Title search results
Showing 141 - 160 of 2387 items
A New America: How Music Reshaped the Culture and Future of a Nation and Redefined My Life
By Tommy Mottola. 2016
The long-anticipated companion book to the groundbreaking HBO documentary The Latin Explosion by renowned music producer Tommy Mottola. Legendary music…
mogul, entertainment impresario, and New York Times bestselling author Tommy Mottola explores and expounds on his lifelong love of Latin music, its influence on his life and career, and its ever-growing influence in America. Tommy Mottola discovered a passion for Latin music when he was a small child on the streets of the Bronx, where he fell in love with the energy and rhythm of the legendary Tito Puente. It is a love he carries with him to this day. In A New America, Mottola explores the societal and cultural impact the Latino community and its music has had on America by sharing behind-the-scenes stories from his own life and his connection to the Latin sound throughout the decades--from his initial fascination with Latin music, which started with Puente, to the mainstream success of Ritchie Valens, to the groove-laden guitar wizardry of Carlos Santana. Along the way, Mottola reveals heartfelt accounts of his longtime collaboration and friendship with Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, the meteoric rise and tragic end of Selena, and his orchestration of the Latin Explosion of the 1990s, which launched megastars such as Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez. But A New America is more than a story about music and musicians. It is the story of a culture that continues to grow and influence America in all its aspects and an irresistible sound that continues to move and inspire the nation.From the Hardcover edition.Sound Man
By Glyn Johns. 2014
Born just outside London in 1942, Glyn Johns was sixteen years old at the dawn of rock and roll. His…
big break as a producer came on the Steve Miller Band's debut album, Children of the Future, and he went on to engineer or produce iconic albums for the best in the business: Abbey Road with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin's and the Eagles' debuts, Who's Next by the Who, and many others. Even more impressive, Johns was perhaps the only person on a given day in the studio who was entirely sober, and so he is one of the most reliable and clear-eyed insiders to tell these stories today.In this entertaining and observant memoir, Johns takes us on a tour of his world during the heady years of the sixties, with beguiling stories that will delight music fans the world over: he remembers helping to get the Steve Miller Band released from jail shortly after their arrival in London, he recalls his impressions of John and Yoko during the Let It Be sessions, and he recounts running into Bob Dylan at JFK and being asked to work on a collaborative album with him, the Stones, and the Beatles, which never came to pass. Johns was there during some of the most iconic moments in rock history, including the Stones' first European tour, Jimi Hendrix's appearance at Albert Hall in London, and the Beatles' final performance on the roof of their Savile Row recording studio.Johns's career has been long and prolific, and he's still at it--over the last two decades he has worked with Crosby, Stills & Nash; Emmylou Harris; Linda Ronstadt; Band of Horses; and, most recently, Ryan Adams. Sound Man provides a firsthand glimpse into the art of making music and reveals how the industry--like musicians themselves--has changed since those freewheeling first years of rock and roll.Liar
By Rob Roberge. 2016
A darkly funny, intense memoir about mental illness, memory and storytelling, from an acclaimed novelist. When Rob Roberge learns that…
he's likely to have developed a progressive memory-eroding disease from years of hard living and frequent concussions, he is terrified by the prospect of becoming a walking shadow. In a desperate attempt to preserve his identity, he sets out to (somewhat faithfully) record the most formative moments of his life--ranging from the brutal murder of his childhood girlfriend, to a diagnosis of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, to opening for famed indie band Yo La Tengo at The Fillmore in San Francisco. But the process of trying to remember his past only exposes just how fragile the stories that lay at the heart of our self-conception really are. As Liar twists and turns through Roberge's life, it turns the familiar story of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll on its head. Blackly comic and brutally frank, it offers a remarkable portrait of a down and out existence cobbled together across the country, from musicians' crashpads around Boston, to seedy bars popular with sideshow freaks in Florida, to a painful moment of reckoning in the scorched Wonder Valley desert of California. As Roberge struggles to keep addiction and mental illness from destroying the good life he has built in his better moments, he is forced to acknowledge the increasingly blurred line between the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves.From the Hardcover edition.Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron
By Paul Combs. 2012
Dameronia is the first authoritative biography of Tadd Dameron, an important and widely influential figure in jazz history as one…
