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Folkways Records: Moses Asch and His Encyclopedia of Sound
by Tony OlmstedIn 1949, immigrant recording engineer Moses Asch embarked on a lifelong project: documenting the world of sound produced by mankind, via a small record label called Folkways Records. By the time of his death in 1986, he had amassed an archive of over 2,200 LPs and thousands of hours of tapes; so valuable was this collection that it was purchased by the Smithsonian Institute. Folkways Records is an account of how he built this business, working against all odds, to create a landmark in the history of American music.
Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing, and Rhythm and Blues
by Christopher Brooks Joe EvansDetailing the fascinating career of Joe Evans, Follow Your Heart chronicles the nearly thirty years that he spent immersed in one of the most exciting times in African American music history. An alto saxophonist who between 1939 and 1965 performed with some of America's greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, Billie Holiday, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lionel Hampton, and Ivory Joe Hunter, Evans warmly recounts his wide range of experience in the music industry. Readers follow Evans from Pensacola, Florida, where he first learned to play, to such exotic destinations as Tel Aviv and Paris, which he visited while on tour with Lionel Hampton. Evans also comments on popular New York City venues used for shaping and producing black music, such as the Apollo Theater, the Savoy, Minton's Playhouse, and the Rhythm Club. Revealing Evans as a master storyteller, Follow Your Heart describes his stints as a music executive, entrepreneur, and musician. Evans provides rich descriptions of jazz, swing, and rhythm and blues culture by highlighting his experiences promoting tracks to radio deejays under Ray Charles's Tangerine label and later writing, arranging, and producing hits for the Manhattans and the Pretenders. Leading numerous musical ventures that included a publishing company and several labels--Cee Jay Records (with Jack Rags), Revival, and Carnival Records--Evans remained active in the music industry even after he stopped performing regularly. As one of the few who enjoyed success as both performer and entrepreneur, he offers invaluable insight into race relations within the industry, the development of African American music and society from the 1920s to 1970s, and the music scene of the era.
Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee (American Made Music Series)
by John M. ShawFollowing the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee is an epic history of a little-known African American instrumental music form. John M. Shaw follows the music from its roots in West Africa and early American militia drumming to its prominence in African American communities during the time of Reconstruction, both as a rallying tool for political militancy and a community music for funerals, picnics, parades, and dances. Carefully documenting the music's early uses for commercial advertising and sports promotion, Shaw follows the strands of the music through the nadir of African American history during post-Reconstruction up to the form's rediscovery by musicologists and music researchers during the blues and folk revival of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although these researchers documented the music, and there were a handful of public performances of the music at festivals, the story has a sad conclusion. Fife and drum music ultimately died out in Tennessee during the early 1980s.Newspaper articles from the period and interviews with music researchers and participants reawaken this lost expression, and specific band leaders receive the spotlight they so long deserved. Following the Drums is a journey through African American history and Tennessee history, with a fascinating form of music powering the story.
