death, the author focuses mainly
on his contribution to American music and the unique era of swing which
was when Jazz was at its height of popularity. Collier doesn't forsake
other musicians either, showing the early influences of Fletcher
Henderson and others who led bands before Goodman and covering all of
the major jazz musician that passed through the Goodman orchestra and
small groups. I also liked how Collier explores the particular
personality of his subject and explains how it affected both Goodman's
music and career without descending into gossip. If you have any
interest in the popular music of the 30s and 40s or in the history of
Jazz, this is essential reading.
Background CD: Benny Goodman - The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings
Q: Why did the punk rocker cross the road? A: He was pinned to a chicken.
I know. Bad joke. It could have been worse. I could have asked you why Jesus crossed the road.
But this is a book review, so...
I'm
not exactly sure if Richard Hell is an household name. He was at the
start of the punk rock movement in the seventies. He is often given
credit for the punk rock look of torn clothes and safety pins, which
explains the chicken joke. Malcolm McLaren gives Richard Hell credit for
the visual look, if not the musical style, of the Sex Pistols. Before
he started his own group he created the early punk groups, Television
and The Heartbreakers (which has nothing to do with Tom Petty and...)If
you have heard one Richard Hell and The Voidoids song it is probably
"The Blank Generation" which is sometimes called the Punk Rock anthem.
But
the interesting thing in this book is how little Hell says directly
about his music.While he writes prodigiously about the Punk Rock scene
he is more interested in the lifestyle than the music. He thinks of
himself as a poet and a writer first and left music in 1988 to devote
himself to his writing full-time. He's a pretty good writer. In fact,
His writing talent is much better than his musical talent which he
admits is on the minimal side. I like Richard Hell but it is the kind of
"like" coming from watching a kid put heart and soul into an endeavor
where his emotions overshadow his abilities. This autobiography, from
someone who can only be called an unreliable narrator, describes the
punk rock 70s, especially the New York scene, very well. Richard Hell
comes across as over-confident, insecure and defensive all at the same
time and it gives a nice tension. He may not be someone that is easy to
like but is definitely interesting. The only drawback to this book, and
it is a big one,is Hell's constant misogyny. He chooses to tell us every
sexual encounter in detail and in usually negative terms to his
partner. As I said, he is not easy to like.
Richard Hell is my
age. But I felt at some times I was reading a memoir by a perennial
adolescent. It can be argued that Hell never really grew up. It is what
makes this book so involving at times. Hell recalls the times and its
emotions and tensions vividly. I think it is because he never really
wanted to leave it. Even if he no longer plays music in the rock scene,
Richard Hell may be the Peter Pan of Punk Rock Neverland.
Background CD: Richard Hell & Voidoids - Blank Generation
It must be being enormously frustrating to write a biography about a man
who already has been quite confessional and intimate in his own poems,
novels and songs. I mean, what else is there to say? But Sylvie Simmons'
biography of Leonard Cohen does tend to open some new ground. It is
detailed, precise, and abundant in personal revelations from both
friends of Cohen's and Cohen himself. I like the way the author quote
portions of her interview with Cohen in italics making a easy transition
from biography to personal reflection. Ms Simmons does a good job in
describing and interpreting many of Cohen poems and songs and does an
equally good job in placing them in the context of the poet/songwriter's
coming of age and development. My only gripe is that the book sometimes
become more of a "and then he slept with" than a "and then he wrote".
But some will like the gossipy parts, I guess. Yet most of the time I
learned a lot about this important figure in modern culture. I can also
attest that the reading of this biography goes down well with a glass of
Cabernet and Leonard Cohen songs being endlessly cycled on Grooveshark.
Rock and roll and horror should be a natural combination. Yet I can
think of only a few authors who have the ability to blend the two worlds
together; Skipp and Spector, David Schow and to a lesser extent, George
R.R. Martin, S. P. Somtow, and Joe Hill. Less serious efforts has been
made by schlockmaster musicians like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper
whose shows are more of a kiddie spectacular with little real terror.
