5 comments about Intros, Endings and Turnarounds for Keyboard: Essential Phrases for Swing, Latin, Jazz Waltz, and Blues Styles.

1. Wirtten in a very easy to read but scholarly fashion, this book is a great resource for musicians who want to hone their craft a bit more and get those smooth-sounding progressions for intros and turn-arounds.



2. This book teaches many things at once.
   
   Learn intros and endings suitable for use in gigs.
   Learn different chord changes besides the typical II-V-I.
   Learn some phrases and voicings that help you jump right in,
   rather than just seeing the chord changes written out.
   (The last chapter is the exception)
   Learn how to improvise - If you haven't been able to cross that
   bridge, just let yourself wander while playing these samples.
   You can't help but hear different melodies in them.
   
   Each sample is presented in a random key, but it is still up the
   student to practice them in all keys.
   Well worth the price - a fraction of the cost of a piano lesson
   for a huge springboard!



3. If you sometimes have problems knowing how to start and/or finish songs or phrases, this book is a must have! It guides you through the process and helps to expand your imagination.



4. I try to spend a half hour with it every night. This book will appeal to a wide range of interests. Whether you are a composer interested in theory, or a keyboardist enhancing your chops, there is something here for you. Most examples are four-measures long, but rich in musicality (kind of like what the Bach chorales are for those studying classical music.) The examples progress from simple chord progressions to more complex, and each is one is clearly explained. Nice melodies too! It is apparent that the author has spent a lot of time with each of the sub-genres (swing, ballads, blues, Latin, etc.) and has distilled his knowledge into a neat recipe book that will serve as a launching point for those wishing to further their expertise.



5. The book has well written, very musical phrases. The author suggests usage with several standards that should be in everyone's play book and it's fun to work them in with tunes you already know - in the proper keys. Take them apart, and there is something to learn in most of them. Great for browsing.
   
   The printing is good and the binding isn't troublesome on the rack. Nice experience. I would have rated it a five, but some of the pages have a tendency to work loose.

5 comments about War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage.

1. This book examines and buries one of the great myths of our times. The myth of the peaceful past, the Noble Savage. Keeley reminds us, with empirical evidence, that war and violence is part of the human heritage and not the exclusive sin of one race, one culture or even one epoch. This myth demeans the humanity of all of us. His final and more speculative final chapters on how the myth of the passive past shapes modern debate is full of uncommon sense.



2. Keeley utterly demolishes the "golden age" idiotological mythos with hard anthropological, ethnographic and archaeological fact. He also, very cleverly to my mind, considering the biases of modern academics, gives "primitives" a great deal of credit for their fighting prowess. There were some flaws to his thesis, of course. But this is a sort of polemic; a bludgeon with which to beat home the unarguable fact that primitive man was a violent creature; not the Rousseauean "noble savage" of popular mythology.
   
   It also contains some great black humor, such as his recounting of a Maori chief taunting the preserved head of an enemy chief: " You wanted to run away, did you? But my war club overtook you: and after you were cooked, you made food for my mouth. And where is your father? he is cooked:- and where is your brother? he is eaten:- and where is your wife? there she sits, a wife for me:- and where are your children? there they are, with loads on their backs, carrying food, as my slaves."
   
   Humanity is ugly. The simple fact that we are unpleasant, violent apes seems to be lost on certain social classes of people. In my opinion, you can't begin to understand people without understanding that human beings are deeply flawed creatures. We are not made horrible by our social conditions, psychological trauma or any other such nonsense: humanity is just horrible. Any meaningful discussion of sociology, history or politics must start from these assumptions, or they are destructive folly.



3. There's a problem when books like this or "Sick Societies" or Ward-Perkins' "The Fall of Rome" HAVE to be written. The same problem can be found in people today who find an equivalency in an attack on a valid military target that results in unintended and unwanted civilian fatalities--collateral damage--and some suicide bomber driving an explosives-packed vehicle directly into a crowd of children. Noam Chomsky claims he was fired up to do battle with the Great Satan when he was confronted by the sister of a child who was killed during the Reagan-era raid on Libya, but he apparently wasn't too concerned about all the young people who were killed in the terrorist attack on a club in Germany that the raid was a response to.
   
