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Foreign Rights: Available Now: MusicThe Aesthetics of Survival by George Rochberg Elevator Music by Joseph Lanza Four Jazz Lives by A.B. Spellman Grit, Noise, and Revolution by David Carson Head Hunters by Steven F. Pond How Sondheim Found His Sound by Steven Robert Swayne Jazz Journeys to Japan by William Minor Listening to Popular Music by Theodore Gracyk Rhythm Is Our Business by Eddy Determeyer Someone to Watch Over Me by Frank Büchmann-Møller The Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer's View of Twentieth-Century MusicGeorge Rochberg Rights: World As a composer, George Rochberg has played a leading role in bringing about a transformation of contemporary music through a reassessment of its relation to tonality, melody, and harmony. In The Aesthetics of Survival, the author addresses the legacy of modernism in music, and its related effect on the cultural milieu, particularly its overemphasis on the abstract, rationalist thinking embraced by contemporary science, technology, and philosophy. Rochberg argues for the renewal of holistic values in order to ensure the survival of music as a humanly expressive art. George Rochberg is a renowned composer, thinker, and teacher. He has been honored with innumerable awards, including, most recently, an Alfred I. duPont Award for Outstanding Conductors and Composers, and an Andre and Clara Mertens Contemporary Composer Award. Fall 2004 Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong; Revised and Expanded EditionJoseph Lanza Rights: World* It's campy, it's cool, empty, intrusive, trite, and treacly. It's Big Brother singing. Call it what you will—elevator music, Moodsong® easy listening, or Muzak ®. For a musical genre that was supposed to offend no one, it has a lot of enemies. Musical cognoscenti decry its insipid content; regular folk—if they notice—bemoan its pervasiveness; while hipsters and campsters celebrate its retro chic. Mindful of the many voices, Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music sings seriously, with tongue in cheek, the praises of this venerable American institution. Lanza addresses the criticisms of elites who say that Muzak and its ilk are dehumanized, vapid, or cheesy. These reactions, he argues, are based more on cultural prejudices than honest musical appraisal. Says Lanza, today's so-called mood music is the inheritor of a long tradition of mood-altering music stretching back to the ancients; Nero's fiddle and the sirens of Odysseus being two famous examples. Contemporary atmospheric music, Lanza argues, not only serves the same purpose, it is also the inevitable background for our media-dominated age. One of Lanza's premises, to quote Mark Twain, is that this music is "better than it sounds." "This book will have succeeded in its purpose," he writes, "if I can help efface...the distinction between one person's elevator music and another's prized recording." Joseph Lanza is an author, producer, and music historian. His most recent book is Russ Columbo and the Crooner Mystique. February 2004 *French rights are not available.
Four Jazz LivesA. B. Spellman Rights: World This new and retitled edition of A. B. Spellman's long-out-of-print Four Lives in the Bebop Business brings a classic work on jazz back to life, and shines a light on four musicians who've finally gotten their due. In 1966, at the height of the avant-garde and the year of the first edition, the subjects of Spellman's interviews for the book—the artists Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Nichols, and Jackie McLean—were considered too subtle, complex, or difficult, certainly far from the comfortable melodies of more mainstream artists. Nearly twenty years later in the second edition Spellman noted the capriciousness of the jazz industry, and wrote of darker cultural currents, "the most sinister of which is the gross indifference with which America receives those aspects of Afro-American culture that are not 'entertaining.'" As the world catches up to the talents of Taylor, Coleman, Nichols, and McLean, this new edition of Four Jazz Lives helps put to rest that attitude, and reminds us of the permanent place these four musical greats occupy in the pantheon of jazz giants. A.B. Spellman is a well-known lecturer and instructor. A graduate of Howard University, he has published numerous books and articles on the arts, including Art Tatum: A Critical Biography and The Beautiful Days. January 2004 Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' RollDavid Carson Rights: World From the early days of John Lee Hooker to the heyday of Motown, Detroit has enjoyed a long reputation as one of the crucibles of American pop music. In Grit, Noise, and Revolution, David Carson turns the spotlight on those hard-rocking, long-haired musicians—influenced by Detroit's R&B heritage—who