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Legendary Guitars: Explore the World’s Most Exceptional Guitars
by Julien BitounThe ultimate collection of 100 legendary guitarsFrom the beginnings of the American guitar in the 19th century to the avant-garde Canadian creations of a few months ago, from folk to electric to archtop; from the cheap guitar of the bluesmen of the 1960s to the Les Paul worth half a million dollars; all the instruments presented in this book are exceptional, whether it's because of their sound, their craftsmanship, the way they play, their aesthetics or the artists they inspired.Julien Bitoun, musician and great specialist in the history of rock, has lovingly selected each of the instruments. He tells the story of their creation and the reasons they entered history.Enough to make the most jaded collector pale or the most occasional enthusiast definitely addicted!
Legendary Toad's Place: Stories from New Haven's Famed Music Venue
by Brian Phelps Randall BeachAnyone who has lived near New Haven, Connecticut, in the past 40-plus years has surely heard of Toad&’s Place. With a capacity of 750, Toad&’s has served as the perfect spot for musicians who prefer smaller venues. U2 played one of their first US concerts there, on their Boy tour. In 1978, Bruce Springsteen was in New Haven and arrived at Toad&’s unannounced, and got up and played. The surprises kept coming and the club was attracting big names, as well as up-and-comers. In 1989, the Rolling Stones played a surprise show on a Saturday night, giving 700 fans the night of their dreams. Nothing could have been better—the Rolling Stones in downtown New Haven was unimaginable! That is only a taste of the stories that are uncovered in this book. Randall Beach and Toad&’s owner Brian Phelps recall the legendary shows and behind-the-scenes stories.
Legends from Camp
by Lawson Fusao InadaInada talks about life in Japanese internment camps, jazz, and living in Fresno, CA. Inada's poems are playful, engaging and directed towards a wide audience.
Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World
by Robbie Robertson Jim Guerinot Sebastian Robertson Jared LevineMusic industry veterans Robbie Robertson, Jim Guerinot, Jared Levine, and Sebastian Robertson invite young readers to share with them in celebrating twenty-seven musical legends. Short profiles chronicle personal stories and achievements of extraordinarily talented artists whose innovations changed the landscape of music for generations to come. Compiled like any great playlist, the line-up features originators, rebels, and risk-takers across diverse genres. From Ray Charles to Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan, Robertson shares anecdotes about these artists and the influence they had on his own musical journey.
Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World
by Robbie Robertson Jim Guerinot Sebastian Robertson Jared LevineExclusive insights from a celebrated musician and passionate industry insiders, two accompanying CDs of legendary tracks and beautiful packaging make for a book with broad appeal -- one that will captivate fans of Robbie Robertson and music lovers of all ages.Part memoir, part tribute, and all great storytelling ...Music industry veterans Robbie Robertson, Jim Guerinot, Jared Levine, and Sebastian Robertson invite young readers to share with them in celebrating twenty-seven musical legends. Short profiles chronicle personal stories and achievements of extraordinarily talented artists whose innovations changed the landscape of music for generations to come. Carefully compiled like any great playlist, the line-up features originators, rebels, and risk-takers across diverse genres. From Ray Charles to Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan, Robertson shares anecdotes about these artists and the influence they had on his own musical journey.Always respectful of their reader, the writers never shy away from speaking about the difficult challenges these recording artists faced and the very human foibles that sometimes led to their tragic end. Most of all, it's the authors' passion and insights into these personal stories of creativity and collaboration -- and the power of music to shine a light on injustice and foster change -- that will fascinate, enlighten, and inspire music fans of all ages.&”Exclusive insights from a celebrated musician and passionate industry insiders, two accompanying CDs of legendary tracks and beautiful packaging make for a book with broad appeal -- one that will captivate fans of Robbie Robertson and music lovers of all ages.Tracklist for Legends, Icons & RebelsDisc One1. Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode2. Johnny Cash Get Rhythm3. Aretha Franklin I Say a Little Prayer4. The Beatles Here Comes the Sun6. Bob Marley Three Little Birds5. Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World7. Buddy Holly Peggy Sue8. Joni Mitchell The Circle Game9. Ray Charles & The Raelettes Hit the Road Jack10. Elvis Presley Hound Dog11. Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions People Get Ready12. Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra Let&’s Call the Whole Thing OffDisc Two 1. Little Richard Lucille2. Hank Williams Jambalaya (On the Bayou)3. Frank Sinatra Fly Me to the Moon4. Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through the Grapevine6. Sam Cooke Wonderful World5. Carole King So Far Away7. Louis Jordan Caldonia8. The Beach Boys In My Room9. Ella Fitzgerald A-Tisket, A-Tasket10. James Brown I Got You (I Feel Good)11. Patsy Cline Crazy12. Otis Redding That&’s How Strong My Love Is13. Nat King Cole It&’s Only a Paper Moon14. Stevie Wonder Signed, Sealed, Delivered I&’m Yours15. Bob Dylan Forever Young
Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area
by Oliver WangArmed with speakers, turntables, light systems, and records, Filipino American mobile DJ crews, such as Ultimate Creations, Spintronix, and Images, Inc., rocked dance floors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. In Legions of Boom noted music and pop culture writer and scholar Oliver Wang chronicles this remarkable scene that eventually became the cradle for turntablism. These crews, which were instrumental in helping to create and unify the Bay Area's Filipino American community, gave young men opportunities to assert their masculinity and gain social status. While crews regularly spun records for school dances, weddings, birthdays, or garage parties, the scene's centerpieces were showcases--or multi-crew performances--which drew crowds of hundreds, or even thousands. By the mid-1990s the scene was in decline, as single DJs became popular, recruitment to crews fell off, and aspiring scratch DJs branched off into their own scene. As the training ground for a generation of DJs, including DJ Q-Bert, Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike, the mobile scene left an indelible mark on its community that eventually grew to have a global impact.
Lemmy: The Definitive Biography
by Mick Wall'Unflinching, forthright and full of wry humour as the man himself, and there's little praise greater than that' CLASSIC ROCK'Wall's vision of Lemmy as a Rock'n'Roll stalwart who made no concessions is vivid to the last' GUARDIANIn 'The Ace of Spades', Motörhead's most famous song, Lemmy, the born-to-lose, live-to-win frontman of the band sang, 'I don't want to live forever'. Yet as he told his friend of 35 years, former PR and biographer Mick Wall, 'Actually, I want to go the day before forever. To avoid the rush...'. This is his strange but true story. Brutally frank, painfully funny, wincingly sad, and always beautifully told, LEMMY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY is the story of the only rock'n'roller never to sell his soul for silver and gold, while keeping the devil, as he put it, 'very close to my side'. From school days growing up in North Wales, to first finding fame in the mid-60s with the Rockin' Vicars; from being Jimi Hendrix's personal roadie ('I would score acid for him'), to leading Hawkwind to the top of the charts in 1972 with 'Silver Machine' ('I was fired for taking the wrong drugs'); from forming Motörhead ('I wanted to call the band Bastard but my manager wouldn't let me'), whose iconoclastic album NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH entered the UK charts at No. 1.Based on Mick's original interviews with Lemmy conducted over numerous years, along with the insights of those who knew him best - former band mates, friends, managers, fellow artists and record business insiders - this is an unputdownable story of one of Britain's greatest characters. As Lemmy once said of Wall, 'Mick Wall is one of the few rock writers in the world who can actually write and seems to know anything about rock music. I can and do talk to him for hours - poor bastard.' With the hard part of his journey now over, Lemmy is set to become a legend. LEMMY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY explains exactly how that came to be.