   This is an excellent book and the author makes his points well. The problem is that what he's combating is not anything rational or logical, it is an all-encompassing hatred of the West that really needs to be scrutinized by a psychiatrist and not a sociologist. Paul Hollander's superb "Anti-Americanism" covers the territory well be still does not get to the core of the dysfunction. Simply, in the late 1960s the academic world allowed itself to be bullied into letting the kids run the show. Being kids, they brought their juvenile personal baggage and constricted self-referential worldview into nearly every academic realm. Now these same kids have--at least physically--grown up and they are teaching newer generations.
   
   What we have is a juvenilized academia not so much interested in seeking truth but in justifying, for just one example, anti-authoritarian mindsets that have more to do with their relationships with their parents than any geo-political situation.
   
   I'll stop there. Somebody needs to write a good book on this subject.



4. The book has a simple premise - primitive societies, far from being peaceful and cooperative tend to be highly violent. The perception of peace derives from the fact that "they" fight wars differently from "us" and are much smaller. He also describes the evasions that scholars use to "hide" the casualty figures of primitive warfare - namely counting war dead as "murders" because they didn't die in a good old fashioned battle the way westerners would fight.
   
   Keely deals with the different types of combat these societies tend to engage in and highlights how a society based on raids and ambushes can be as, if not more, deadly (in relative terms)than full scale modern warfare based around huge armies. In basic sum if two tribes with 50 people each fight a war and kill 10 people over a year that is a catastrophically high casualty rate for those tribes but it won't register as much for a state of 200 million people.
   
   Keely marshals an impressive array of evidence and examples and offers explanations that will make sense to people who are not anthropologists. The book is well organized and makes the solid point that "primitive" warfare isn't "inferior" warfare. It can be very effective (horribly effective in some cases) and fits the needs of these societies.



5. This scholorly book, written by University of Chicago Anthropology Professor Lawrence Keeley, makes use of the latest research available to make the argument that, before "civilization", humans were predominately (but with exceptions) at war not only within their own clans but perpetually with others. Reasons included the need for more land, food and, of course, women. Keeley shows, through documented research, that this warfare took predominately the form of "low-intensity" warfare that accounted for more dead (as a percentage of population) than even the most vicious "modern" wars (i.e., world wars I and II, etc.). His research shows that the peaceful savage was much more myth than reality.

5 comments about The Art of Bop Drumming (with CD).

1. I bought this book after playing professional jazz gigs for 4 years. It is authentic and a great place to start for beginning to intermediate jazz drummers. The CD is a nice accompaniment.



2. Like Jazz? Don't like Jazz? It doesn't matter. Whether you like to swing or not, this book WILL make you a better drummer and musician. The triplet feel is almost its own dimension in drumming and every drummer should master it. Although it is targeted for bebop jazz (basically faster swing feel as far as a drummer is concerned), this book will give you plenty of exercises and ideas you can incorporate in any genre. The exercises are great for independence and time-keeping, and offer very, very good fill and solo ideas.
   
   As for aspiring jazz drummers, there is absolutely no question, GET this book. Any jazz professor at the university level would approve and it is used widely in music schools such as Berklee and Indiana University Music School (I graduated from IU).
   
   The lessons on brushes are crucial and if you have never placed your hand on a brush, here is where you should start looking.
   
   The accompanying CD is great as well and helps you to master a good swing time, listen to exercises being played, listen to compositions and play along tunes with a bassist or with a whole rhythm section.



3. I'm simply going to reinforce what you may have heard elsewhere: this is as good a foundational text on jazz and bop drumming as you can find (along with Ed Soph's and Jim Chapin's books).
   
   If you are interested in learning to PLAY jazz and bop on the drums, this book takes you from a level assuming some knowledge of the drum kit, little knowledge of jazz, and brings the two together in a very logical way.
   
   I have milked four years (so far, many more to go) out of this book with regards to the density, depth and entertainment/interest-level of the material.



4. This book is fantastic sorce material for any intermediate drummer looking to begin exploring jazz. For experienced players the content can be quite challenging and the advice is imminently valuable. Really a spectacular educational resource.



