Download Free Late Life Jazz Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Late Life Jazz and write the review.

When people hear the name "Clooney," they automatically think of George Clooney, one of Hollywood's biggest stars. But it was his aunt Rosemary who first catapulted the name into bright lights with a string of hit songs in the 1950s and a starring role alongside Bing Crosby in the immortal "White Christmas." Drawing on interviews with family members, managers, promoters, and the jazz musicians who worked with her, as well as contemporary newspaper articles and reviews, Late Life Jazz tells the unsung story of one of America's finest singers, Rosemary Clooney. Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane trace Rosemary's life from her hardscrabble beginnings in Maysville Kentucky, through her first performances singing with the Barney Rapp Band in Cincinnati, through her rise to pop stardom in the early 1950s when she topped the Hit Parade with songs such as "Come On-a My House," "Tenderly," and "Half As Much." By the time the 1960s arrived, however, personal turmoil, fueled by depression and an addiction to prescription medication, almost destroyed Clooney's career-and her life. She underwent years of therapy and recuperation before she was able to perform again in the early 1970s. Few expected her to be anything more than a baroness of nostalgia, but Rosemary had other ideas. Rejuvenated by a series of concerts alongside her friend and mentor, Bing Crosby, she found a new medium in the midst of America's finest jazz musicians, building a second career and with it a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Vividly written and painstakingly researched, Late Life Jazz explores the rise, fall, and final triumph of Clooney the First, Aunt Rosemary, jazz singer par excellence.
When people hear the name "Clooney," they automatically think of George Clooney, one of Hollywood's biggest stars. But it was his aunt Rosemary who first catapulted the name into bright lights with a string of hit songs in the 1950s and a starring role alongside Bing Crosby in the immortal "White Christmas." Drawing on interviews with family members, managers, promoters, and the jazz musicians who worked with her, as well as contemporary newspaper articles and reviews, Late Life Jazz tells the unsung story of one of America's finest singers, Rosemary Clooney. Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane trace Rosemary's life from her hardscrabble beginnings in Maysville Kentucky, through her first performances singing with the Barney Rapp Band in Cincinnati, through her rise to pop stardom in the early 1950s when she topped the Hit Parade with songs such as "Come On-a My House," "Tenderly," and "Half As Much." By the time the 1960s arrived, however, personal turmoil, fueled by depression and an addiction to prescription medication, almost destroyed Clooney's career-and her life. She underwent years of therapy and recuperation before she was able to perform again in the early 1970s. Few expected her to be anything more than a baroness of nostalgia, but Rosemary had other ideas. Rejuvenated by a series of concerts alongside her friend and mentor, Bing Crosby, she found a new medium in the midst of America's finest jazz musicians, building a second career and with it a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Vividly written and painstakingly researched, Late Life Jazz explores the rise, fall, and final triumph of Clooney the First, Aunt Rosemary, jazz singer par excellence.
A foreword by Chubby Jackson, a discography, and an index round out this captivating volume."--BOOK JACKET.
Duke Ellington, one of the most influential figures in American music, comes alive in this comprehensive biography with engaging activities. Ellington was an accomplished and influential jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and cultural diplomat. Activities include creating a ragtime rhythm, making a washtub bass, writing song lyrics, thinking like an arranger, and learning to dance the Lindy Hop. It explores Ellington's life and career along with many topics related to African American history, including the Harlem Renaissance. Kids will learn about the musical evolution of jazz that coincided with Ellington's long life from ragtime through the big band era on up to the 1970s. Kids learn how music technology has changed over the years from piano rolls to record albums through CDs, television, and portable music devices. The extensive resources include a time line, glossary, list of Ellington's greatest recordings, related books, Web sites, and DVDs for further study.
Art Pepper was described as the greatest alto-saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. Straight Life, originally narrated on tape to his wife Laurie, is an explosive work chronicling his work amidst a life dealing with alcoholism, heroin addiction, armed robberies and imprisonment. The result is an autobiography like no other, a masterpiece of the spoken word, shaped into a genuine work of literature.