Enter new author Joseph Garraty. His debut novel Voice
is a realistic blend of both rock and horror. Garraty is a musician and
writer and his description of seedy venues and one night stands reveals
an intimacy with the musician life. His novel is also a riveting horror
tale that combines two overdone sub-genres; ordinary kid becomes rock
star with disastrous results and that old war horse, the
deal-with-the-devil tale. But the author finds something new in both and
gives us a story that puts us on notice that he is biting at the heels
of those authors I mentioned above.
But there are a few issues
that often accompanies new writers. He slows at the middle and loses the
pace. However it quickly picks up when main protagonist Johnny Tango
and his band goes on the road. Also I was sometimes disengaged by the
change in perspective of the band members and felt it may have been
better to stick to the two main characters, Johnny and Case.
However,
the strengths far exceed the weaknesses. Both Case and Johnny are
strong character who the reader can care for even when they aren't on
the best behavior. The rock performance scenes are exquisite and
superbly catches the sense of excitement from the performers'
perspective. Also, Garraty's ability to evoke dread and horror is quite
good. Look for a "crossroads" scene that is loyal to the classic
definition but also subtly hints that something else is going on.
The
bottom line is that the author wrote a very above average debut novel
that manages to blend the realistic travails of the rock music life with
a scary and haunting horror story. If you are looking for new horror
writers eager to creep you out, try Joseph Garraty. Personally, I am
hoping eagerly for another creep-you-out rock and roller novel from this
promising writer.
Background CD: The Cramps - Bad Music for Bad People
This book needs two ratings. For the inexhaustible academic work it is,
it deserves five stars. Pollack does an amazing job in not only
chronicling Gershwin's life but analyzing all of the composer's works.
The biography is close to 900 pages with slightly less than 200 of that
being notes and index. There is not one stone unturned in Gershwin's
life and there is some fascinating information on the supporting cast,
like James Reese Europe, Eubie Blake, Paul Whiteman etc, as well. These
little side notes bring some humanity to the composer. For example,
Oscar Levant's question to George Gershwin after the composer addressed
his adoring public; "If you had your life to live all over again, would
you still fall in love with yourself?" But the focus is on Gershwin and
any scholar of his music would agree this is the definitive biography.
However,
the rating for readability would have be lower; maybe three stars. It
isn't because it is bad writing. In fact, Pollack is quite good. But he
is a bit dry. The book soon becomes a "And then he wrote" or "And then
he met". It's hard to see anyone but a true Gershwin fan wading through
this epic tome. There are some excellent chapters especially the several
on "Porgy and Bess" but overall it is just too much information for the
average reader.
These two considerations, readability and
research, can be bridged. I recently read an excellent biography on
Thelonious Monk that was both highly detailed and highly readable but
Pollack doesn't quite achieve the balance.
So three stars for readability. Five stars for academic excellence. Let's split the difference and call it four stars.
Background CD: Leonard Bernstein & the New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris
How in the hell did this guy live so long? After Jimi and Janis died,
all the smart money was on Keith Richard to be Rock n' Roll's next
burnt-out flame. He fooled us all. And his secret to a long and exciting
life?
He was damn lucky.
Maybe not in his music. He
worked hard to be the rock n' roll genius he is. But lucky in that he
didn't make a fatal mistake between the drugs and general madness his
life style resulted in. I loved his frankness but shook my head a little
when he discussed his faults and excused his mistakes. He is quick to
admit to his drug excesses but even quicker to state that others were
bigger addicts than he was. Three areas of contention for me was his
take on girl friends (hot and wild and usually stolen from his band
members), his unusual parenting techniques (take your seven year old son
with you on tour and put him in charge of cleaning up the drug messes
left by the band), and his very unusual heroin addiction cure (a little
black box and gallons of Jack Daniels). Richard isn't what I would call a
great role model but there is something weirdly impressive about a man
who creates so much good music but stayed on the wild side with so much
energy if not always class.
But what I really liked about his
book is his reflections on the music. It comes alive when he discusses
his blues idols like Jimmy Reed and others. He describes how the Stones
just wanted to be a blues band and slipped into being a rock band. I
especially liked hearing about how he and Mick Jagger created their
songs. Keith wrote the riffs and Mick fine-tuned the lyrics. After all,
it is all about the music and I think Keith would agree with me. He
chuckles at his past and hope you get a kick out of hearing about it,
But he really wants us to focus on the music and that super group called
The Stones.