5. The best educational book on jazz. Covers ride cymbal, comping, solo ideas, uptempo, brushes and has a good play along cd. All of the written words do a fantastic job of putting things in context. Mr. Riley clearly knows his stuff. "Beyond Bop Drumming" is also a great book for more advanced jazz playing.

5 comments about Miles.

1. MILES reads like a discography with transcribed, unedited interviews; however, a few fantastic observations manage to show up. For example:
   
   "'Bird of the Cool' became a collector's item, I think, out of a reaction to Bird and Dizzy's music. Bird and Diz play this hip, real fast thing, and if you weren't a fast listener, you couldn't catch the humor or the feeling in their music. Their musical sound wasn't sweet, and it didn't have harmonic lines that you could easily hum out on the street with your girlfriend trying to get over with a kiss. Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging--but they weren't sweet. But 'Birth of the Cool' was different because you could hear everything and hum it also."
   
   MILES could have been 200 pages shorter and only focused on Davis' thoughts about music--perhaps as a musical memoir?--and it would have said a whole lot more.



2. Not enough can be said about the Music of Miles Davis and it's impact for the rest of time. This book will give any Jazz fan an insight into a fabulous era in Jazz as well as it's evolution. I absolutely love all of his music, the Bands that he put together over the years, and the Musicians that he literally discovered who went on to infamy. But I have to be honest, I just wish that there was a little more to the man in regards to human qualities.



3. Although conventional wisdom may indicate a pathway to genius as a strait line, point A (prodigy) to point B (fame and renown), it's actually one motherf****er of a zigzag. It ain't a matter of black and white neither, although Miles Davis would have you believe that he was in the middle of a race war conducted at his expense where his climb to glory was clouded behind a storm of white critics, corporate America and the perceptions of white Americans (he became the highest paid jazz performer in history). The picture that does come to focus is one of focused dedication, unique intelligence and an astonishing series of musical visions which carry a young dentist's son from East St. Louis to worldwide fame.
   
   Miles takes us on his journey in his own colorful vernacular from day one to the year before his death, a rare, delectible treat in an autobio. Redacted are specific musical methods and cumbursome jazz theory, but the discussion is generous in his crediting others who have come in and out of his bands and contributed to the music he made: Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Dizzy, Bird, Shorter, Hancock, even his own nephew, who he eventually fires. The man is not the loner one might think and thrives in the company of musicians and artists but sadly succombs to the artist's best friend: drug dealers.
   
   His mistrust of the world around him was exacerbated by prodigious drug use and sad realizations of who got what for the art form he helped create. Elvis is tossed aside, "lazy white musicians" performing crap, but he's at his most loquacious when describing his visions of a musical chart for his art and his heartfelt recollection of collaborators gone by, many lost to the same drugs in which he wallowed, many white. The language goes into full bloom as he recounts the many women he either married, had children with or simply bedded. He claims to have never gone after another band member's lady, but anyone else was fair game.
   
   What makes Miles, the book, most appealing is his humanity, his stark feelings on his fellow man and the insight one gets from hearing a smart guy tell his tale of an artist's circuitous journey to legend. Not once do you hear a dishonest note and we're party to a vibrant blueprint that now, after his passing, makes me Kind of Blue.



4. Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe *****
   
   
   Miles Davis has always been a fasinating character to me so when I realized that there was an autobiography of him I tracked it down and bought it. While and after I read the book I didn't know what to think. I mean it is not your typical autobiography. It doesn't talk about most of the stuff you would expect him to talk about and when he does talk about it it's very brief and not in depth in the slightest, but at the same time it is still very interesting. The drug addiction, the women, the violence, the racism, everything the man went through is here. Not much is said about his children how ever, I'm not sure if that is purposeful or not but he does say that his sons are "screw ups" so it is all possible that he just didn't give to nothings about them, though when he briefly mentions his daughter he seems very proud of her. So all in all Miles is a great and interesting tale of one of the most important, original, and influential musicians of all time.
   
