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Cobain Unseen

Charles R. Cross

Cobain Unseen Charles R. Cross Amazon Price: $23.10
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Awesome Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I just picked this up today and I can't seem to put it down. If your a fan of Cobain and or Nirvana I recommend buying this. It is packed full of very nice pictures and tons of other things.

Editorial Review:

An unparalleled look inside the brilliant mind of one of America's most revered rock legends, Cobain Unseen collects previously unseen artifacts and photographs from the estate's archives to form a fascinating portrait of the creativity, madness, and genius of Kurt Cobain.
Personal items and photographs take readers deeper inside Cobain's life than they've ever been before, and interactive features, such as Kurt's handwritten sticker-sheet of Nirvana name tags, facsimiles of unseen journal pages, and gatefolds of his graffiti-embellished guitars make this an essential keepsake. An audio CD showcasing spoken-word material by Cobain, some of it never before released, will be included. Accompanying the previously unpublished images and memorabilia is a compelling biographical narrative by New York Times-bestselling author Charles R. Cross.

Clapton: The Autobiography

Eric Clapton

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Total reviews: 317 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“I found a pattern in my behavior that had been repeating itself for years, decades even. Bad choices were my specialty, and if something honest and decent came along, I would shun it or run the other way.”

With striking intimacy and candor, Eric Clapton tells the story of his eventful and inspiring life in this poignant and honest autobiography. More than a rock star, he is an icon, a living embodiment of the history of rock music. Well known for his reserve in a profession marked by self-promotion, flamboyance, and spin, he now chronicles, for the first time, his remarkable personal and professional journeys.

Born illegitimate in 1945 and raised by his grandparents, Eric never knew his father and, until the age of nine, believed his actual mother to be his sister. In his early teens his solace was the guitar, and his incredible talent would make him a cult hero in the clubs of Britain and inspire devoted fans to scrawl “Clapton is God” on the walls of London’s Underground. With the formation of Cream, the world's first supergroup, he became a worldwide superstar, but conflicting personalities tore the band apart within two years. His stints in Blind Faith, in Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, and in Derek and the Dominos were also short-lived but yielded some of the most enduring songs in history, including the classic “Layla.”

During the late sixties he played as a guest with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, as well as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and longtime friend George Harrison. It was while working with the latter that he fell for George’s wife, Pattie Boyd, a seemingly unrequited love that led him to the depths of despair, self-imposed seclusion, and drug addiction. By the early seventies he had overcome his addiction and released the bestselling album 461 Ocean Boulevard, with its massive hit “I Shot the Sheriff.” He followed that with the platinum album Slowhand, which included “Wonderful Tonight,” the touching love song to Pattie, whom he finally married at the end of 1979. A short time later, however, Eric had replaced heroin with alcohol as his preferred vice, following a pattern of behavior that not only was detrimental to his music but contributed to the eventual breakup of his marriage.
In the eighties he would battle and begin his recovery from alcoholism and become a father. But just as his life was coming together, he was struck by a terrible blow: His beloved four-year-old son, Conor, died in a freak accident. At an earlier time Eric might have coped with this tragedy by fleeing into a world of addiction. But now a much stronger man, he took refuge in music, responding with the achingly beautiful “Tears in Heaven.”

Clapton is the powerfully written story of a survivor, a man who has achieved the pinnacle of success despite extraordinary demons. It is one of the most compelling memoirs of our time.

Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)

Don Felder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 89 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Let it go Don 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is an entertaining enough read. I actually would have rated it higher than three stars because it is enjoyable. But ultimately, it's written by a very small, bitter man.

Don Felder is a very talented guitarist. No question. The first time that I saw the Eagles in person was in Vegas on 12/27/1999. I never realized just how many of their key guitar parts were played by him. But for those people who think that without him, their sound isn't as good, get a grip.

There's a lot of great guitar players in the world, and the ones who become famous become so because they write and sing great material. That's what separates well-known great guitarists like Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck or George Harrison from equally great guitarists like Felder or a thousand other session men. Another of those is Felder's replacement, Stueart Smith, who is a virtuoso. (And has actually written more material for the Eagles than Felder ever did.)

Does Felder honestly believe that he's equally responsible for the success of the Eagles as Don Henley and Glenn Frey? Then, he's quite the one to talk about egos.