intimidated the Establishment and, ultimately, helped to change the face of rock 'n roll. Grit, Noise, and Revolution is the story of some of the great garage-inspired, blue collar Motor City rock 'n' roll bands that exemplified the Detroit rock sound: MC5, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, SRC, the Bob Seger System, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, and Grand Funk Railroad. David Carson is a Royal Oak native and former Detroit-area disc jockey and the author of Rockin' Down the Dial: The Detroit Sound of Radio. He is now associate publisher of Audiomedia, a professional audio technology magazine. Spring 2005 Head Hunters: The Making of Jazz's First Platinum AlbumSteven F. Pond Rights: World Head Hunters (1973) was Herbie Hancock's foray into the fusion jazz market, the first jazz album to go platinum, and the best selling jazz album of all time to that point (it was eclipsed a few years later). Head Hunters became a flash point for a major shift in both the production and reception of jazz: the sales numbers were unprecedented, and the music industry quickly responded to the expanded market, with production and promotion budgets rising tenfold. Such a radical shift helped musicians to pry open the door to the control booth, permanently enlarging their role in production. But it was all at a cost: critics, believing jazz to be appropriated by rock and funk, became increasingly alarmed at what they saw as jazz's imminent death. Fall 2005 How Sondheim Found His SoundSteven Robert Swayne Rights: World How Sondheim Found His Sound aims to provide an account of the musical and dramatic influences in Sondheim's music, and the evidences of those influences in Sondheim's mature musicals. Sondheim has made it clear that he considers himself a "playwright in song." As such, this book addresses the ways in which disciplines not normally associated with musical composition—in Sondheim's case, theater and film—influence Sondheim's choices as a dramatic composer. Fall 2005 Jazz Journeys to Japan: The Heart WithinWilliam Minor Rights: World Part music history, part cultural meditation, part travel narrative, Jazz Journeys to Japan is the first book to address the experiences of individual players—Japanese jazz greats such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masahiko Satoh, Makoto Ozone, and Yosuke Yamashita. William Minor navigates the converging streams of Western music and Eastern tradition, revealing through interviews with musicians, critics, and producers the unique synthesis that results from this convergence. And, turning conventional wisdom on its ear, he disproves the widely held notion that Japanese jazz artists don't "swing." Along the way, we experience Minor's growing appreciation of Japanese culture, which mirrors his subjects' discovery of American jazz. William Minor's previous books include Unzipped Souls: A Jazz Journey through the Soviet Union, and Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years. He has written for Downbeat, Jazz Times, Jazz Notes, Coda, and Swing Journal. February 2004 Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improvisor's ArtAndy Hamilton Rights: World The pre-eminent saxophonist of cool jazz, Lee Konitz was one of the few alto saxophonists of his generation to forge a unique sound independent of the influence of Charlie Parker. In the late 40s, Konitz began his career with the Claude Thornhill band, during which time he came into contact with Miles Davis, with whom he would later work on the legendary Birth of the Cool sessions. Konitz is perhaps best known through his association with Lennie Tristano, under whose influence much of his sound evolved, and for his work with Stan Kenton and Warne Marsh. His recordings have ranged from cool bop to experimental improvisation, and have appeared on such labels as Prestige, Atlantic, Verve, and Polydor. Lee Konitz: Conversations with Lee Konitz on the Improvisor's Art, presents, in interview form, the story of Lee Konitz's life and music. Crafted out of numerous interviews between the author and his subject, the book offers Konitz's own insights into his musical education and his experiences with such figures as Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, Warne Marsh, Lennie Tristano, Charles Mingus, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans. Andy Hamilton is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University, and a frequent contributor to jazz magazines both in the US and abroad. This project originally grew out of interviews with Konitz for The Wire and Jazz Review. Hamilton is also at work on a book on music and aesthetics, and is an amateur jazz pianist and singer. Fall 2006 Lennie Tristano: His Life, Music, and TeachingEunmi Shim Rights: World Lennie Tristano was a jazz pianist and jazz improvisation instructor