A book of treasure, a book of discovery, a book to open your ears to new worlds of pleasure. Doing for music what Patricia Schultz—author of the phenomenal one,zero Places to See Before You Die —does for travel, Tom Moon recommends one,zero recordings guaranteed to give listeners the joy, the mystery, the revelation, and the sheer fun of great music.This is a book both broad and deep, drawing from the diverse worlds of cl...

An entertaining trivia compendium flush with fun facts about all things music.From boogie-woogie to Beethoven, from Prince to Pavarotti, from the bards of Broadway to the rebels of rock 'n' roll—it's all here. Uncle John has created this harmonious collection of tuneful tales for music lovers everywhere.Uncle John has proven once again that he is in tune with our legion of loyal readers. This 516-page musical masterpiece dedicated to all things noteworthy r...

In Listen to This, the award-winning music critic and author of The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross looks forward and backward in musical culture: capturing essential figures in classical music history, as well as giving an alternative view of recent pop music.From his own first encounter with classical music to vibrant sketches of Schubert, Verdi and Brahms; from in-depth interviews with modern pop masters such as Björk and Radiohead to the lives of a high school’s music students, Ross s...

From the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for music, lyrics & orchestration, "perhaps the finest book about songwriting of our time" ( Musician )."An eminently readable master class in songwriting—one that will thrill aspiring composers and lyricists, yet still interest the general reader." — Albany Times UnionJimmy Webb has given the American songbook more hits, in m...

A guide to the all-time must-have jazz recordings by a maven of the genre.Possibly the twentieth century’s greatest musical innovation, jazz is now more popular than it has been for the past fifty years. But with the plethora of new recordings and the phenomenon in jazz of the same standards being recorded seemingly by almost every artist and band or trio, it’s very hard to know where to start or to improve a CD collection.The Essential Jazz Recordings provides a t...

"There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and hiphop. As its blasphemous title suggests, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll rejects the conventional pieties of mainstream jazz and rock ...

**An Economist Best Book of the YearAn acclaimed music scholar presents an accessible introduction to the art of listening to jazz.“Mr. Gioia could not have done a better job. Through him, jazz might even find new devotees.” ―Economist**In How to Listen to Jazz, award-winning music scholar Ted Gioia presents a lively introduction to one of America's premier art forms. He tells us what to listen for in a performance and includes a guide to ...

Some samples: 1) Rock goddesses have kids, too. Pat Benatar was a major 1980s rock star and continues to play today. Her songs such as "Heartbreaker" are on Guitar Hero, and lots of children—and adults—rock out to them, including her two daughters, Haley and Hana. Of course, kids can ask embarrassing questions, and Haley and Hana sometimes ask their mom this question about the Spandex pants she used to wear on stage: "How did you get into those pants?" 2) What if you were in a plane, a sto...

'It is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions.'Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is the best selling piece of music in the history of jazz, and for many listeners among the most haunting in all of twentieth-century music. It is also, notoriously, the only jazz album many people own. Recorded in 1959 (in nine miraculous hours), there has been nothing like it since. Its atmosphere - slow, da...

An intimate exploration into the musical genius of fifteen living jazz legends, from the longtime New York Times jazz criticJazz is conducted almost wordlessly: John Coltrane rarely told his quartet what to do, and Miles Davis famously gave his group only the barest instructions before recording his masterpiece "Kind of Blue." Musicians are often loath to discuss their craft for fear of destroying its improvisational essence, rendering jazz among the most e...

What links Lead Belly, Lonnie Donegan and Black Betty? Whose gravestoneinspired Phil Spector's first hit? And for which song did Johnny Rotten replace the singer from Def Leppard?The rich history of popular music is built on a foundation of classic songs. From Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building, Bob Dylan to Kurt Cobain, and Joni Mitchell to Amy Winehouse, gifted songwriters have crafted a cherished body of music that has become part of our...

Poised to become a classic of jazz literature, Visions of Jazz: The First Century offers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning, and from the swinging elegance of Duke Ellington to the pioneering experiments of Ornette Coleman, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Writing with the g...