Just Kids is an incredibly moving story about the relationship
between poet/rock singer Patti Smith and photographer Robert
Mapplethorpe. The love and support between these two persons flows
through Patti's poetic words. While they lived in the tumultuous art
scene of New York in the sixties and seventies this is never a tell-all
book or a sensational gossip book like so many of the other memoirs of
this period. The author promised Mapplethorpe before he died that she
would tell their story and does exactly that. In fact, the only time the
book bogs down is in the section that tells of their separation and her
ascend into the rock music world. Smith appears to be rushing, eager to
get on with the real story of her love and compassion for Mapplethorpe.
When she returns to him, he is dying of AIDS. The passion and longing
that permeated this memoir is again evident. If someone asked me if I
knew of a book that could vividly and honestly depict the complex pains
and joys of an human relationship, I would gladly hand them this book.
Cool is one of those things that fit the "I can't define it but I know
it when I see it" category but I must admit Jazz critic and writer Ted
Gioia does a fine attempt at defining it. Here is my feeble definition.
Cool is an attitude, a facade that hides the base emotions but
communicates a an individualistic ambivalence over status and society.
Cool is one of those things that you can attempt to have but is defined
by others judgments making it a bit contradictory. Yet we all know it
when we see it and we know what is not cool. Frank Sinatra was cool.
Micheal Bolton isn't. Laugh-in was cool. American Idol isn't. James Dean
was cool. Jim Carry isn't. I think my cool definition is similar to
Gioia but he says it better and takes a lot more words to say it. But
what else the author does is to identify its birth and how Cool is no
longer an issue in our "post-cool" society. Gioia starts at the
beginning with the jazz musicians. Cool is above all a jazz concept and
he spends a good bit of time with the three lead perpetrators of Cool:
Bix Beiderbecke, Lester Young and Miles Davis. He describes the role of
Cool in the arts and media and show how the advertising establishment
hijacked cool and led to its demise. He shows how Cool is a late 20th
century device not having any real comparison in American culture before
that time. And he also define the Post-cool area, a time when sincerity
and honesty becomes important for its own sake and people are not
defined by brands. I'm not totally convinced by this part of the book
but Gioia makes some nice points. I also enjoy the revelation that my
generation was not introduced to coolness by Davis or Kerouac but was
already indoctrinated into cool by the antics of Bugs Bunny, Top Cat,
and Rocky & Bullwinkle. A decade of watching Bugs Bunny will
definitely prepare you for the writings of Jack Kerouac. I did find his
chapter on comedy a bit perplexing. He spends a lot of time on David
Letterman as a arbiter of cool comedy but barely mentions Lenny Bruce,
Mort Sahl or Richard Pryor. Personally I think cool comedy started with
Jack Benny but that is just my opinion. Any book on such a broad topic
is going to encourage agreements and disagreements. But that's cool.
This is a hard book for me to be non-biased about. I first started reading
Hilburn's columns in the Los Angeles Times in 1968 when I started going
to college, coincidentally the very same university that Hilburn went
to himself. It was the LA Times trinity of columnists; Hilburn, Jazz
critic Leonard Feather, and classical music critic Martin Bernheimer,
that taught me there was even a thing called music criticism. Hilburn
continued writing during the golden age of rock music criticism and
beyond until he retired from the Times in 2005. When I did a little
music writing of my own some mentors compared my style to Hilburn's,
sometimes complimentary but sometimes not. I always took it as a
compliment. While he didn't have the mad genius of Lester Bangs or the
scholarly vision of Greil Marcus, he had something the others did not
bring to pen and paper. He wrote for the everyman, the nine-to-fivers
who needed the music to enrich their lives. Hilburn himself didn't smoke
or drink and, around these superstars that lived in an insane world,
brought enough sanity with him that these artists came across as real
human beings. He may not have been the best of the music writers but he
had empathy which served to show his readers the hearts behind the
music.
All of this comes out in his new book, Cornflakes with John Lennon.