who, despite his influence and innovation, has been overlooked by much of conventional jazz history. Shim's work surveys the biography, teaching elements, and recordings of this accomplished artist. Fall 2006 Lester YoungLewis Porter Rights: World Several new biographies of Lester Young have been published in the years since Lewis Porter's Lester Young first appeared, but none have supplanted or even attempted the in-depth study that Porter brings to his subject's music. With the same care and scholarship that characterized his John Coltrane, Porter analyzes the music that made Lester Young "the most original tenor sax in jazz." In addition to helping us understand Lester Young's playing and stylistic evolution, Porter's analysis demonstrates that Young's playing at the end of his career did not mark a serious decline over his earlier style, as many critics have claimed. Lewis Porter is Professor of Music and director of the M.A. Program in Jazz History and Research at Rutgers University. His book John Coltrane: His Life and Music, won the 1999 Jazz Research Award from the Association of Recorded Sound Collections. Spring 2005 Listening to Popular Music: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led ZeppelinTheodore Gracyk Rights: World The thesis of Listening to Popular Music is that both the interpretation and enjoyment of music require the development of taste, a set of listening dispositions different from, but coordinated with, the conceptual schemes we arrive at through language use. Taste is a basic condition for the perception of music, and different tastes perceive the same music differently. So there are distinct taste publics, based on shared musical tastes. But the position of radical relativism is incorrect, because some tastes are more appropriate to some types of music. The overall point? An informed preference for popular music is a response to real values of the music, including aesthetic values. These aesthetic values play a much greater role in our preference for this music than is generally acknowledged by musicologists and cultural theorists. Theodore Gracyk is Department Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He is the author of Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock and I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music and the Politics of Identity, which won the 2002 IASPM/US Book Award. May 2007 Rhythm Is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem ExpressEddy Determeyer Rights: World Rhythm Is our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express paints a vivid portrait of the glamorous side of the 1930s, a decade generally perceived as gloomy, a period when swing music reigned, and an era when the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra became the hottest and hippest attraction on the black dance circuits. Night after night, this band drew thousands of dancers, its hit recordings sold into the hundreds of thousands and it was considered second only to Duke Ellington as far as musical sophistication was concerned. In the African-American community, Jimmie Lunceford (1902-1947), at least for a while, was more popular than Ellington. The Lunceford band was known for its ability to outswing and outdraw any band. For ten consecutive years, the orchestra, affectionately known as the Harlem Express, was the best-loved attraction at Harlem's Apollo Theater, a venue notorious for its critical clientele. Rhythm Is our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express traces the development of the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, from its infant days as a high school band in Memphis to its record breaking tours across the United States, Canada and Europe. The book unveils Lunceford's romantic yet ill-fated involvement with Yolande Du Bois, daughter of famous writer and opinion leader W.E.B. Du Bois. It also offers a glance at the mysteries surrounding the leader's untimely death through a reconstruction of his last day. Pointing out the demographic changes in interbellum American society, Rhythm Is our Business will put the youth and dance culture of the Swing Era in a fresh perspective. Eddy Determeyer (1942) has been a free lance music journalist for more than three decades. His books include Rough Days: 70 Years of Jazz in Groningen, Backbeat: The Golden Era of Rhythm & Blues, The History of Dutch Jazz, and 25 Years North Sea Jazz Festival. Fall 2006 Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben WebsterFrank Büchmann-Møller Rights: World The life of Ben Webster as told through readings of his recordings, and the commentary of friends and colleagues. This comprehensive biography follows Webster from his childhood in Kansas City, on through his career, all the way his last studio recording in 1972. Spring 2006 |
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