of the most significant composers and arrangers of jazz, swing, bebop, and big band. He arranged for names like Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Dizzy Gillespie and played with Bull Moose Jackson and Benny Golson. This book sets out to clarify Dameron's place in the development of jazz in the post–World War II era. It also attempts to shed light on the tragedy of his retreat from the center of jazz activity in the 1950s. By tracing Dameron's career, one finds that until 1958, when he was incarcerated for drug related offenses, he was at the forefront of developments in jazz, sometimes anticipating trends that would not develop fully for several years. Dameron was also an important influence on several high-profile musicians, including Miles Davis, Benny Golson, and Frank Foster. Dameron was a very private man, and while in some aspects of his life he will probably remain an enigma, this book manages to give an intimate portrait of his life at a couple of key stages: the height of his career in 1949 and the brief but productive period between his release from prison and his death.Dreaming Out Loud
By Bruce Feiler. 1998
Country music has exploded across the U.S. and undergone a sweeping revolution, transforming the once ridiculed world of Nashville into…
an unlikely focal point of American pop culture. Bruce Feiler was granted unprecedented access to the private moments of the revolution. Here is the acclaimed report: a chronicle of the genre's biggest stars as they change the face of American music.From the historic stage of the Grand Ole Opry to the dim light of a recording studio, here is a ruggedly authentic behind the scenes tour that takes you places outsiders have never been allowed to go. Part social history, part backstage pass, this penetrating and graceful book presents the most comprehensive portraits yet painted of Garth Brooks and Wynonna Judd-two of the most celebrated artists of our times-as well as a touching picture of Wade Hayes, a young man who hopes to follow them to the exalted heights of one of America's richest traditions: the world of country music.The Hardest Working Man
By James Sullivan. 2008
The untold story of the night a divide nation turned to James Brown--and he delivered hope and calm in the…
form of an immortal concert Since James Brown's death in December 2006, the Godfather of Soul has received many stirring tributes. Yet few have addressed his contribution in the darkest hour of the Civil Rights movement. Telling for the first time the story of his historic Boston Garden concert the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, The Hardest Working Man captures the magnificent achievements that made Brown an icon of American popular culture. Sullivan details the charged atmosphere in Boston, Brown's fight against city officials to take the stage, and the electric performance he delivered. Through the prism of this one concert, Sullivan also charts Brown's incredible rise from poverty to self-made millionaire, his enormous influence on popular music, and his complex relationship with the Civil Rights movement, making The Hardest Working Man both a tribute to an unforgettable concert and a rousing biography of a revolutionary musician.Dreaming Out Loud
By Bruce Feiler. 1998
Country music has exploded across the U.S. and undergone a sweeping revolution, transforming the once ridiculed world of Nashville into…
an unlikely focal point of American pop culture. Bruce Feiler was granted unprecedented access to the private moments of the revolution. Here is the acclaimed report: a chronicle of the genre's biggest stars as they change the face of American music. From the historic stage of the Grand Ole Opry to the dim light of a recording studio, here is a ruggedly authentic behind the scenes tour that takes you places outsiders have never been allowed to go. Part social history, part backstage pass, this penetrating and graceful book presents the most comprehensive portraits yet painted of Garth Brooks and Wynonna Judd-two of the most celebrated artists of our times-as well as a touching picture of Wade Hayes, a young man who hopes to follow them to the exalted heights of one of America's richest traditions: the world of country music.The Complete David Bowie
By Nicholas Pegg. 2000
The biggest edition yet - expanded and updated with 35,000 words of new material Critically acclaimed in its previous editions,…
The Complete David Bowie is widely recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie's career. The A-Z of songs and the day-by-day dateline are the most complete ever published. From the 11-year-old's skiffle performance at the 18th Bromley Scouts' Summer Camp in 1958, to the emergence of the legendary lost album Toy in 2011, The Complete David Bowie discusses and dissects every last development in rock's most fascinating career. * The Albums - detailed production history and analysis of every album from 1967 to the present day. * The Songs - hundreds of individual entries reveal the facts and anecdotes behind not just the famous recordings, but also the most obscure of unreleased rarities - from 'Absolute Beginners' to 'Ziggy Stardust', from 'Abdulmajid' to 'Zion'. * The Tours - set-lists and histories of every live show. * The Actor - a complete guide to Bowie's career on stage and screen. * Plus - the videos, the BBC radio sessions, the paintings, the Internet and much more.Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World
By Bill C Malone. 2016
The most atypical of bluegrass artists, Bill Clifton has enjoyed a long career as a recording artist, performer, and champion…