This book is a memoir of his experiences as a rock music writer and his
relationship with some of the most important musicians of rock music;
Lennon, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Kurt Cobain and others. As a
memoir it does what the writer rarely did in his own columns. It gave
us a look at the writer himself. Yet even here the bulk of this book is
about rock music and rock artists. Hilburn brought out the best in his
subjects whether it was a troubled Lennon, a vulnerable Janis Joplin, a
insecure Michael Jackson, or an obsessively searching Bruce Springsteen.
Hilborn wants us to see the thoughts and the person behind the songs
and he does that better than any other writer of his time.
Yet
there are some issues with this book that troubles me. Hilburn spends
way too much time with the superstars, especially Springsteen, but
little about the less revered artists that changed the music yet didn't
get a mass of fans. I know he paid a lot of attention to artists like P.
J. Harvey, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Rickie Lee Jones but little is
in this book. I suspect that may have been a publishing decision. Yet
they also have tales to tell and I know Hilburn paid more attention to
them than this book would let on. Also the writer could have a evil pen
to those he called "the superficial artists who shouldn't be on stage in
the first place because they have nothing to tell you". Yet he only
shows examples of this briefly in about one page which does include an
especially right-on assessment of Michael Bolton. Most bewildering is
his exclusion of the rather notorious feud with Jethro Tull's Ian
Anderson that led to the musician writing a scathing song about the
critic called "Only Solitaire." Yet, I assume Hilburn wanted his first
book on his own writings and experiences in music to be positive and not
focus on the negative.
So I really wanted to give this book
five stars, maybe even a bonus sixth star, for a lot of personal
reasons. But I also realized that without my nostalgic baggage, this
book is still a very strong four stars. Certainly if you want to know
about the real musicians that made the music and not just the
promotional hype, Hilburn will deliver.
Horace Tapscott was a musical pioneer stretching the boundaries of jazz.
He was also an organizer and educator in Los Angeles that stressed
ethnic and community pride and became a father figure to scores of Los
Angeles musicians who may not have fared as well without a mentor. Yet
most Americans , even most Angelenos, have never heard of him. His
autobiography is a well written, enjoyable look at his journeys from the
birthplace of Houston to his last days as a respected figure in LA and
even the international arena.He writes with frankness about his
struggles with racism. He tells about the turbulent sixties and the
Watts riots, relating with some bitterness the police and establishment
attempts to put down his organization which simply existed to create a
music that instilled pride in his black community. But mostly, he writes
about the music of the time. He writes about his experiences with jazz
giants like Lionel Hampton, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman. I
found the book especially exciting because I lived in Los Angeles
during the 70s and 80s when Tapscott started to get the recognition he
deserved. I knew some of the local artists he writes about such as John
Carter, Bobby Bradford and Vinny Golia. I was very surprised to actually
see my high school band teacher, Stewart Aspen, who moved from
Jefferson to San Fernando High in the 60s, get a mention! My only very
minor complaint is that Tapscott assumes that his reader knows what
certain musical terms means like seventh position on the trombone, or
assumes the reader already know the accomplishments of giants like Sun
Ra and Ornette Coleman. But any one who doesn't know this is probably
not going to read this fascinating account of an important movement in
20th century jazz anyway. Recommended to fans of modern Jazz,
aficionados of Los Angeles history, and people interested in the
socio-politcal movements of the late 20th century.
Background CD: Horace Tapscott - Songs of the Unsung
The two things in life I most love to do is to read and to listen to music. In my ancient days, I was a professional musician in Los Angeles playing saxophone and clarinet. I soon changed careers to Social Work and when asked why, I would say that I decided I wanted the finer things in life...like food and shelter. But I never lost my love for music. Between 2006 and 2011, I owned a rather popular website called Free Albums Galore where I posted my discovery of free and legal music albums by both indie and established artists. Sadly, work and health issues interfered and I had to abandon it. I am now retired with time to kill, but I decided to devote my time to book reviewing.
This is my secondary book review site. My primary review site is The Novel Pursuit where I review fiction and the occasional non-fiction work. Yet I wanted a separate area where I can place my reviews of books related to music, include both fiction and non-fiction. Any book about any type of music or any musician is fair game. Musically, I am rather eclectic but My own preference is for jazz and rock. Yet my reading in music is very broad. So you may find anything here as a rocks, swings, sways, or chill. Thank you for visiting my humble but cool and blue blog.