Following the Elephant: Ethnomusicologists Contemplate Their Discipline
by Bruno NettlIn Following the Elephant, Bruno Nettl edits articles drawn from fifty years of the pioneering journal Ethnomusicology. The roster of acclaimed scholars hail from across generations, using other works in the collection as launching points for dialogues on the history and accomplishments of the field. Nettl divides the collection into three sections. In the first, authors survey ethnomusicology from perspectives that include thoughts on defining and conceptualizing the field and its concepts. The second section offers milestones in the literature that critique major works. The authors look at what separates ethnomusicology from other forms of music research and discuss foundational issues. The final section presents scholars considering ethnomusicology--including recent trends--from the perspective of specific, but abiding, strands of thought. Contributors: Charlotte J. Frisbie, Mieczylaw Kolinski, Gerhard Kubik, George List, Alan P. Merriam, Bruno Nettl, David Pruett, Adelaida Reyes, Timothy Rice, Jesse D. Ruskin, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Gabriel Solis, Jeff Todd Titon, J. Lawrence Witzleben, and Deborah Wong
Foo Fighters
by Mick WallEveryone from Sir Paul McCartney and Jimmy Page to Queens of the Stone Age now relishes the chance to share a stage with Dave Grohl and his legendary Foo Fighters. The question is: why? Musical depth? Not really. Major success? Well, yes. Despite no longer shifting albums in the same quantity as they did twenty years ago, this band can still fill stadiums the world over (when Dave's not breaking his leg, of course).Long before Kurt Cobain blew his brains out in 1994, Dave Grohl was planning for a life after Nirvana. The unflinching bright sunlight to Cobain's permanent midnight darkness, Grohl had come from a similar broken home to his erstwhile band leader, but came out of the experience differently - brimming with positivity and a shrewd grasp of opportunities in the music industry.Did Grohl merely take the sonic blueprint of Nirvana and embellish it with a more life-affirming pop sheen? Of course he did. Every band in America that sold over a million records in the post-grunge 90s did the same. The difference was that Grohl had real credibility. And he knew it.With exclusive testimony from true insiders (including Krist Novoselic, Grohl's bass-playing partner in Nirvana, ex-girlfirends, record company executives, tour photographers and confidantes), this book is an exploration of the real story behind Grohl and the Foo Fighters - the only serious literary biography of the group and its leader, one of the most famous and critically bulletproof rock figures of the 21st century.
Foo Fighters: Learning to Fly
by Mick WallThere’s a reason why Dave Grohl is known, however naively, as “the nicest man in rock.” A reason why millions have bought his Foo Fighters albums and DVDs, his concert and festival tickets. A reason why generations have bought into his story, his dream, his self-fulfilling prophecies. Dave may not have the savant glamour of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, but whereas Kurt dwelled in darkness, Dave was a lover, not a loner, a bringer of light.Foo Fighters: Learning to Fly is his story, and therefore the true story of the Foo Fighters—like it’s never been told before. From Grohl’s days as the new kid in Nirvana, to becoming the Grunge Ringo of the Foo Fighters, to where he is now: one of the biggest, most popular male rock stars in the world. Internationally acclaimed rock writer Mick Wall tells us how and why none of this happened by accident in a style that pulses with rock’s own rhythms.With testimony from true insiders, including former band mates, like Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic, producers, record company executives, and those closest to Grohl and the Foos, this is the first full, explosive, no-holds-barred biography of the band and their otherwise critically bulletproof leader.
Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies
by Josh Frank Caryn GanzIt's the 1980s and the rock landscape is littered with massive hair, synthesizers, and monster riffs, but there is an alternative being born in the sleepy East of America-we just don't know it yet.Before the Internet, MTV, and iPods provided far-off music fans with information and communities-and before Nirvana-kids across the world grew up in relative isolation, dependent on mix tapes and self-created art to slowly spread scenes and trends. It was under these conditions that four young musicians found one another in Boston, Massachusetts, and started a band called Pixies.During their initial seven-year career, Pixies would play some of Europe's most gigantic festivals, keep the press guessing, and cultivate a fervid international fan base hungry for more and more of their unique surf punk. The band worked fast, cranking out four albums at a breakneck pace, but ultimately pressures and personality clashes took their toll: Pixies broke up just as bands were singing their praises as the rock'n'roll innovators. For twelve years, a Pixies reunion seemed impossible, but a sudden announcement in 2004 proclaimed the unthinkable-Pixies were getting back together. Their extremely successful reunion tour finally gave the group something they'd always lacked in their homeland: proof that their bone-rattling music had left an indelible impact. Fool the World tells Pixies' story in the words of those who lived it, from the band members to studio owners, from A&R executives, producers, and visual artists who worked with them to admirers of their music, such as Bono, PJ Harvey, Beck, and Perry Farrell. With new cartoons by Trompe Le Monde illustrator Steven Appleby, Fool the World is a complete journey through the life, death, and rebirth of one of the most influential bands of all time.
Footprints
by Michelle MercerSaxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter has not only left his footprints on our musical terrain, he has created a body of work that is a monument to artistic imagination. Throughout Shorter's extraordinary fifty-year career, his compositions have helped define the sounds of each distinct era in the history of jazz. Filled with musical analysis by Mercer, enlivened by Shorter's vivid recollections, and enriched by more than seventy-five original interviews with his friends and associates, this book is at once an invaluable history of music from bebop to pop, an intimate and moving biography, and a story of a man's struggle toward the full realization of his gifts and of himself. .