of old-time music. Bill C. Malone pens the story of Clifton's eclectic life and influential career. Born into a prominent Maryland family, Clifton connected with old-time music as a boy. Clifton made records around earning a Master's degree, fifteen years in the British folk scene, and stints in the Peace Corps and Marines. Yet that was just the beginning. Closely allied with the Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Mike Seeger, and others, Clifton altered our very perceptions of the music--organizing one of the first outdoor bluegrass festivals, publishing a book of folk and gospel standards that became a cornerstone of the folk revival, and introducing both traditional and progressive bluegrass around the world. As Malone shows, Clifton clothed the music of working-class people in the vestments of romance, celebrating the log cabin as a refuge from modernism that rang with the timeless music of Appalachia. An entertaining account by an eminent music historian, Bill Clifton clarifies the myths and illuminates the paradoxes of an amazing musical life.Rat Girl
By Kristin Hersh. 2010
The founder of a cult rock band shares her outrageous tale of growing up much faster than planned …
In 1985 Kristin Hersh was just starting to find her place in the world After leaving home at the age of fifteen the precocious child of unconventional hippies had enrolled in college while her band Throwing Muses was getting off the ground amid rumors of a major label deal Then everything changed she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found herself in an emotional tailspin she started medication but then discovered she was pregnant An intensely personal and moving account of that pivotal year Rat Girl is sure to be greeted eagerly by Hersh s many fansEd Sheeran: A+ The Unauthorized Biography
By David Nolan. 2016
Ed Sheeran is the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter with a tiny guitar and huge talent! From Sheeran's bohemian childhood to international stardom,…
read exclusive interviews with friends, relatives, musical collaborators, and key figures in his rise to success. The Grammy-nominated singer has toured with Taylor Swift, has performed with Elton John at the Grammys, and is just getting started! This biography details how Britain's hottest music star made his mark on the music industry playing by his own set of independent rules.David Nolan is an award-winning journalist with biographies on subjects ranging from Simon Cowell to the Sex Pistols.Big Day Coming
By Jesse Jarnow. 2012
The first biography of Yo La Tengo, the massively influential band who all but defined indie music. Yo La Tengo…
has lit up the indie scene for three decades, part of an underground revolution that defied corporate music conglomerates, eschewed pop radio, and found a third way. Going behind the scenes of one of the most remarkable eras in American music history, Big Day Coming traces the patient rise of husband-and-wife team Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, who--over three decades--helped forge a spandex-and-hairspray-free path to the global stage, selling millions of records along the way and influencing countless bands. Using the continuously vital Yo La Tengo as a springboard, Big Day Coming uncovers the history of the legendary clubs, bands, zines, labels, record stores, college radio stations, fans, and pivotal figures that built the infrastructure of the now-prevalent indie rock world. Journalist and freeform radio DJ Jesse Jarnow draws on all-access interviews and archives for mesmerizing trip through contemporary music history told through one of its most creative and singular acts.David Bowie: The Last Interview
By David Bowie. 2016
The massive, world-wide outpouring of grief at the death of David Bowie notably focused on not only his stunning musical…
output, but also his fascinating refusal to stay the same--the same as other trending artists, or even the same as himself. In this remarkable collection, Bowie reveals the fierce intellectualism, artistry, and humor behind it all. From his very first interview--as a teenager on the BBC, before he was even a musician--to his last, Bowie takes on the most probing questions, candidly discussing his sexuality, his drug usage, his sense of fashion, how he composed, and more. For fans still mourning his passing, as well as for those who know little about him, it's a revealing, interesting, and inspiring look at one of the most influential artists of the last fifty years.Stravinsky's Piano
By Graham Griffiths. 2013
Stravinsky's reinvention in the early 1920s, as both neoclassical composer and concert-pianist, is here placed at the centre of a…
fundamental reconsideration of his whole output – viewed from the unprecedented perspective of his relationship with the piano. Graham Griffiths assesses Stravinsky's musical upbringing in St Petersburg with emphasis on his education at the hands of two extraordinary teachers whom he later either ignored or denounced: Leokadiya Kashperova, for piano and Rimsky-Korsakov, for instrumentation. Their message, Griffiths argues, enabled Stravinsky to formulate from that intensely Russian experience an internationalist brand of neoclassicism founded upon the premises of objectivity and craft. Drawing directly on the composer's manuscripts, Griffiths addresses Stravinsky's lifelong fascination with counterpoint and with pianism's constructive processes. Stravinsky's Piano presents both of these as recurring features of the compositional attitudes that Stravinsky consistently applied to his works, whether Russian, neoclassical or serial and regardless of idiom and genre.Somebody To Love?: A Rock n' Roll Memoir
By Grace Slick, Andrea Cagan. 1998
Grace Slick was the original "great rock diva." As the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, which produced classics like "White…
Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love," she was at the forefront of the sixties and seventies counterculture. Now she offers a revealing portrait of the complex woman behind the rock-outlaw image and delivers a behind-the-scenes, no-holds-barred view of rock's grandest stages. Somebody to Love? tells what it was really like during, and after, the summer of love - and how one remarkable woman survived it all to remain today as vibrant and rebellious as ever.The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities
By Wayne Kramer. 2018
The first memoir by Wayne Kramer, legendary guitarist and cofounder of quintessential Detroit proto-punk legends The MC5 In January 1969,…
before the world heard a note of their music, The MC5 was on the cover of Rolling Stone. The missing link between free jazz and punk rock, they were raw, primal, and, when things were clicking, absolutely unstoppable.Led by legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, The MC5 was a reflection of the times: exciting, sexy, violent, chaotic, and out of control, all but assuring their time in the spotlight would be short-lived. They toured the country, played with music legends, and had a rabid following, their music acting as the soundtrack to the blue collar youth movement springing up across the nation. Kramer wanted to redefine what a rock 'n' roll group was capable of, and there was power in reaching for that, but it was also a recipe for disaster, both personally and professionally. The band recorded three major label albums but, by 1972, it was all over.Kramer's story is (literally) a revolutionary one, but it's also the deeply personal struggle of an addict and an artist, a rebel with a great tale to tell. The '60s were not all peace and love, but Kramer shows that peace and love can be born out of turbulence and unrest. From the glory days of Detroit to the junk-sick streets of the East Village, from Key West to Nashville and sunny L.A., in and out of prison and on and off of drugs, his is the classic journeyman narrative, but with a twist: he's here to remind us that revolution is always an option.Born to Run
By Bruce Springsteen. 2016
"Writing about yourself is a funny business...But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show…
the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this." --Bruce Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized. Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star's memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs ("Thunder Road," "Badlands," "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "The River," "Born in the U.S.A.," "The Rising," and "The Ghost of Tom Joad," to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen's autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. A New York Times Bestseller"Kanye West Owes Me $300 might be the funniest rap memoir ever." -LA WeeklyAfter Vanilla Ice, but before Eminem, there…
was "Hot Karl," the Jewish kid from the L.A. suburbs who became a rap battling legend--and then almost became a star. When 12-year old Jensen Karp got his first taste of rapping for crowds at his friend's bar mitzvah in 1991, little did he know that he was taking his first step on a crazy journey--one that would end with a failed million-dollar recording and publishing deal with Interscope Records when he was only 19. Now, in Kanye West Owes Me $300, Karp finally tells the true story of his wild ride as "Hot Karl," the most famous white rapper you've never heard of. On his way to (almost) celebrity, Jensen shares his childhood run-ins with rock-listening, southern California classmates, who tell him that "rap is for black people," and then recounts his record-breaking rap battling streak on popular radio contest "The Roll Call"--a run that caught the eye of a music industry hungry for new rap voices in the early '00s. He also introduces his rap partner, Rickye, who constitutes the second half of their group XTra Large; his supportive mom, who performs with him onstage; and the soon-to-be-household-name artists he records with, including Kanye West, Redman, Fabolous, Mya, and will.i.am. Finally, he reveals why his album never saw the light of day (two words: Slim Shady), the downward spiral he suffered after, and what he found instead of rap glory. Full of rollicking stories from his close brush with fame, Karp's hilarious memoir is the ultimate fish-out-of-water story about a guy who follows an unlikely passion--trying to crack the rap game--despite what everyone else says. It's 30 Rock for the rap set; 8 Mile for the suburbs; and quite the journey for a white kid from the valley.From the Hardcover edition.Jascha Heifetz
By Alexandra Wiktorek, Galina Kopytova, Dario Sarlo. 2014
Notoriously reticent about his early years, violinist Jascha Heifetz famously reduced the story of his childhood to "Born in Russia.…
First lessons at 3. Debut in Russia at 7. Debut in Carnegie Hall at 17. That's all there is to say." Tracing his little-known upbringing, Jascha Heifetz: Early Years in Russia uncovers the events and experiences that shaped one of the modern era's most unique talents and enigmatic personalities. Using previously unstudied archival materials and interviews with family and friends, this biography explores Heifetz's meteoric rise in the Russian music world--from his first violin lessons with his father, to his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with the well-known pedagogue Leopold Auer, to his tours throughout Russia and Europe. Spotlighting Auer's close-knit circle of musicians, Galina Kopytova underscores the lives of artists in Russia's "Silver Age"--an explosion of artistic activity amid the rapid social and political changes of the early 20th century.Dylan: A Biography
By Bob Spitz. 1989