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Showing 1 - 20 of 23 items
By Barb Rosenstock, Edwin Fotheringham. 2018
Presents the story of musician Bill Monroe, the youngest of eight children, who loved playing and singing harmonies with his…
family on the front porch and continued to work on his craft as he grew up. His deep Kentucky roots helped him to create the unique American music called bluegrass. For grades K-3. 2018By Peter Guralnick. 1998
Author of music biographies including Last Train to Memphis (DB 40087) examines the short life and long legacy of bluesman…
Johnson, who died at age twenty-seven in 1938. From scarce information, the author stitches together what is known of his life, and looks at the many blues musicians he influenced. 1989By Carl Perkins, David McGee. 1996
Autobiography of Carl Perkins following his life and career from 1932 through the 1990's. Carl Perkins, one of the original…
pioneers of rock, is famous for writing "Blue Suede Shoes" and performing with Elvis and Johnny Cash as they toured on behalf of Sun Records during the heyday of rockabilly. 1996By G. Neri, David Litchfield, Greg Neri. 2018
When Paul Met Artie is a picture book aimed at young readers from grades 4 to 7. From childhood friendship…
to brief teenage stardom, from early failures to musical greatness -- the incredible story of how Simon & Garfunkel became a cherished voice of their generation. For grades 4-7By Robert Andrew Parker, Robert A. Parker. 2008
By Margarita Engle, Rafael López. 2015
In Cuba in the 1930s, music filled the air. Millo had a dream playing drums of all kinds, but the…
country and her father only permitted boys to play drums. Millo finds a way to drum and practices in secret. Eventually her father relents and hires a music teacher for her. Millo's persistance means that she and her sisters become the first all-girl dance band in Cuba and play with and for famous people. (Story inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga.) For grades K-3By Patti Smith. 2011
By Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper. 2008
Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday (1915-1959) reflects on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse. In "I Can't…
Face the Music" Billie overcomes stage fright. In "Trav'lin' Light," her songs are her home. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high readers. Coretta Scott King Honor. 2008By Mark Bego, Martha Reeves. 1994
Autobiography of African American lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, who recorded hit songs for Motown in the 1960s.…
Reeves recalls the inner workings of the Detroit record studio, reminisces about her fellow musicians, and discusses her rivalry with Diana Ross of the Supremes. Some strong language. 1994By Kathleen Krull, Stephen Alcorn. 2003
By Kevin Hawkes, Matthew Anderson, M. T Anderson, M. T. Anderson. 2001
A stubborn little boy with a mind of his own is determined to be a musician, even though his father…
is against the idea. He grows up to be the famous eighteenth-century composer, George Frideric Handel. For grades 3-6. 2001By Kristen Kemp, Kemp. 1998
Biography of songwriter-singer Jewel, who grew up in Alaska with no running water, electricity, or heat. Describes her early singing…
career, her struggles with dyslexia, and her parents' divorce. Jewel's determination to succeed led her to a famous boarding school for the arts and then to California. For junior and senior high readersBy Gladys Knight. 1997
Knight recalls the ups and downs of her life. She describes her struggle to become well known, first along with…
the Pips and later as a solo performer, and discusses her family, her various addictions, her failed marriages, and her feelings of isolation within the world of show businessBy Ray Coleman, Bill Wyman. 1990
The Rolling Stones's bass player has kept a scrapbook of press clippings and a diary for almost thirty years. Now…
he has trunkloads of these bits and pieces to jog his memory about the band's rise to stardom. Known as "the silent Stone," Wyman focuses on the 1960s, when the band served its tumultuous apprenticeship, but he goes on to document the less than sanguine years that followedBy J. Randy Taraborrelli, Kensington Publishing Corporation Staff, Hillel Black. 1989
An explosive and revealing portrait of the singer and superstar whose career began in the early 1960s. Describes Ross's relationships…
with Michael Jackson and with her fellow Supremes, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, and covers her love affairs and her two marriages. Some strong language and some descriptions of sexBy Jeanne Walker Harvey. 2011
As a young boy growing up in North Carolina, Romare Bearden listened to his great-grandmother's Cherokee stories and heard the…
