Music-History & Criticism

This powerful book covers the vast and various terrain of African American music, from bebop to hip-hop. Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., begins with an absorbing account of his own musical experiences with family and friends on the South Side of Chicago, evoking Sunday-morning worship...

Expert advice from a distinguished performer, teacher, and composer makes this lively study of the clarinet essential reading for students and instructors as well as other music lovers. One of the most comprehensive books on the instrument, this richly varied study offers both practical...

The 160-year history of the saxophone comes to brilliant life in Michael Segell's wonderfully researched, beautifully told The Devil's Horn. Beginning with "a sound never heard before," Segell's portrait follows the iconographic instrument as it is lauded for its sensuality, then outlawed for its...

Set against a backdrop of world-changing historical and political events, Fire and Rain tells the extraordinary story of one pivotal year in the lives and music of four legendary artists, and reveals how these artists and their songs both shaped and reflected their times....

The term "jam band" is used to categorize a type of music that favors improvisation and musicianship over concise riffs, hooks, and traditional songwriting structure. The term also helps define the fiercely dedicated fans of the music as accurately as it does the bands....

Decibel magazine is regarded as the best extreme music magazine around. Precious Metal gathers pieces from Decibel's most popular feature, the monthly "Hall of Fame" which documents the making of landmark metal albums via candid, hilarious, and fascinating interviews with every participating band member....

This infamous book has enjoyed a lively underground reputation since its first publication in 1970. Richard Meltzer (a.k.a. R. Meltzer) took his training as a young philosopher and applied it with unalloyed enthusiasm to the lyrics, sound, and culture of rock and roll. Never...

There were 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...

Django Reinhardt was arguably the greatest guitarist who ever lived, an important influence on Les Paul, Charlie Christian, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. Yet there is no major biography of Reinhardt. Now, in Django, Michael Dregni offers a definitive portrait...

This book explores the cultural, aesthetic, and political relevance of music in radio art from its beginnings to present day. Contributors include musicologists, literary studies, and cultural studies scholars and cover radio plays, radio shows, and other programs in North American, English, Spanish, Greek,...

The Doors remain one of the most original acts in the history of Rock and Roll. However, their actual music is sometimes overshadowed by the cult of Jim Morrison. Those with long memories will recall a point in the 80s when he went from...

Blackstar Theory takes a close look at David Bowie's ambitious last works: his surprise 'comeback' project The Next Day(2013), the off-Broadway musical Lazarus(2015) and the album that preceded the artist's death in 2016 by two days, Blackstar. The book explores the swirl of themes...

A Variety Best Music Book of 2022 A No Depression Most Memorable Music Book of 2022 A Library Journal Best Arts and Humanities Book of 2022 A Pitchfork Best Music Book of 2022 A Boot Best Music Book of 2022 A Ticketmaster Best Music...

Ever hear of a butt splice? A cover? An iron mother? A biscuit? These were terms used in the heyday of vinyl records, from 1949 to the mid-1980s. This colorful and almost forgotten language was once used by record producers, label owners, disc jockeys,...

Beginning in the year of Prince's birth, 1958, with the recording of Minnesota's first R&B record by a North Minneapolis band called the Big Ms, Got to Be Something Here traces the rise of that distinctive sound through two generations of political upheaval, rebellion,...

Ideal for introductory courses in world music and ethnomusicology, Global Music Cultures gives students an overview of key musical cultures of the world while also incorporating the latest theoretical approaches to the study of world music.Author: Bonnie C. WadeISBN-10: 0190643641ISBN-13: 9780190643645Publisher: Oxford University Press,...

Author: Peter BraidisISBN-10: 1789520991ISBN-13: 9781789520996Publisher: Sonicbond PublishingLanguage: EnglishPublished: 06/25/2021Pages: 176Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.53lbsSize: 8.19h x 5.75w x 0.55d

The uncompromising work of electric guitarist Allan Holdsworth is revered by some of the most accomplished musicians in rock, jazz, fusion and metal, including such ground-breaking artists as Steve Vai, John McLaughlin, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson, Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, and countless others....

Hear My Train A Comin' investigates the immense creativity of Jimi Hendrix, and his intriguing relationship with the art of song, a platform he used for a multitude of ideas and improvisation. Although his activity as a recording artist spanned a period of just...

Sounds Beyond charts the origins of Arvo P舐t's most famous music, which was created in dialogue with underground creative circles in the USSR. In Sounds Beyond, Kevin C. Karnes studies the interconnected alternative music and art scenes in the USSR during the second half...

ISBN-10: 1789520622ISBN-13: 9781789520620Publisher: Sonicbond PublishingLanguage: EnglishPublished: 04/15/2021Pages: 176Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.50lbsSize: 8.20h x 5.60w x 0.60d

In this series of books, based on the hit podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Andrew Hickey analyses the history of rock and roll music, from its origins in swing, Western swing, boogie woogie, and gospel, through to the 1990s, grunge,...

The familiar history of jazz music in the United States begins with its birth in New Orleans, moves upstream along the Mississippi River to Chicago, then by rail into New York before exploding across the globe. That telling of history, however, overlooks the pivotal...

For centuries, pipe organs stood at the summit of musical and technological achievement, admired as the most complex and intricate mechanisms the human race had yet devised. In All The Stops, New York Times journalist Craig Whitney journeys through the history of the American...