The point of the entire book is the evil Don Henley and Glenn Frey and their outsized egos. No question they have them. But who in their position doesn't? Wasn't Bernie Leadon displaying a rather huge ego when he didn't like the fact that they band was moving in a [more successful] direction that he didn't like? Felder could have walked away whenever he wanted. That's what Randy Meisner did. Meisner didn't want to deal with touring and the pressures of having to turn out more albums on schedule. He wanted to be with his family and work on his own. Felder could have done the same. Yet he stayed with the band and even came back when they reunited.

Felder blames every bad thing in his life on Henley and Frey. Did they force drugs into his system for him? Did they personally take groupies and mount them on Felder's pen..? For god's sake, be a man and take responsibility for your own failings.

So why did Henley and Fry settle out of court? Look at most of the reactions here to this book. Most believe what Felder wrote, without even hearing the other side. Dragging out a high-profile court case and bringing more of what was a sordid past into light is hardly when Henley and Frey need. They both have families and both have done things that they aren't proud of. As for financial matters, no matter the truth, a judge would likely have given Felder some sort of financial settlement. It is unlikely that any judge would have ruled 100% for one side of the other, so the easiest thing to do was to settle, with an agreement that got a lot of other ugly gossip material that was originally in this book removed.

Felder tries to drag down Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh with him. Great guy. He seems to paint them as pathetic sidemen under the thumbs of "The Gods." Maybe Schmit and Walsh are just more realistic about their situation. Schmit nor Walsh was with the band at the start, and contrary to what he seems to portray, neither was Felder, who didn't get there until the tail end of the recording sessions on the third of their six pre-breakup albums.

The Eagles as performers in a band are a different entity than Eagles Ltd, the company that controls the band. Felder did own a chunk of that but it is now just Don and Glenn. Just because Walsh and Schmit are not co-owners of the management company "Eagles Ltd." does not mean that they are not truly part of "The Eagles." Some has to run and manage the show, and that's Henley and Frey, and Irving Azoff.

This is not that unusual a situation. A lot of musicians in rock bands really are just salaried men. From 1972 to 1980, the same time frame as the Eagles, Wings was one of the most popular bands in the world. Outside of Paul and Linda McCartney, it featured a lot of different salaried musicians during it's run. The exception was ex-Moody Bluesman Denny Laine, who was there from start to finish. But he was also on salary. He had a lot of similar complaints about Paul McCartney's control of the band and about money, despite McCartney's public challenge to name someone else in his [Laine's] position that was as well paid. Laine was McCartney's collaborator and co-writer of some Wings material. But did he really think that people were coming out to see him?

Did Felder, despite his great talent, think that people were coming out to see him?

Walsh and Schmit are happy with their situation. Obviously, they're making a ton of money. But professionally, they don't have many options anywhere close to being Eagles. And, yes, they are Eagles.

Schmit never had a particularly successful solo career. Walsh was very successful before he joined the Eagles and for a while after they disbanded in 1980. But, by 1994, Walsh's recordings weren't selling. He's very popular as part of the Eagles, and his guitar solos and lead vocals are a great part of the show. But he just wasn't that big a draw when his name was on top of the bill as a solo act. Both Schmit and Walsh add a lot to the Eagles, but in reality, the Eagles are mainly Henley and Frey. Most of the songs are theirs. Schmitt only contributed one lead vocal pre-breakup and has had three since the reunion. Walsh had two lead vocals pre-breakup and has two on the new album.

Even as popular as Walsh is with the fans performing mostly James Gang material, Henley and Frey could probably perform by themselves as the Eagles with just a nameless backup band and still be nearly as popular.

Felder was basically the Ringo Starr of the Eagles. He should have just stayed quiet and played his role. Like Starr, he is a talented musician with fairly limited ability beyond his instrument. Actually, if you listen to Felder's only lead vocal, 1974's "Visions," there is something of a vocal similarity to Starr. A pleasant sounding enough voice with range that is obviously quite limited.

Editorial Review:

The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever. Now band member and guitarist Don Felder finally breaks the Eagles’ years of public silence to take fans behind the scenes. He shares every part of the band’s wild ride, from the pressure-packed recording studios and trashed hotel rooms to the tension-filled courtrooms, and from the joy of writing powerful new songs to the magic of performing in huge arenas packed with roaring fans.