Lemmy: The Definitive Biography
by Mick WallBrutally frank, painfully funny, wincingly sad, and always beautifully told, LEMMY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY is the story of the only rock'n'roller never to sell his soul for silver and gold, while keeping the devil, as he put it, 'very close to my side'. From school days growing up in North Wales, to first finding fame in the mid-60s with the Rockin' Vicars; from being Jimi Hendrix's personal roadie, to leading Hawkwind to the top of the charts in 1972 with 'Silver Machine; to forming Motörhead. Based on Mick's original interviews with Lemmy conducted over numerous years, along with the insights of those who knew him best - former band mates, friends, managers, fellow artists and record business insiders - this is a compelling story of one of Britain's greatest characters. As Lemmy once said of Wall, 'Mick Wall is one of the few rock writers in the world who can actually write and seems to know anything about rock music. I can and do talk to him for hours"
Lemon Jail: On the Road with the Replacements
by Bill SullivanA tour diary of life on the road with one of Minnesota&’s greatest bands—with nearly 100 never-before-seen photographs &“Don&’t bore us, get to the chorus&” is Bill Sullivan&’s motto, which will come as no surprise to anyone who opens Lemon Jail. A raucous tour diary of rock &’n&’ roll in the 1980s, Sullivan&’s book puts us in the van with the Replacements in the early years. Barreling down the highway to the next show through quiet nights and hightailing it out of scandalized college towns, Sullivan—the young and reckless roadie—is in the middle of the joy and chaos, trying to get the band on stage and the crowd off it and knowing when to jump in and cover Alice Cooper. Lemon Jail shows what it&’s like to keep the band on the road and the wheels on the van—and when to just close your eyes and hit the gas. That first van, dubbed the Lemon Jail by Bill, takes the now legendary Replacements from a south Minneapolis basement to dive bars and iconic rock clubs to college parties and eventually an international stage. It&’s not a straight shot or a smooth ride, and there&’s never a dull moment, whether Bob Stinson is setting a record for the quickest ejection from CBGB in NYC or hiding White Castle sliders around a hotel room or whether Paul Westerberg is sneaking gear out of a hostile venue or saving Bill&’s life at a brothel in New Jersey. With growing fame (and new vans) come tours with REM and X (what happens when the audience isn&’t allowed to stand?), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Violent Femmes (against their will), and Saturday Night Live, where the band&’s televised antics earn the edict You&’ll never play on NBC again. Fast forward: You&’ll never play Washington, D.C., again. Or Moorhead.Hiding in fans&’ backyards while the police search the streets and pelted with canned goods at a Kent State food drive, the Replacements hit rough patches along with sweet spots, and Lemon Jail reveals the grit and glory both onstage and off, all told in the irrepressible, full-throttle style that makes Bill Sullivan an irresistible guide on this once-in-a-lifetime road trip with a band on the make.
Lemonade Mouth
by Mark Peter HughesPoets. Geniuses. Revolutionaries.The members of the legendary band Lemonade Mouth have been called all of these things. But until now, nobody's known the inside story of how this powerhouse band came to be. How five outcasts in Opoquonsett High School's freshman class found each other, found the music, and went on to change both rock and roll and high school as we know it. Wen, Stella, Charlie, Olivia, and Mo take us back to that fateful detention where a dentist's jingle, a teacher's coughing fit, and a beat-up ukelele gave birth to Rhode Island's most influential band. Told in each of their five voices and compiled by Opoquonsett's "scene queen," freshman Naomi Fishmeier, this anthology is their definitive history.From the Hardcover edition.
Lemonade Mouth Puckers Up
by Mark Peter HughesThis is what happened after five outcasts in Opequonsett High School found each other, found the music, and went on to become Rhode Island's most influential band. What's next for this group of musical misfits? Whatever is it, it will be nothing short of revoluntionary.
Lennon Revealed
by Larry KaneA quarter of a century after his death, the questions remain: what was John Lennon really like, what drove him to the heights of creativity and the depths of despair, and why do his music and message still resonate for millions around the world? Now acclaimed broadcast journalist and author Larry Kane uncovers the mysteries of Lennon's life and implodes the myths surrounding it. Kane definitely has the right credentials for the job. He was the only American reporter to travel in the Beatles' official entourage to every stop on their history-making first American tours, and he stayed in touch with Lennon until an assassin ended the former Beatles' life in 1980. Lennon Revealed is filled with revelations about John Lennon's path from public glory to personal crisis, and ultimately to his inspiring rebirth and the triumph of his spirit. Drawing on extensive personal accounts and extraordinary new interviews with more than 100 confidants-most notably, Yoko Ono-Kane presents stunning revelations and brings the reader closer than ever to the man who, in life and in death, has had an incalculable impact on humanity. Includes an exclusive DVD featuring the final interview with Lennon and Paul McCartney, conducted by Larry Kane.