Footsteps in the Dark: The Hidden Histories of Popular Music
by George LipsitzMost pop songs are short-lived. They appear suddenly and, if they catch on, seem to be everywhere at once before disappearing again into obscurity. Yet some songs resonate more deeply—often in ways that reflect broader historical and cultural changes. <p><p> In Footsteps in the Dark, George Lipsitz illuminates these secret meanings, offering imaginative interpretations of a wide range of popular music genres from jazz to salsa to rock. Sweeping changes that only remotely register in official narratives, Lipsitz argues, can appear in vivid relief within popular music, especially when these changes occur outside mainstream white culture. Using a wealth of revealing examples, he discusses such topics as the emergence of an African American techno music subculture in Detroit as a contradictory case of digital capitalism and the prominence of banda, merengue, and salsa music in the 1990s as an expression of changing Mexican, Dominican, and Puerto Rican nationalisms. Approaching race and popular music from another direction, he analyzes the Ken Burns PBS series Jazz as a largely uncritical celebration of American nationalism that obscures the civil rights era’s challenge to racial inequality, and he takes on the infamous campaigns to censor hip-hop and the radical black voice in the early 1990s. <p><p> Teeming with astute observations and brilliant insights about race and racism, deindustrialization, and urban renewal and their connections to music, Footsteps in the Dark puts forth an alternate history of post–cold war America and shows why in an era given to easy answers and clichéd versions of history, pop songs matter more than ever. <p><p> George Lipsitz is professor of black studies and sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Among his many books are Life in the Struggle, Dangerous Crossroads, and American Studies in a Moment of Danger (Minnesota, 2001).
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy
by Kimberly Brubaker BradleyA teenager transforms from a schoolgirl to a spy in this true story of heroism in wartime. Suzanne David's everyday life is suddenly shattered in 1940 when a bomb drops on the main square of her hometown, the city of Cherbourg, France, killing a pregnant neighbor right in front of her. Until then the war had seemed far away, not something that would touch her or her teenage friends. Now Suzanne's family is kicked out onto the street as German soldiers take over their house as a barracks. Suzanne clings to the one thing she really loves--singing. Her voice is so amazing that she is training to become an opera singer. As Suzanne travels around for rehearsals, costume fittings, or lessons, she learns more about what the Nazis are doing and about the people who are "disappearing." Her travels are noticed by someone else, an organizer of the French Resistance. Soon Suzanne is a secret courier, a spy fighting for France and risking her own life for freedom.
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
by Christopher Emdin<P>Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, a prominent scholar offers a new approach to teaching and learning for every stakeholder in urban education. <P>Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools. <P>He begins by taking to task the perception of urban youth of color as unteachable, and he challenges educators to embrace and respect each student's culture and to reimagine the classroom as a site where roles are reversed and students become the experts in their own learning. <P>Putting forth his theory of Reality Pedagogy, Emdin provides practical tools to unleash the brilliance and eagerness of youth and educators alike--both of whom have been typecast and stymied by outdated modes of thinking about urban education. <P>With this fresh and engaging new pedagogical vision, Emdin demonstrates the importance of creating a family structure and building communities within the classroom, using culturally relevant strategies like hip-hop music and call-and-response, and connecting the experiences of urban youth to indigenous populations globally. <P>Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, Emdin demonstrates how by implementing the "Seven C's" of reality pedagogy in their own classrooms, urban youth of color benefit from truly transformative education. <P>Lively, accessible, and revelatory, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood. . . and the Rest of Y'all Too is the much-needed antidote to traditional top-down pedagogy and promises to radically reframe the landscape of urban education for the better.
