No comments about Satchmo: The Story Of Louis Armstrong (HeRose & SheRose).

2 comments about Swing Guitar.

1. Few guitar instructional books warrant five stars, but this is one of those rare exceptions. Sokolow gives guitarists a lot to work with in this book, ranging from old school swing and jazz to newfangled 1990s swing-knockoff stuff. The tab is accurate, and the CD allows the listener to fade out the background music to focus solely on the guitar parts, which is big time useful. Plus, the solos and chord work in this book are tasty and worth learning, if only to sprinkle into your own guitar style. Definitely worth the cover price if your interested in swing guitar. Another great book to check out is Swing Guitar Essentials by the boys from Acoustic Guitar magazine. These two books rank among the ten best guitar books currently available for intermediate/advanced guitarists who want to get beyond boring old pentatonic/diatonic scale patterns.



2. I normally love the books that Fred Sokolow puts out and have several (his rockabilly and western swing book are especially informative). This book however is just a bunch of tunes that aren't what I think of as standards of swing using six note chord voicings-which isn't accurate to the style of swing guitar.

No comments about SWING FAVORITES BIG BAND PLAY-ALONG VOL. 1 BASS BK/CD (Big Band Play-Along).

2 comments about Too Dead to Swing: A Katy Green Mystery.

1. Hal Glatzer is a writer, with three prior books to his credit: Kamehameha County, The Trapdoor, and Massively Parallel Murder. His diverse vocations include directing the Art Deco Society, playing swing guitar, and an interest in the arts and culture of the 1930's and 1940's.

   In Too Dead To Swing, Glatzer asserts that he has reproduced a manuscript written by a Hannah Dobryn, ghostwriter of girl-detective stories. Mr. Glatzer met Ms. Dobryn in the 1970's in Honolulu, and was gifted with her Katy Green manuscripts. Thus the reader is primed for the view of the 1930's and 1940's swing era straight from the horse's mouth.

   Katy Green, daughter of a doctor who possesses an uncanny sense of people and events, is a working musician on the sax and violin. She meets up with a former beau just about the time when she desperately needs a gig and a paycheck, in the form of Ted Nywatt, band leader, writer, and ladies' man. Katy agrees to go "on the road" with Ted's all-girl band, the "Ultra Belles", after their violinist Lois meets with a bizarre accident. Katy signs on, but doesn't realize that the travelling band is a hotbed of conflict, bickering, and murder:

   "The blonde in the compoartment opened her door, tiptoed into range, and squinted up the aisle to see what the fuss was about. But as soon as she saw, she screeched and ran back inside, throwing her door shut with a bang. From right across the aisle and high up, I had the best view. Suzanne lay on her back. Her eyes were wide open. Half of her face was covered with blood that had seeped out of her nose and mouth in a long, dark red stain that extended down past her ear and her cheek, along the pillow and onto the sheets."

   Katy Green is a clever and resourceful amateur sleuth, who also is well developed as the mouthpiece for Glatzer's racy and entertaining tale. Immediately the reader is drawn into Katy's world, and the antics of the Ultra Belles add spice and mirth to a fairly complicated murder plot.

   The reader is so drawn into their escapades that Glatzer's murderer is nicely hidden. Great story!

   Shelley Glodowski
   Reviewer




2. Katy Green has a wonderful, sardonic, and very with-it voice as narrator of this wonderful period mystery. The period in question is just before the US entered WWII, in 1940, and girl bands then were only slightly more scarce than they are today. She's a keen observer of her fellow humans, as well as the everyday world in which she lives, including the scenic settings of pre-war California.
   
   Katy is a classically-trained free-lance violinist and sax player - not your ordinary combination, perhaps, but this versatility generally provides more work opportunities for her. In between classical gigs, she likes to venture into swing and jazz, and is more than capable of holding her own in either type of music.
   
   Now, though, she finds herself out of work and far away from her New York apartment. Eagerly seeking work, she takes a Sunday off to go to the beach at Santa Monica, and stumbles over a former lover who is also a former employer. Band leader Ted Nywatt was known for the music he wrote as well as the girl-bands he'd led in the East. So what was he doing in California?
   
   Hoping for a break in the movies! What else? Of course, there's lots more to this adventure, but Katy and Ted, along with the girls in the band and numerous law enforcement gentlemen, work their way through band gigs, murders and imposters, as they embark on a week's worth of one-night stands, musically speaking, that is.
   