Lennon and McCartney: Painting with Sound
by Thomas MacFarlaneLennon & McCartney: Painting with Sound explores the work of two of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. Five decades after the breakup of the Beatles, the music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney continues to fascinate and inspire. Evidence suggests that their uniquely eclectic approach can be traced back to the Liverpool College of Art. Following on that idea, this book explores the creative dialogue between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, both with the Beatles and on their own, that grew out of that early influence. MacFarlane considers the Liverpool College of Art as the backdrop for John and Paul’s early collaborations with painter and musician Stuart Sutcliffe. This is followed by the main body of the text, presented in three sections: Section I. Stretching the Canvas explores select works created by the band between 1963-66. Section II. Extending the Space assesses key Beatle projects of the late 1960s followed by an exploration of the long-distance creative dialogue between Lennon and McCartney as demonstrated in their respective solo recordings of the 1970s. Section III. New Colours considers the final works of the Lennon and McCartney creative dialogue as well as various McCartney solo projects released in the years that followed Lennon’s death in 1980. Here, the focus is on Paul’s development as a painter, its effect on his creativity, and his subsequent efforts to establish the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts as a world-class arts conservatory.
Lennon in America: 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries
by Geoffery GiulianoJohn Lennon was a legend in his own time. Deprived of life at a young age, Lennon has become a symbol of the '60s and '70s peace movement. But what do we really know about him as a person?
Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon
by Jeff BurgerJohn Lennon was a highly opinionated and controversial figure with a commanding personality and quick wit. He spoke candidly about his intense, sometimes tumultuous relationship with Yoko Ono, his split with the Beatles, his squabbles with Paul McCartney, and just about everything else, baring his emotional ups and downs for all to see. By the time he granted his--and this book's--final interview, only hours before his death, he had become one of the most famous people on the planet. Lennon on Lennon is an authoritative anthology of some of Lennon's most illuminating interviews. The majority have not been previously available in print, and several of the most important have not been widely available in any format. This material paints a revealing picture of the artist in his own words and offers a window into the cultural atmosphere of the sixties and seventies.
Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll
by Greg LaurieA nationally best-selling author and pastor draws lessons of hope and transformation in the perils of excess, the agonies of repentance, and the wonder of redemption found in the life stories of several icons of pop music and rock and roll. From the author of Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon comes Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus, which traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees—a great place to look up and finally meet their Maker. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus chronicles the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to today, giving the book an all-encompassing study of pop music history. Through his personal memories, coupled with his carefully crafted observational research, Greg Laurie not only looks deeply into the hearts and souls of these unusual people but bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey down the secluded halls of the music industry with the individuals who crafted modern-day masterpieces. Readers will enjoy never-before-published accounts of the biggest recording artists of our time and hear testimonies from rockers of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. More importantly, every reader will find a deeper sense of God&’s presence, even in times of loneliness and desolation.
Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life
by Tim RileyIn his commanding new book, the eminent NPR critic Tim Riley takes us on the remarkable journey that brought a Liverpool art student from a disastrous childhood to the highest realms of fame.Riley portrays Lennon's rise from Hamburg's red light district to Britain's Royal Variety Show; from the charmed naiveté of "Love Me Do" to the soaring ambivalence of "Don't Let Me Down"; from his shotgun marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1962 to his epic media romance with Yoko Ono. Written with the critical insight and stylistic mastery readers have come to expect from Riley, this richly textured narrative draws on numerous new and exclusive interviews with Lennon's friends, enemies, confidantes, and associates; lost memoirs written by relatives and friends; as well as previously undiscovered City of Liverpool records. Riley explores Lennon in all of his contradictions: the British art student who universalized an American style, the anarchic rock 'n' roller with the moral spine, the anti-jazz snob who posed naked with his avant-garde lover, and the misogynist who became a househusband. What emerges is the enormous, seductive, and confounding personality that made Lennon a cultural touchstone.In Lennon, Riley casts Lennon as a modernist hero in a sweeping epic, dramatizing rock history anew as Lennon himself might have experienced it.
Lentil
by Robert MccloskeyLentil cannot sing or even whistle; longing to make music in some fashion, he provides himself with a harmonica and practices constantly wherever he is, especially in the bathtub, because there his tone is improved 100 percent. A book that, along with its fun, truly illustrates the American scene.