For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice (Music and Social Justice)
by Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey Adolphus BelkFor the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice documents and analyzes the ways in which Hip-Hop music, artists, scholars, and activists have discussed, promoted, and supported social justice challenges worldwide. Drawing from diverse approaches and methods, the contributors in this volume demonstrate that rap music can positively influence political behavior and fight to change social injustices, and then zoom in on artists whose work has accomplished these ends. The volume explores topics including education and pedagogy; the Black Lives Matter movement; the politics of crime, punishment, and mass incarceration; electoral politics; gender and sexuality; and the global struggle for social justice. Ultimately, the book argues that Hip-Hop is much more than a musical genre or cultural form: Hip-Hop is a resistance mechanism.
For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice (Music and Social Justice)
by Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey Adolphus BelkFor the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice documents and analyzes the ways in which Hip-Hop music, artists, scholars, and activists have discussed, promoted, and supported social justice challenges worldwide. Drawing from diverse approaches and methods, the contributors in this volume demonstrate that rap music can positively influence political behavior and fight to change social injustices, and then zoom in on artists whose work has accomplished these ends. The volume explores topics including education and pedagogy; the Black Lives Matter movement; the politics of crime, punishment, and mass incarceration; electoral politics; gender and sexuality; and the global struggle for social justice. Ultimately, the book argues that hip hop is much more than a musical genre or cultural form: hip hop is a resistance mechanism.
For the Love of Classical Music (A Vintage Short)
by Alec Baldwin John MauceriA Vintage Shorts Original Selection In an illuminating and probing conversation with renowned actor, producer, comedian and philanthropist Alec Baldwin, John Mauceri reflects on the enduring appeal of classical music, how he learned to lead an orchestra, his upbringing and how he became the acclaimed conductor and musical director he is today. Covering such varied topics like the personal and cultural significance of different composers&’ pieces and the singular experience of hearing music performed live, this intimate and inviting dialogue opens a window onto the extraordinary mind of a masterful conductor and an illustrious devotee of life on the stage. An ebook short.
For the Love of Classical Music: A Companion
by Caroline HighHave you ever wondered…how the orchestra got its name?who wrote the longest-ever symphony?just how do we know when to clap – and when not to?From Bach to Beethoven, Vivaldi to Vaughan Williams, the world of classical music has something to enchant every listener. Whether you’re an armchair connoisseur, a regular concert-goer or an ardent musician, For the Love of Classical Music will take you on a tour encompassing landmark pieces and performances, key artists and composers, and surprising facts about the world’s most beautiful music.
For the Love of Music: A Conductor's Guide to the Art of Listening
by John MauceriWith a lifetime of experience, profound knowledge and understanding, and heartwarming appreciation, an internationally celebrated conductor and teacher answers the questions: Why should I listen to classical music? How can I get the most from the listening experience?A protégé of Leonard Bernstein--his colleague for eighteen years--and an eminent conductor who has toured and recorded all over the world, John Mauceri helps us to reap the joys and pleasures classical music has to offer. Briefly, we learn the way a musical tradition born in ancient Greece, embraced by the Roman Empire, and subsequently nurtured by influences from across the globe, gave shape to the classical music that came to be embraced by cultures from Japan to Bolivia. Then Mauceri examines the music itself, helping us understand what it is we hear when we listen to classical music: how, by a kind of sonic metaphor, it expresses the deepest recesses of human feeling and emotion; how each piece bears the traces of its history; how the concert experience--a unique one each and every time--allows us to discover music anew. Unpretentious, graceful, instructive, this is a book for the aficionado, the novice, and anyone looking to have the love of music fired within them.
For the Love of Music: A Conductor's Guide to the Art of Listening
by John MauceriWith a lifetime of experience, profound knowledge and understanding, and heartwarming appreciation, an internationally celebrated conductor and teacher answers the questions: Why should I listen to classical music? How can I get the most from the listening experience?A protegee of Leonard Bernstein - his colleague for eighteen years - and an eminent conductor who has toured and recorded all over the world, John Mauceri helps us to reap the joy and pleasures classical music has to offer. Briefly, we learn the way a musical tradition born in ancient Greece, embraced by Roman Empire, and subsequently nurtured by influences from across the globe gave shape to the classical music that came to be embraced by cultures from Japan to Bolivia. Then Mauceri examines the music itself, helping us understand what it is we hear when we listen to classical music: how, by a kind of sonic metaphor, it expresses the deepest recesses of human feeling and emotion; how each piece bears the traces of its history; how the concert experience - a unique one each and every time - allows us to discover music anew. Unpretentious, graceful, instructive, this is a book for the aficionado, the novice, and anyone looking to have the love of music fired within them.