   The story is intriguing, and the period details seem right on, to this reviewer. I love mysteries, especially those with music in them, and when there is also a historical element, the book stands a good chance of ranking high on my list of favorites. When the writing and the characterization are also excellent, it can't miss! This book scores 5 stars for each of these ingredients, and I'm eagerly looking forward to Katy's next adventure.

No comments about Jazz Blues Guitar Solos (book and CD).

5 comments about Swing! The New Retro Renaissance (V/Search).

1. This book was sooo good. It gave many interviews and tons of pictures. As well as venues where you can go swing dancing. It had lists of bands and music to listen to and go see. I thought this book was really good and everyone who loves swing dancing and swing music should have this book.



2. This book interviews over 15 of the major bands including big players like Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In addition to the bands, this book covers multiple swing dance groups, clubs, and record labels. For those topics where words simply aren't enough, this book packs hundreds of pictures from milestone preformances to Vice Grip's 1947 Cadillac to Mark Jordan's vintage tie collection.



3. THE INTERVEIWS ARE GREAT AND ITS CHEAP ITS A GREAT DEA



4. Although not much in the way of dancers and Swing Dancing, it does capture somewhat the Retro-Style of The Bands, Attire, Cars, Martinis, Cigars, Tattoos, etc. It would have been nicer to include more dancing and more People in the dance. Alot of the Information is NOT FACT and should not be taken Historically as so, but... it is based on what some of those people doing it now believe! If you are in the Boonies or not local to Los Angeles Or San Francisco this book is Awesome. Even if you are it is worth the Money.. Every Swing Fan should not be without it...I Liked It.



5. V. Vale has served as the counter-culture's principle archivist and preservationist. The richly varied subjects of his books read like an anthology of dissent with the status quo. The potentcy of each topic is (or at least was) due in part to its' rupture with the overall views of the general public. The work is comprehensive, thurough and has always provided a great deal of insight to the subject, oftentimes in the subject's own words. SWING! is no exception. It is the definitive text to the what, the who, the wheres and the whys of the neo-swing movement. The one problem I have is that every time Vale releases another great book on another sub-culture, it doesn't seem to be soon after that that sub-group is eventually consumed by the status quo... castrating the subject of its' adverse positioning which debilitates its' power altogether. In this respect Mr. Vale is much like Columbus: A passionate explorer who's arrival foreshadows the coming of many uninvited strangers. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this book very much. All the musicians, dancers and other luminaries are very commited to this thing that they love very much. Though such a thing tends to be its' own reward, the dedication should be recognized, accredited and applauded which is exactly what this book does. At the same time, there is the imfamous GAP advert as well as some automobile commercials, The Cherry Poppin' Daddy's in an ad for BEST BUY and, of course, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy appearing on MELROSE PLACE, as the halftime entertainment at the ROSE BOWL (complete with flag twirlers in sequense fedoras) and the up-coming SUPERBOWL. In one respect, all this popularity has enabled some great musicians to make a full time living at what they do best and they deserve to cash-in. On the other hand, all this hype does seem to detach from this thing most of what made it interesting to begin with. Like so many others before it, the Neo-Swing scene seems less and less disposed to define itself on its' own terms and more at the mercy of how it is pecieved by an outside population of faddists and other avid magazine subscribers. For me, one of the most appealing things about going to rockabilly and swing shows was the noticeable LACK of Yuppies. That was three years ago. Today, kookery abounds. More actors than action. Too bad.

2 comments about Swing Dancing: Put on Your Dancing Shoes and Get With Hip-Swinging, Toe-Tapping Swing Dancing.

1. This book gives more usable detail on steps for Savoy- and Hollywood-style lindy hop, as well as for East Coast (6-count) swing, than any other I've seen, and it's a nice reference for intermediate-level dancers. It covers a good range of the steps frequently encountered in social dancing (examples: tuck turn, back Charleston, sugar push, catapult, Texas Tommy), plus a couple of basic air steps *not* suitable for a crowded floor. You'll never learn to dance from this or any book, but you might use it as a supplement to instruction or experience.

   The layout is unique. (Amazon, how about putting up a couple of sample pages?) Each step gets a two-page spread of photos like those on the cover, with the kind of "stro-motion" series of photographs of its progress that TV sportscasts sometimes use to detail figure-skating moves or football plays. There are text explanations below each part of the step, and a running count of the musical beat at the bottom of the page. Some complicated but crucial steps -- notably whips and swing-outs -- get three two-page spreads, with leaders (= men, usually), followers (= women), and both-together each shown separately.