Lento y salvaje: La manera nómada e independiente de vivir la música y cantar la vida el compositor de McEnroe
by Ricardo LezónLa descarnada y emotiva autobiografía de Ricardo Lezón, líder de la icónica banda McEnroe. En aquel tiempo, pese a vivir una vida ordenada, todo estaba desordenado en mí, tanto como las frases incomprensibles que escribía y que en su fondo guardaban ese desconcierto de quien no encaja ni sabe dónde encajar. La extraña armonía que desprenden es la de un hombre perdido que sabe que siempre lo estará. Resistir a la tristeza aun dudando de si el corazón batido volverá a latir como antes. Seguir a flote gracias al salvavidas de la música, refugio al que acudir y donde guarecerse cuando fuera todo se tambalea. O para conseguir que todo se tambalee. Dejar que te arrase el gozo que provoca un nuevo amor, una nueva canción, con la seguridad de que no hay otro camino. Desarmarse siempre ante lo natural. Esta es la autobiografía de Ricardo Lezón, líder de la icónica banda McEnroe, que cumple veinte años de vida, con más de siete álbumes publicados y cientos de miles de kilómetros de carretera y escenario. La de McEnroe es la historia de un éxito extraño, de veinte años dedicándose a la música sin convertirla nunca en un trabajo, dejando crecer siempre la semilla de lo espontaneo, con la confianza de sus propios pasos. En este libro, narrado con mucha pluma y sensibilidad, Ricardo Lezón baja al suelo el mito del rock and roll. Un libro muy sincero escrito por el autor de algunas de las mejores canciones del indie español.Lento y salvaje es el relato de un hombre construyendo su paisaje. La historia sencilla de alguien que camina a través de la ansiedad, la tristeza, la esperanza y la alegría con el paso frágil pero terco de quien encuentra el sentido y la paz en la belleza.
Leo Ornstein's Piano Sketch Books with Downloadable MP3s: Progressive Pieces from Beginner to Intermediate
by Janice Weber Leo Ornstein Severo OrnsteinBeginning pianists will rejoice in this collection of original, fun-to-play pieces by a noted American composer. First published between 1939 and 1945, the melodies provide an interesting and positive musical experience while building technical skills and sight reading. The songs start simply and incrementally, adding more complexity as students progress through the book.Virtuoso pianist Janice Weber provides additional guidance, and the collection comes with a separate MP3 download for each of the eighty-three pieces. Selections include "My Little Boat is Sailing," "Long Live the King," "Let's Go Skating," "The Lonely Cowboy," "The Viking Song," and other playful tunes. In addition to its value to beginning pianists of all ages, this collection is also helpful for those wishing to practice and refresh their skills.
Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices
by Michael Broyles Denise Von GlahnLeo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices traces the meteoric rise and heretofore inexplicable disappearance of the Russian-American, futurist-anarchist, pianist-composer from his arrival in the United States in 1906 through a career that lasted nearly a century. Outliving his admirers and critics by decades Leo Ornstein passed away in 2002 at the age of 108. Frequently compared to Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, for a time Ornstein enjoyed a kind a celebrity granted few living musicians. And then he turned his back on it all. This first, full-length biographical study draws upon interviews, journals, and letters from a wide circle of Ornstein's friends and acquaintances to track the Ornstein family as it escaped the horrors of the Russian pogroms, and it situates the Russian-Jewish-American musician as he carved out an identity amidst World War I, the flu pandemic, and the Red Scare. While telling Leo Ornstein's story, the book also illuminates the stories of thousands of immigrants with similar harrowing experiences. It also explores the immeasurable impact of his unexpected marriage in 1918 to Pauline Mallet-Prevost, a Park Avenue debutante. Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices finds Ornstein at the center of several networks that included artists John Marin, William Zorach, Leon Kroll, writers and activists Paul Rosenfeld, Waldo Frank, Edmund Wilson, and Clair Reis, the Stieglitz Circle, and a group of English composers known as the Frankfurt Five. Ornstein's story challenges directly the traditional chronology and narrative regarding musical modernism in America and its close relation to the other arts.