For the Music: The Vince Gill Story
by Jo SgammatoTO LOVE MUSIC IS TO LOVE VINCE GILLHis pure tenor voice, amazing guitar playing, and superb songwriting skills have earned Vince Gill eleven Grammies and seventeen Country Music Association Awards--making him the biggest CMA winner of all time. But it's the man behind the music who inspires so much love and devotion from his fans and his peers. Humble, wholesome, funny, and kind, Vince Gill is a superstar with heart--and his numerous volunteer activities raise millions of dollars for charity every year.From his childhood as the son of a banjo-playing judge in Oklahoma to his roots in Kentucky bluegrass music . . . from his years in Los Angeles as the lead singer for the acclaimed group Pure Prairie League to his first forays into Nashville . . . from his mastery of bluegrass, rock, pop, and country to his acclaim as the host of the annual Country Music Association Awards national telecast . . . here is the heartwarming story of an inspiring man who gives his all for the future, for the fans, and . . . FOR THE MUSICVince Gill has won eleven Grammy Awards and seventeen Country Music Association Awards and has sold more than fifteen million albums worldwide.
For the Record
by Charlotte Huang"Welcome to your new obsession," says Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, about this raw, honest YA debut celebrating music, friendship, romance, and life on the road.Chelsea thought she knew what being a rock star was like . . . until she became one. After losing a TV talent show, she slid back into small-town anonymity. But one phone call changed everything Now she's the lead singer of the band Melbourne, performing in sold-out clubs every night and living on a bus with three gorgeous and talented guys. The bummer is that the band barely tolerates her. And when teen hearthrob Lucas Rivers take an interest in her, Chelsea is suddenly famous, bringing Melbourne to the next level--not that they're happy about that. Her feelings for Beckett, Melbourne's bassist, are making life even more complicated. Chelsea only has the summer tour to make the band--and their fans--love her. If she doesn't, she'll be back in Michigan for senior year, dying a slow death. The paparazzi, the haters, the grueling schedule . . . Chelsea believed she could handle it. But what if she can't? ***"Going on tour with Chelsea and the Melbourne guys made me feel like I was on the best summer break of my life. Once you start reading For the Record, you won't want to stop!" --Leila Sales, author of This Song Will Save Your Life"A fresh look at teenage stardom and the music industry that avoids gimmicks and clichéd plotlines in favor of realistic characters and a heartfelt love of the subject. I adored hanging out with Chelsea and the boys of Melbourne--when they felt the music, I felt it, and when they were off their game, so was I. Fun, fast, and colorful, this book isn't just for music lovers, it's for anyone who ever looked at a band onstage and thought, 'I wonder what that would be like.'" --Francesca Zappia, author of Made You Up"A pitch-perfect and utterly addictive debut. Pure escapist fun!" --Michelle Krys, author of Hexed "Charlotte Huang is an author to watch! This fast-paced and funny debut had me hooked from page one. Like your new favorite song, this is a story that stays with you!"--Morgan Matson, author of Since You've Been Gone"Whip-smart, romantic, and so perfectly cool. I can't get enough of this girl, this band, these friendships, and this showstopper of a book. Welcome to your new obsession." --Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens AgendaFrom the Hardcover edition.
For the Record (Camp Rock #2)
by Lucy RugglesWhen a record executive arrives at Camp Rock, Tess is determined to outshine everyone and land the recording deal of a lifetime. The only problem? The record executive isn't at camp for the singing, he´s there for the food! Now Tess will have to get help from the unlikeliest of people--Mitchie.
For the Records: How African American Consumers and Music Retailers Created Commercial Public Space in the 1960s and 1970s South
by Joshua Clark DavisRecord selling certainly had its glamorous moments; retailers could regale younger customers with stories of nightlife and even rubbing elbows with famous musicians and celebrities."African-American owned and operated record stores once provided vibrant venues for their communities, and close to 1000 of these shops operated in the South during their heyday.This article appears in the 2011 Music issue of Southern Cultures.Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.