A picture book biography that will inspire readers to dance to their own beats! Singer, dancer, actress, and independent dame, Josephine Baker felt life was a performance. She lived by her own rules and helped to shake up the status quo with wild costumes and a you-can’t-tell-me-no attitude that made her famous. She even had a pet leopard in Paris! From bestselling children’s biographer Jonah Winter and two-time Caldecott Honoree Marjorie Priceman comes a story of a woman the stage could barely contain. Rising from a poor, segregated upbringing, Josephine Baker was able to break through racial barriers with her own sense of flair and astonishing dance abilities. She was a pillar of steel with a heart of gold—all wrapped up in feathers, sequins, and an infectious rhythm.
First time in paperback and e-book! The jazz musician-composer-arranger Mary Lou Williams spent her sixty-year career working in—and stretching beyond—a dizzying range of musical styles. Her integration of classical music into her works helped expand jazz's compositional language. Her generosity made her a valued friend and mentor to the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Her late-in-life flowering of faith saw her embrace a spiritual jazz oriented toward advancing the civil rights struggle and helping wounded souls. Tammy L. Kernodle details Williams's life in music against the backdrop of controversies over women's place in jazz and bitter arguments over the music's evolution. Williams repeatedly asserted her artistic and personal independence to carve out a place despite widespread bafflement that a woman exhibited such genius. Embracing Williams's contradictions and complexities, Kernodle also explores a personal life troubled by lukewarm professional acceptance, loneliness, relentless poverty, bad business deals, and difficult marriages. In-depth and epic in scope, Soul on Soul restores a pioneering African American woman to her rightful place in jazz history.
A thrilling collection of photographs that reveal the people, places, and events of Jazz's Golden Age the period from the late 1930s through the 1940s during which the music underwent enormous growth and transformation. Two hundred b&w photographs are included, accompanied by Gottlieb's recollection
(Low)life is a gripping memoir from Charles Farrell, a world-class jazz musician and onetime fight fixer and gangster. A world-class jazz pianist, Charles Farrell made his living working Mob clubs from the time he was a teenager in the 1960s. He later moved from music to the complex world of professional boxing, managing dozens of fighters, including the former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks and the former gang leader Mitch "Blood" Green, who famously went toe-to-toe with Mike Tyson--once in the ring and once in the street. A fight-fixer and gangster, Farrell ran afoul of New York mobsters in the 1990s, and fled to a farm in Puerto Rico, coming home only after an aging boxing legend brokered his safe return. Retired from the fight game, he returned to jazz and, among other collaborators, played frequently with his friend, Ornette Coleman, the godfather of "Free Jazz" and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. (Low)life is a singular book by a singular man.
Although he died in a tragic car accident at twenty-five, Clifford Brown is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz, a trumpet player who ranks with Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, and a leading influence on contemporary jazz musicians. Now, in Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, Nick Catalano gives us the first major biography of this musical giant. Based on extensive interviews with Clifford Brown's family, friends, and fellow jazz musicians, here is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable musician. Catalano depicts Brown's early life, showing how he developed a facility and dazzling technique that few jazz players have ever equaled. We read of his meteoric rise in Philadelphia, where he played with many of the leading jazz players of the 1950s, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker; his tour of Europe with Lionel Hampton, which made him famous; and his formation of the Brown-Roach Quintet with prominent drummer Max Roach--one of the most popular hard bop combos of the day. Catalano also shows that Brown was a remarkable individual--he grew up in a middle-class African-American home in Wilmington, Delaware, attended college, was a skilled mathematician, and had wide cultural interests. Moreover, in an era when most jazz players were either alcoholics or addicts, Brown was clean-living and drug free. Indeed, he became a role model for musicians who were struggling with drugs and had great influence in this area with one prominent colleague, tenor sax player Sonny Rollins. Clifford Brown not only provides a colorful account of Brown's life, but also features an informed analysis of his major recorded solos, highlighting Brown's originality and revealing why he remains a great influence on trumpet players today. It is a book that anyone with a serious interest in jazz will want to own.