whistle of the train that took his people to the North people who wanted to be free. When Romare and his family, faced with Jim Crow laws, boarded that same train, he watched out the window as the world whizzed by. Later he captured those scenes in a famous painting, Watching the Good Trains Go By. Using that painting as inspiration and creating a text influenced by the blues and jazz that Bearden loved, Jeanne Walker Harvey tells the story of Bearden's children by describing the patchwork of daily southern life that Romare saw out the train's window and the story of his arrival in shimmering New York City. Artists and critics today praise Bearden's collages for their visual metaphors honoring his past, African American culture, and the human experience. 2011. For grades K-3By Donna Stonecipher, Isabel Cole. 2018
Revolving around the opera these tales are an archaeological excavation of the slag-heaps of our collective…
existence W G Sebald Combining fact and fiction each of the one hundred and two tales of Alexander Kluge s Temple of the Scapegoat dotted with photos of famous operas and their stars compresses a lifetime of feeling and thought Kluge is deeply engaged with the opera and an inventive wellspring of narrative notions The titles of his stories suggest his many turns of mind Total Commitment Freedom Reality Outrivals Theater The Correct Slowing-Down at the Transitional Point Between Terror and an Inkling of Freedom A Crucial Character Among Persons None of Whom Are Who They Think They Are and Deadly Vocal Power vs Generosity in Opera An opera Kluge says is a blast furnace of the soul telling of the great singer Leonard Warren who died onstage having literally sung his heart out Kluge introduces a Tibetan scholar who realizes that opera is about comprehension and passion The two never go together Passion overwhelms comprehension Comprehension kills passion This appears to be the essence of all operas says Huang Tse-we He also comes to understand that female roles face the harshest fates Compared to the mass of soprano victims out of 86 000 operas 64 000 end with the death of the soprano the sacrifice of tenors is small out of 86 000 operas 1 143 tenors are a write-offBy Charles Margerison. 2012
It is often said that music is a universal language, and our greatest musicians have succeeded in reaching the stars.…
Do you dream of following in their footsteps? Take a fascinating trip through the lives of some of the world's most celebrated musicians, and find out what it takes to touch the hearts of millions through music. In this unique collection of inspirational stories from The Amazing People Club, discover the sacrifices John Lennon had to make to realise his dream. Read the story of a poor Jewish boy from the Russian Empire called Asa Yoelson defied prejudice to become Al Jolson, 'The World's Greatest Entertainer'. Find out whether Edith Piaf truly had "No Regrets"! Every successful musician has an incredible story to tell. Join Callas, Piaf, Lennon, Jolson, Sinatra and a host of other influential and talented musicians as they share with you their secrets and invite you on an unforgettable journey through their fascinating musical lives. What is a BioView®?A BioView® is a short biographical story, similar to an interview, about an amazing person. These stories offer an inspirational way of learning about people who made major contributions to our world. The unique format and flow enables each person's story to come alive, as if it is being personally told to you, and reflects their interests, emotions and passions.By Alexander Kluge, Donna Stonecipher, Isabel Cole. 2018
Revolving around the opera, these tales are an “archaeological excavation of the slag-heaps of our collective existence” (W. G. Sebald)…
Combining fact and fiction, each of the one hundred and two tales of Alexander Kluge’s Temple of the Scapegoat (dotted with photos of famous operas and their stars) compresses a lifetime of feeling and thought: Kluge is deeply engaged with the opera and an inventive wellspring of narrative notions. The titles of his stories suggest his many turns of mind: “Total Commitment,” “Freedom,” “Reality Outrivals Theater,” “The Correct Slowing-Down at the Transitional Point Between Terror and an Inkling of Freedom,” “A Crucial Character (Among Persons None of Whom Are Who They Think They Are),” and “Deadly Vocal Power vs. Generosity in Opera.” An opera, Kluge says, is a blast furnace of the soul, telling of the great singer Leonard Warren who died onstage, having literally sung his heart out. Kluge introduces a Tibetan scholar who realizes that opera “is about comprehension and passion. The two never go together. Passion overwhelms comprehension. Comprehension kills passion. This appears to be the essence of all operas, says Huang Tse-we.” He also comes to understand that female roles face the harshest fates: “Compared to the mass of soprano victims (out of 86,000 operas, 64,000 end with the death of the soprano), the sacrifice of tenors is small (out of 86,000 operas 1,143 tenors are a write-off).”By Tanya Tagaq. 2018
Longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller PrizeFrom the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world…
with music it had never heard before, a fierce, tender, heartbreaking story unlike anything you've ever read.Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains.Haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once, Tagaq moves effortlessly between fiction and memoir, myth and reality, poetry and prose, and conjures a world and a heroine readers will never forget.