   My only complaints are that Miles comes across as an ego maniac though he claims he is not several times in the book. The other one is that Miles Davis is one of the biggest and most racist men in all of history. Everything he says about being treated like nothing because he is black is the same way they he treated white people and the saddest part was that he couldn't even see that he was doing it. He claimed that blacks did everything better and white people stole everything. I will admit white people steal a lot, whites are essentially the `vultures of culture' but blacks did not invent everything, whites, Mexicans, and every other race invented things, and just because some one was influenced by it doesn't mean they copied it like he claims. Also just because someone invented something does not mean they do it the best, to even say that applies prejudice. It depends on the person not what color they are. As a musician Miles is killer, but as a person he really just sucked.
   
   So if you can get past this then Miles is a great and interesting read.



5. excellent choice if you want to know the true story. it is amazing how well written (for a musician) it is and how Miles remembered things with an awesome precission.

5 comments about R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country.

1. Wow! Every so often you run across something that knocks your socks off. R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country left me barefooted.
   
   In the 1980s, Robert Crumb, whom Robert Hughes appropriately once called the "Breughel of the 20th century," created sets of trading cards featuring some of his favorite blues, jazz, and country musicians. (The plan was to include one card per LP sold by innovative record firm Yazoo.) This collection, edited by Terry Zwigoff, the same guy who directed the documentary "Crumb," pulls together the illustrations from all three sets. They're wonderful. The blues and country illustrations are drawn, and are vintage Crumb: crosshatched, brooding characters. The jazz illustrations are water-colored. They're identifiably Crumb, but have a definitely different feel to them.
   
   Crumb is a fascinating genius. Although his art and comics tend to be avant-garde (a term he might well disdain) and iconoclastic, Crumb also has a real affinity for late 19th and early 20th century American culture. Part of this love for an earlier time, no doubt, stems from his intense dislike of the fast-paced, loud, and garish American culture he eventually fled in the 1990s (Crumb now lives in France). But part of it is that he thinks the music produced in the early 20th century represents folk art at its finest and purest, before music became an industry. Crumb began collecting old 78s when he was still a teenager, and his love for the older music has never waned.
   
   And so to the piece de resistance of this book: the accompanying 21 cut CD. Crumb personally chose the pieces, and they're absolutely fantastic. Except for a couple of the blues and jazz musicians, all of the artists are virtually unknown except to the afficionado. But man oh man, are they wonderful. Skip James' rendering of "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" is a heart-breaker. Dock Boggs' "Sugar Baby" and Burnett & Rutherford's "All Night Long Blues" are haunting in their strange but beautiful ways. And no matter how bad things get, Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra's "Kater Street Rag" will pick you up. My son and I have listened to the CD over and over and over, and we never get tired of it. He prefers the blues and jazz, I'm in love with the hillbilly blue grass cuts. But the whole CD--well, it just knocks your socks off.
   
   Wow.
   _____
   * From R. Crumb's essay "To Be Interested in Old Music is To Be a Social Outcast!", The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, p. 191. "You play old records for most people, and, if they listen at all, after the record's over they turn to you and say, 'So what is it you like ab out that old music?' You just want to throw up your hands."



2. Richard Nevins of Rounder Records first came up with the idea for Robert Crumb to illustrate a series of early Blues, Jazz, and Old Time Music and Bluegrass greats along the lines of the baseball cards of his childhood. Crumb went for the idea and produced what became three boxes of cards with illustrations taken from old photos on the front and write-ups about the players on the back (many of them by Nevins).
   
   Now the famous fine arts publisher Abrams Books has designed and published a superb volume that includes the Crumb artwork as never before -- in brilliant color and on a larger scale than the cards -- along with expanded bios and a bonus CD that samples some of this great American roots music. Anyone interested in high-level cartoon art and this powerful expressive music will want to own this book.



3. In 20/20 hindsight (or hindsound?) I bought the book intending to learn about music. Taken purely as an introduction to three genres of early American music, the book is a success. The pictures (and introduction to R. Crumb the artist) were a huge bonus. Wow! The CD with it completes the trifecta.
   
   This is a fantastic introduction to multiple artistic elements - perhaps a few that will catch the reader/viewer/listener off guard. Enjoy!



4. You really can't go wrong here...$13 or $14 for a book with wonderful artwork and brief history lessons and a companion CD with some truly timeless music.
   
