Music Styles category: 7119 books
Debussy
A Painter in Sound
Language: English
Release Date: October 23, 2018
A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of modern composers--which also deeply investigates his much-loved music.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was that rare creature, a composer who reinvented the language of music without alienating the majority of...
The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of Music
The Legendary Lonnie Johnson, Music, and Civil Rights
Language: English
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Lonnie Johnson (18941970) was a virtuoso guitarist who influenced generations of musicians from Django Reinhardt to Eric Clapton to Bill Wyman and especially B. B. King. Born in New Orleans, he began playing violin and guitar in his father’s band at an early age. When most of his family was wiped out...
Lauryn Hill
She's Got That Thing
Language: English
Release Date: April 15, 1999
Lauryn Hill: She's Got That Thing is an engaging look at the life of the musician who was originally raised in South Orange, N.J. Author Chris Nickson shares with fans how Hill created the Fugees with Prakazrel Michel and Wyclef Jean and developed a unique blend of styles, and then how Hill continued find new ground as a solo artist.
Beethoven for a Later Age
Living with the String Quartets
Language: English
Release Date: May 6, 2016
Beethoven’s sixteen string quartets are some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces of music ever written. Originally composed and performed between 1798 and 1826, they have inspired artists of all kinds—not only musicians—and have been subject to endless reinterpretation. But what...
Greenback Dollar
The Incredible Rise of The Kingston Trio
Language: English
Release Date: December 13, 2012
How big an act was the Kingston Trio? Big enough that the their first 19 albums not only reached Billboard's Top 100, but 14 of them entered the top 10, with five albums alone hitting the no. 1 spot! At the height of their popularity, the Kingston Trio was arguably the most popular vocal group in...
Delbert McClinton
One of the Fortunate Few
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Influenced at a young age by classic country, Tejano, western swing, and the popular music of wartime America, blues musician Delbert McClinton grew up with a backstage pass to some of the most significant moments in American cultural and music history. From his birth on the high plains of West Texas...
by Daryl Easlea
Language: English
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: September 17, 2013
He became famous with Genesis but simply to call Peter Gabriel a pop star would be to sell him very short indeed. A quintessential Englishman, he has since pursued several overlapping careers, bringing to each of them his trademark preoccupation with quality control and restless curiosity.
In...
Forces in Motion
Anthony Braxton and the Meta-reality of Creative Music: Interviews and Tour Notes, England 1985
Language: English
Release Date: July 18, 2018
"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...
by Graeme Thomson
Language: English
Release Date: February 9, 2015
Language: English
Release Date: February 9, 2015
Under the Ivy examines Bush’s unconventional upbringing in South London, the blossoming of her talent, and her evolution into one of the most visually and sonically creative artists of the past four decades.
Graeme masterfully weaves over 70 new interviews with those close to both the public...
by J.W.N. Sullivan
Language: English
Release Date: July 24, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: July 24, 2013
From the Author's Preface:
"I believe that in his greatest music Beethoven was primarily concerned to express his personal vision of life. This vision was, of course, the product of his character and his experience. Beethoven the man and Beethoven the composer are not two unconnected entities,...
Instrumental
A Memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music
Language: English
Release Date: February 7, 2017
"A mesmeric combination of vivid, keen, obsessive precision and raw, urgent energy.†? --Zoe Williams, Guardian
"Thrilling and harrowing . . . Unsurpassed and unsurpassable.†? --Sunday Times
James Rhodes's passion for music has been his lifeline--the thread that has held...
Clawing at the Limits of Cool
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever
Language: English
Release Date: October 22, 2013
When the renowned trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis chose the members of his quintet in 1955, he passed over well-known, respected saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins to pick out the young, still untested John Coltrane. What might have seemed like a minor decision at the time would instead set the...
Fever: Little Willie John
A Fast Life, Mysterious Death, and the Birth of Soul
Language: English
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Little Willie John lived for a fleeting 30 years, but his dynamic and daring sound left an indelible mark on the history of music. His deep blues, rollicking rock ‘n’ roll and swinging ballads inspired a generation of musicians, forming the basis for what we now know as soul music.
Born in...
The Nashville Sound
Bright Lights and Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: April 15, 2015
While on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, journalist and novelist Paul Hemphill wrote of that pivotal moment in the late sixties when traditional defenders of the hillbilly roots of country music were confronted by the new influences and business realities of pop music. The demimonde of the traditional...