WORDS WITH MUSIC: CREATING THE BROADWAY MUSICAL LIBRETTOAuthor: Lehman EngelISBN-10: 1557835543ISBN-13: 9781557835543Publisher: Applause BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 01/01/2006Pages: 478Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.40lbsSize: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.10dReview Citation(s): Library Journal 04/15/2006 pg. 126

The Suburbs is an incredibly sentimental and nostalgic album, which generally moved critics but was jarring to others. But it also made a heavy impact on fans and - to the surprise of many - won Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy...

The full story of the rise and spectacular comeback of the band hailed as the saviors of punk rock. It's hard to believe that in early 2004 Green Day was considered over -- the band was still together, but they were dismissed as a...

First full-length study of Schubert's career as a symphonist. Astonishingly, Schubert's symphonies have never received the detailed study that their prominence in the orchestral repertoire would suggest they deserve. In this book Professor Brian Newbould, perhaps the best-known of contemporary Schubert scholars, examines each...

One of The Telegraph's Best Music Books 2011 We live in a pop age gone loco for retro and crazy for commemoration. Band re-formations and reunion tours, expanded reissues of classic albums and outtake-crammed box sets, remakes and sequels, tribute albums and mash-ups ....

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life-from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early triumphs at...

By the time Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke entered the studio to begin work on this album, they were basically falling apart at the seams. "Ladyfriend", a song written by Crosby, had just failed miserably as a chart single despite...

Conceived as the last testament of a charismatic recluse who believed he was about to die, 'Forever Changes' is one of the defining albums of an era. Here, Andrew Hultkrans explores the myriad depths of Love's bizarre and brilliant record. Charting bohemian Los Angeles'...

Here, translated into English for the first time, is a cultur-al record of the folk music of Eastern Europe. This volume consists of some of Ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski's responses to Jewish folk music in its living context during the 1930s, including essays on Ukrainian...

POST is a look at how post-hardcore/emo music developed since its unintentional inception in the mid-1980s. With each chapter broken up by influential band or label, it focuses on a broad style of independent music that developed because of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethic. Focusing...

Style -- the distinctive manner of presentation, construction, and execution in any art -- is a topic of primary importance in music history. This highly regarded text by noted musicologist Richard Crocker (University of California, Berkeley) takes a much-needed fresh look at the subject...

Praised by Robbie Robertson of The Band as "a classic & a ticket to ride," The Rose & the Briar assembles an astonishing group of writers and artists: Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sharyn McCrumb, Luc Sante, Joyce...

A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. Who wrote advanced cat music? What commonplace theme is very much like Yankee Doodle? Which composer is a scoundrel and a giftless bastard? What opera would His...

Few forms of music elicit such strong reactions as does heavy metal. Embraced by millions of fans, it has also attracted a chorus of critics, who have denounced it as a corrupter of youth--even blamed it for tragedies like the murders at Columbine. Deena...

Fun, bright, and playful, Power Pop is a sometimes adored, sometimes maligned, often misunderstood genre of music. From its heyday in the 70 s and 80 s to its resurgence in the 90 s and 00 s, Power Pop has meant many things to...

Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous -- Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. In the United States, it was his first full length on...

"All I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as I do." --Nick...

One of Rolling Stone's 20 Best Music Books of 2013When memoirist and head writer for The A.V. Club Nathan Rabin first set out to write about obsessed music fans, he had no idea the journey would take him to the deepest recesses of both...

Released when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next, Radio City was a radical album influenced by records that were already deemed oldies and yet sounding like a lean electrical jolt from the future. Here, Bruce Eaton examines...

The story of the Minutemen has been told before (Our Band Could Be Your Life, We Jam Econo), but this book focuses purely on their music - the punk ethic and the remarkable, enduring songs that comprise this, their greatest achievement. Including extensive interviews...

Marc Woodworth's book covers the album's long and unorthodox period of writing, recording, sequencing, and editing. It includes interviews with members of the band, manager Pete Jamison, web-master and GBV historian Rich Turiel and Robert Griffin of Scat Records. At least sixty-five songs were...

New York Times bestselling author Allen St. John started off looking for the world's greatest guitar, but what he found instead was the world's greatest guitar builder. Living and working in Rugby, Virginia (population 7), retired rural mail carrier Wayne Henderson is a true...

The definitive survey, combining current scholarship with a vibrant narrative. Carefully informed by feedback from dozens of scholars, it remains the book that students and teachers trust to explain what's important, where it fits, and why it matters. Peter Burkholder weaves a compelling story...

"Eric Dolphy was a saint--in every way, not just in his playing."--Charles Mingus In his tragically short life (1928-1964), Eric Dolphy was a titanic force in the development of the sixties avant-garde (or "new thing") from the hard bop of the late fifties. The...

ISBN-10: 0571353444ISBN-13: 9780571353446Publisher: Faber & FaberLanguage: EnglishPublished: 12/14/2021Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.25lbsSize: 7.80h x 5.10w x 1.90d

Unearth a piece of music history with this definitive, no-holds-barred biography of John Entwistle, The Who's legendary bass guitarist. It is an unequivocal fact that in terms of rock bands, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who represent Year Zero, the beginning of...