   Not a general fan of the genre, but I actually found the country music included on the CD to be the most interesting. But really every song is special.
   
   A must have for any Crumb or roots music fan.



5. Knowing the prices that Robert Crumb's work commands (try getting hold of a copy of his illustrated CD "That's What I Call Sweet Music" and you'll see what I mean), when I first saw this advertised I thought that the price must have been entered incorrectly, but no! Just imagine, a 240 page hardback book, illustrated in colour on high quality paper, with an accompanying 21-track CD, for less than you'd expect to pay for either on its own. The book (and CD), falls into three distinct parts, and three different techniques have been used to produce the illustrations.
   
   I'm familiar with the jazz figures, and my comments therefore concentrate on that aspect. The first is that some of these choices are extremely idiosyncratic. Many (Beiderbecke, Armstrong, Morton) are almost obligatory, but scattered amongst them are some quite obscure figures, such as Junie C. Cobb, Roy Palmer, and Ikey Robinson. Fair enough, these are after all Mr. Crumb's heroes, but the accompanying commentary is far too brief and could with advantage have been expanded to fill the space available. Finally, whilst many of the portraits (all of which are based on photographs) are instantly recognisable a few have the look of caricature about them. All of which is to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I would disregard all of those reservations and buy it anyway if I hadn't done so already.

5 comments about Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta.

1. Hi,my name is Steve Kaplan.I play the keytar behind Big Jack Johnson in the movie DEEP BLUES.I just released a cd called "BITTER LEMON REVIVAL".If you liked the movie call 901-355 7210 and order my cd for 12$ plus shipping and handling tot 13.95$ Order today!!! They could pull this ad anytime! Sincerely
   Lemon Bitter Kaplan



2. this is a serious history of the blues treating the blues with the same respect & seriousness given jazz, classical and other forms. it is a wonderful book combining interviews with blues legends like muddy waters and howling wolf with in-depth musical and cultural analysis.
   
   for serious blues lovers or the novice looking for a deeper understanding of the music's roots, the culture that spawned and the incredible musicians who created it.



3. this is the the best concised book on the blues. few books provide so much insight in so few words



4. This is a wonderful DVD. The highlights for me were seeing
   R. L. Burnside at his home and getting to see Roosevelt Barnes
   perform Heart Broken Man. Sadly both of these great performers are no
   longer around.



5. For those that love real rural blues this must be one of the best insights into the lives and music of the last of the old time juke joint musicians. It has all the drive and raw power that most of us white kids seldom get a chance to experience even when we were lucky enough to see some of these guys on tour. Go and buy this one and see a little of the life of these great characters and experience some their great driving electric blues.

5 comments about The Real Book - Volume II: C Instruments 2nd Edition (Real Books (Hal Leonard)).

1. Great book, clear print, all the original chord markings, and now legal!!! what a treasure.



2. This book picks up where Volume 1 left off. The Real Book has always been "The Bible" for all of the standards.



3. I purchased this book for my son who plays the upright bass. He really loves it (and owns Volume I). We had a great time on Christmas playing and singing all the old favorites from this book.



4. We purchased this book as a gift for a famil and fellow band member. He was ecstatic.



5. As I said in my review of The Real Book: Sixth Edition, all jazz musicians eventually have to have a real book. If you started with Volume 1 (you did, didn't you?), sooner or later there's going to be a few tunes you want to play that aren't in there. Chances are very good they are in here. (Some examples of tunes I wanted out of this one include Georgia on My Mind, Fly me to the Moon, and Caravan.) I would say all jazz musicians should have Volume 1 and Volume 2, at a minimum. That'll give you something like 800 songs you could (hypothetically) play. I'm surprised other reviewers say they use this one more than Volume 1, as that will definitely never happen with me and my music. Also, I'm still missing a few songs that I really want to play that aren't in either of these (like Witchcraft and They Can't Take That Away From Me). Maybe I'll buy Hal Leonard The Real Book Volume 3 for C Instruments before long, too. Anyway, you can't go wrong getting this book as a companion to volume 1.

2 comments about A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music.