Leo Smith: A Biographical Sketch (The Royal Society of Canada Special Publications)
by Pearl McCarthyLEO SMITH—cellist, journalist, composer, and teacher—was one of the most picturesque and frequently idolized artists on the Canadian scene. His career spanned the years between the old music and the new, between the time when artistic education was private and the time when people fasten their cultural hopes on public education and government funds, between the last days when white gloves were worn to drawing room musicales and the days when men dash to recitals without ties. Throughout this period, Leo Smith not only composed and performed for the public, but carried his public with him into the new era. His history, then, provides a changing picture of the Canadian cultural scene through one of the most formative periods in the country's social history. To the crowds at large popular concerts such as the Toronto Proms, this elderly, contented musician represented the epitome of the music maker. In his music, Leo Smith bridged the gap between the old orthodoxies and new idioms, and as a teacher of theory and composition, he showed a younger generation, intent on yet newer innovations, how to be consistent as creative experimentalists. And in the last years of his life he moved out of the scholar's study into the hurly-burly of a metropolitan newspaper to become one of Canada's most trenchant and informed music critics. Pearl McCarthy's biography vividly recapitulates the Canadian musical scene between 1910 and 1952 and provides a coda to the career of an important influecne in Canadian music.
Leo Sowerby (American Composers)
by Joseph SargentFrom the 1920s to the 1940s, Leo Sowerby created popular secular works while his sacred compositions led admirers to call him the “dean of American church musicians.” Yet in time, Sowerby’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Canticle of the Sun and the rest of his corpus lost favor with the A-list symphonies and prominent musicians who had once made him a fixture in their repertoires. Joseph Sargent’s biography offers the first focused study of Sowerby’s life and work against the backdrop of the composer’s place in American music. As Sargent shows, Sowerby’s present-day marginalization as a composer relates less to the quality of his work than the fact that today’s historiographical practices and canon-building activities minimize modern church music. Sargent’s re-evaluation draws on a wide range of perspectives and composer’s music and writings to enrich detailed analyses of musical works and a career-spanning consideration of Sowerby’s musical language and aesthetic priorities.
Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History
by Bill JanovitzThe definitive New York Times bestselling biography of legendary musician, composer, and performer Leon Russell, who profoudly influenced George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, and the world of music as a whole. Leon Russell is an icon, but somehow is still an underappreciated artist. He is spoken of in tones reserved not just for the most talented musicians, but also for the most complex and fascinating. His career is like a roadmap of music history, often intersecting with rock royalty like Bob Dylan, the Stones, and the Beatles. He started in the Fifties as a teenager touring with Jerry Lee Lewis, going on to play piano on records by such giants as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Phil Spector, and on hundreds of classic songs with major recording artists. Leon was Elton John&’s idol, and Elton inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Leon also gets credit for altering Willie Nelson&’s career, giving us the long-haired, pot-friendly Willie we all know and love today. In his prime, Leon filled stadiums on solo tours, and was an organizer/performer on both Joe Cocker&’s revolutionary Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and George Harrison&’s Concert for Bangladesh. Leon also founded Shelter Records in 1969 with producer Denny Cordell, discovering and releasing the debut albums of Tom Petty, the Gap Band, Phoebe Snow, and J.J. Cale. Leon always assembled wildly diverse bands and performances, fostering creative and free atmospheres for musicians to live and work together. He brazenly challenged musical and social barriers. However, Russell also struggled with his demons, including substance abuse, severe depression, and a crippling stage fright that wreaked havoc on his psyche over the long haul and at times seemed to will himself into obscurity. Now, acclaimed author and founding member of Buffalo Tom, Bill Janovitz shines the spotlight on one of the most important music makers of the twentieth century.
Leonard Bernstein
by Allen ShawnLeonard Bernstein stood at the epicenter of twentieth-century American musical life. His creative gifts knew no boundaries as he moved easily from the podium, to the piano, to television with his nationally celebrated Young People's Concerts, which introduced an entire generation to the joy of classical music. In this fascinating new biography, the breadth of Bernstein's musical composition is explored, through the spectacular range of music he composed--from West Side Story to Kaddish to A Quiet Place and beyond--and through his intensely public role as an internationally celebrated conductor. For the first time, the composer's life and work receive a fully integrated analysis, offering a comprehensive appreciation of a multi-faceted musician who continued to grow as an artist well into his final days.