For the Right Reasons: America's Favorite Bachelor on Faith, Love, Marriage, and Why Nice Guys Finish First
by Nancy French Sean LoweThe &“virgin Bachelor&” Sean Lowe reveals the challenges of finding love while championing his Christian convictions in the morally complex world of reality TV.After The Bachelorette broke his heart, Sean Lowe suspected his &“nice guy&” image hurt him. The show never emphasized it, but Sean committed to living according to biblical standards of sexuality, even as producers emphasized the risqué and promiscuous. A Texas boy from a Baptist home, Sean tells the story of how he went from a Division I college football player to a fan favorite on reality television, taking readers behind the scenes of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette to see the challenges of living out his values and faith—and ultimately winning his true love&’s heart.For the Right Reasons is about the journeys we all have to take in the real world, where being &“good&” is the right thing to do but sometimes doesn&’t seem to be enough; where betrayal is commonplace; and where that thing called perfection is actually just a cruel myth. Sean learned a few things from his two seasons on the hottest romance shows on television, and he wants others to benefit from those lessons: good does eventually win, lies will be discovered, and &“nice guys&” do ultimately finish first.
For the Sender: Love Letters From Vietnam
by Alex WoodardDear Sergeant Fuller,You won't know me for another two years,but I am your daughter....So begins a letter sent decades into the past, from a daughter searching for answers to a soldier serving in war-torn Vietnam, in this true story of service and sacrifice, love and redemption, and the power of forgiveness.A box with Love Letters from Vietnam etched on the lid waits buried in a closet, holding scrawled thoughts written on Air Force stationery from a passionate yet deeply flawed soldier stationed outside Da Nang to his young wife in east Texas. Years pass before a fateful, deadly winter night leads the soldier's daughter, Jennifer, to open the box, read the letters, and answer her father back in time. She tucks her letters into a package with no address, because she no longer knows where to send them.Until she is sitting in a theater in Austin, Texas, at a performance by singer-songwriter Alex Woodard and hears him talk about writing songs inspired by letters. Her remarkable correspondence with her father takes Woodard on his first steps into the dichotomy between dark and light, as he imagines himself as Sergeant Fuller in Vietnam and begins to write songs sung from Fuller's heart.Woodard's quest to learn more about the man and the war he fights both in Vietnam and back at home evolves into an extraordinary journey, propelled by an album included with the book that features Woodard as Sergeant Fuller and his friend Molly Jenson as Jennifer. Their voices carry the songs inspired by these beautiful, raw, revealing love letters not only sent from Vietnam, but as the story unfolds, beyond.
Forbidden Music
by Mr Michael HaasWith National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This groundbreaking book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germanyâ TMs historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation.Michael Haas looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge, such as Britain and the United States and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment.
Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-reality of Creative Music: Interviews and Tour Notes, England 1985
by Graham Lock Nick White"Absolutely essential reading." — The Wire One of modern music's towering figures, composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton has redefined critical concepts of jazz and the wider world of creative music. The Chicago native's works range from an early piece for 100 tubas to proposed compositions for orchestras on different planets. A modern classic, Forces in Motion follows Braxton's lauded quartet on a 1985 tour of England, noting his opinions of his musical predecessors — including Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Karlheinz Stockhausen — as well as his thoughts on racism and poverty. For this new 30th anniversary edition, Graham Lock provides a new chapter, detailing later encounters with Braxton and the quartet; Anthony Braxton has penned a new Afterword as well. In addition to inside views of the mind of a musical visionary, this book offers an entertaining chronicle of a touring band. Braxton's subjects run the gamut from chess and hamburgers to astrology, feminism, and ancient Egypt. Above all, it offers a captivating view of the frustrations and rewards that result from an artist's dedication of his life to creative music. "This book should be required reading for anyone interested in my music," Anthony Braxton has observed. "Graham Lock writes from the perceptual plane of insight and dedication — coupled with a keen wit and a dynamic intellect. This is serious writing and thinking. I could not have been more fortunate."