1. George E. Lewis has written a superlative history of avant-garde jazz and The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. I am truly amazed with his research, depth of understanding and what he is teaching me. I get the value of being one of his students just by reading and learning from his authoritative text. George E. Lewis is the subject matter authority on jazz.
   
   I have long wanted to study jazz with a historical timeline view. George E. Lewis helps me achieves this goal admirably.
   
   George thank you for the book my jazz soul has been yearning to know for decades.
   
   Live Your Light,
   Ed Jennings
   
   [...]



2. George E Lewis has written a very readable account of this organisation and its history. Its a long story 40+ years, many contributions, Includes biographies of key figures, and social history. a few more musical examples or analysis of actual works could have made it even better. Overall recommended to anyone into AACM or any fan of progressive jazz.

No comments about Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever.

5 comments about The History of Jazz.

1. The back cover of this Oxford paperback claims that the book is suitable as an introduction to jazz or as an authoritative reference. I must admit that I am neither a jazz officianado nor a complete novice to the world of swing, bebop and fusion, making me incapable of confirming the cover's claims. However, for me, this book filled in the gaps quite nicely.
   
   Most of my knowledge of jazz has come from the radio. The big names keep popping up but lesser known lights get little air time and I am at the whim of the dj's tastes. "The History of Jazz" covers them all, starting at the very beginning - drum circle dances in pre-abolition New Orleans. It then discusses the roots of early dixie land jazz (ragtime, Joplin, and the blues) and then describes the movement of jazz from New Orleans to Chicago and New York. It intersperses lively anecdotes about the fathers of jazz -Jelly Roll Morton was a procurer (pimp?) early on- with music theory and analysis. Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong and Morton all have a section devoted to them. A chapter on the jazz age pays special attention to Armstrong's Hot Five and subsequent career. Bix Beiderbecke's biography is given in detail along with notes on many other famous players of his day. A chapter is devoted to Harlem, stride piano, Waller, Ellington and the advent of the big bands, ending with a description of society and music at the Cotton Club. The Swing era gets a chapter to itself with even more in-depth treatment of big bands and those who led them (Goodman, the Dorsey's etc.). Kansas City style jazz, and european jazz traditions (Django Reinhardt) are also covered. The details of Billie Holiday's life, although well known, make for a sad story.
   
   The second half of the book, which covers modern jazz, the fragmentation of jazz styles and recent jazz developments, is much less coherent than the first. The section on bebop with its lengthy discussion of the life and influence of Bird and Gillespie continues to be readable and thorough. However, as the author approaches the present day, the writing, like the jazz, seems to fragment. This is not to say that it isn't enjoyable reading, just that the sheer number of names and styles begins to pull the book in too many directions. California jazz, trad jazz, cool jazz, hard bop, post-bop and soul, free jazz, post-modern jazz and the various fusion forms leave the reader gasping for air. It seems clear to me that I will need to go out and listen to a lot of things to round out my education. Fortunately the book is well supplied with notes, further readings and, best of all a recommended listening list.
   
   While I might not have understood everything the author had to say about the subtleties of the music, this book has made me a much keener fan of jazz. It has created in me the desire to seek out new and different forms of the music and to listen more carefully to the old stuff. For this, I gladly give it five stars.



2. This is a fascinating book. Gioia has done what appears to me to be a thorough, detailed, highly readable documentation of a form of music that has dominated American culture for the last near-100 years. I come at it as a newbie, even though I've lived through more than half of it. I just wasn't aware. This has been a valuable learning experience for me.



3. This book relates the history of jazz, and gives you a background that will help you listen more carefully and with heightened appreciation of this unique American music. Good stories, well detailed, and well worth the time to read it. The only thing better of course is watching jazz musicians play!



4. Absolutely first rate. The depth and breadth of research is awesome--not just on the musicians but the conditions and times. Gioia writes beautifully and perceptively. If I were going to write a book on jazz (no need, now!) this would be the book I would have wanted to write. Six stars.



5. Gioia's "The History of Jazz" is the best one volume history of jazz I've read. It gives plenty of detail while moving along from era to era. I'd greatly recommend it to anyone wishing to survey the major developments, composers and performers or America's original musical art form.