   So what's not to like? Several things, all of which spring from the lack of space on the two-page layouts:

   * The overlapping photos are presented so densely in places that it's hard to see crucial details, and the text often isn't quite below the appropriate photo. If you've never seen the step before, you'll have a hard time understanding what's going on.

   * The follower's footwork gets short shrift in too many of the descriptions -- particularly annoying on moves in which she's turning. (In this regard the book is no better and no worse than many dance instructors.)

   * The descriptions pretty much always tell the leader what to do with his hands during the step, but frequently don't explain what the actual *lead* is that signals the start of the step. That's the kind of information somebody who's learned the step in a class needs to be able to dance it afterwards.

   These beefs aside, I like the book, I'd recommend it for dancers trying to remember which foot you start the kick-around on, and paging through it makes me want to grab my dancing shoes and head for the floor.




2. Dance is, arguably, complicated to teach in text.
   
   I wanted to like this book, give it a break; it has a campy feel and the dancers are wearing cute vintage clothes. It gives names to moves you might have learned outside of a structured classroom environment or forgotten the name of. Sadly, "Swing Dancing- Put Your Dancing Shoes on and Get With Hip-swinging, Toe-tapping Swing" is confusing to any level of dancer because of lackluster information and appalling information design.
   
   This book, however eye catching, makes even the simplest swing dance moves utterly confusing. The "flow motion" selling point, while at times adds a touch of clarity, for instance, about which direction to turn, often does not and usually serves as a barrier to understanding even the simplest moves. Turning, in almost every case, could be better represented with a simple, curved, directional arrow.
   
   More confusion caused by "flow motion" is the miscommunication of traveling motion. In swing dance, we do move back and forth and spin but the faded in between pictures don't help readers understand when they are moving in place and when they are stepping. Instead, it makes it look as if swing dance is some kind of traveling line dance that moves dancers to the opposite side of the floor in a single move. This is seldom the case.
   
   Also is it seldom that dancers float in thin air. It looks better visually but learners could benefit from knowing how high to step and better see the difference of a step, a heel raise, and a toe touch. For that a bit of reference to flooring is necessary.
   
   Chapter text is overlaid with dance move text and chapter introductions are no more clear then the introductions of new moves making the information about the different forms and where they apply, again, confusing. The only real way to tell that the dancers have moved on to teaching a new form is that their outfits have changed. And for many of the moves they should have, apparently, put on an additional outfit! Within the Lindy Hop section, Charleston, a historically classic dance that predates Lindy Hop, is shown as a couple of moves called Charleston butset up as a move tucked inside Lindy Hop while, Hollywood Swing, which is considered, by most, to simply be a more slotted/elegant stylization of Lindy developed to make dancing look more divine in Hollywood films, has its own chapter!
   
   Needless to say, the history chapter is also a bit mixed up doing little to describe the actual variation between different swing forms.
   
   Simply reading the descriptions of the moves does give some useful information and if you can look past the confusion of the graphic design, you can see clean stop action poses by the dancer models, but on second thought the writing is sexist (man/woman instead of lead/follow) and requires trying to match up the visuals with the misaligned text blocks in order for much of it to make any sense. The starting point too, does not necessarily seem to line up with the photo action and bounces around from page to page.
   
   I could say more but I think I've said enough.

No comments about Jump Swing Fever.

1 comments about Texas and Swing Fiddle.

1. PROS:
   Wow! This book (with its SIX (6) audio CD set) represents years of study for me. Matt Glasser breaks down every phase with patience at a slow tempo. Very well done. THIS IS THE GOOD STUFF.
   
   Old-time Texas fiddling, modern Texas fiddling, Western Swing, jazz and back-up fiddle. Glaser carefully breaks down all the tunes and analyzes the styles of Benny Thomasson, Bob Wills, Vassar Clements, Mark O'Connor, Stephane Grappelli, Joe Venuti and Eddie South.
   
   These lessons will expand your skills and knowledge of the fiddle.
   
   There is not a song here I don't want to learn to play like Glasser:
   
   "Sally Goodin," "Salt River," "Leather Britches," "Billy in the Lowground," "Sally Johnson," "I Don't Love Nobody," "Texas Waltz," "Maiden's Prayer," "Corrina, Corrina," "Lady Be Good," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Forked Deer," "Dusty Miller," "Cotton Patch Rag," "Beaumont Rag," "Milk Cow Blues," "Panhandle Rag," "Faded Love," ... All great tunes and really well done.
   
   CONS:
   These lessons are designed for the serious student.
   
   
   Thank you Matt, good job.

No comments about Swing, Swing, Swing.