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

Sheila Weller

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation Sheila Weller Amazon Price: $18.45
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Total reviews: 120 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time.

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation -- female version -- but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written -- until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.

Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel -- except it's all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information.

Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them -- confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.

Scar Tissue

Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman

Scar Tissue Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman Amazon Price: $10.17
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Total reviews: 155 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Now in paperback, the New York Times bestseller by one of rock’s most provocative figures

Scar Tissue is Anthony Kiedis’s searingly honest memoir of a life spent in the fast lane. In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, against all odds, have become one of the most successful bands in the world. Though the band has gone through many incarnations, Anthony Kiedis, the group’s lyricist and dynamic lead singer, has been there for the whole roller-coaster ride.

Whether he’s recollecting the influence of the beautiful, strong women who have been his muses, or retracing a journey that has included appearances as diverse as a performance before half a million people at Woodstock or an audience of one at the humble compound of the exiled Dalai Lama, Kiedis shares a compelling story about the price of success and excess. Scar Tissue is a story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption -- a story that could only have come out of the world of rock.

The Soloist (Movie Tie-In): A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music

Steve Lopez

The Soloist (Movie Tie-In): A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music Steve Lopez Amazon Price: $9.75
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Soloist 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I highly recommend this book. It grabbed my attention. It was informative about the real world of homeless people on Skid Row in Los Angeles and the need for greater attention and care to be given to this population. The love and care and acceptance the author felt for the soloist was extraordinary. It is a book of love and hope.

The Soloist Soars 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A fabulous book with insight to homeless men and women that only Steve Lopez can bring. The music references and the "hook" that brought "The Soloist" back from the brink are terrific. I can't wait for the movie.

Editorial Review:

Now a major motion picture—“An intimate portrait of mental illness, of atrocious social neglect, and the struggle to resurrect a fallen prodigy.” (Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down)

This is the true story of journalist Steve Lopez’s discovery of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical bass student at Julliard, playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Deeply affected by the beauty of Ayers’s music, Lopez took it upon himself to change the prodigy’s life—only to find that their relationship has had a profound change on his own life.

Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life

John Adams

Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life John Adams Amazon Price: $17.16
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Editorial Review:

John Adams is one of the most respected and loved of contemporary composers, and “he has won his eminence fair and square: he has aimed high, he has addressed life as it is lived now, and he has found a language that makes sense to a wide audience” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker). Now, in Hallelujah Junction, he incisively relates his life story, from his childhood to his early studies in classical composition amid the musical and social ferment of the 1960s, from his landmark minimalist innovations to his controversial “docu-operas.” Adams offers a no-holds-barred portrait of the rich musical scene of 1970s California, and of his contemporaries and colleagues, including John Cage, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. He describes the process of writing, rehearsing, and performing his renowned works, as well as both the pleasures and the challenges of writing serious music in a country and a time largely preoccupied with pop culture. Hallelujah Junction is a thoughtful and original memoir that will appeal to both longtime Adams fans and newcomers to contemporary music. Not since Leonard Bernstein’s Findings has an eminent composer so candidly and accessibly explored his life and work. This searching self-portrait offers not only a glimpse into the work and world of one of our leading artists, but also an intimate look at one of the most exciting chapters in contemporary culture.

Life with My Sister Madonna

Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 197 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Madonna up close, by the brother who knows her better than anyone.

Christopher Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his forty-seven years of growing up with, working with, and understanding the most famous woman of our time, who has intrigued, scandalized, and entertained millions for half a century.

Through most of the iconic star's kaleidoscopic career, Christopher played an important role in her life: as her backup dancer, her personal assistant, her dresser, her decorator, her art director, her tour director.

If you think you know everything there is to know about Madonna, you are wrong. Only Christopher can tell the full scale, riveting untold story behind Madonna's carefully constructed mythology, and the real woman behind the glittering façade.

From their shared Michigan childhood, which Madonna transcended, then whisked Christopher to Manhattan with her in the early eighties, where he slepton her roach-infested floor and danced with her in clubs all over town -- Christopher was with her every step of the way, experiencing her first hand in all her incarnations. The spoiled daddy's girl, the punk drummer, the raunchy Boy Toy, Material Girl, Mrs. Sean Penn, Warren Beatty's glamorous Hollywood paramour, loving mother, Mrs. Guy Ritchie, English grande dame -- Christopher witnessed and understood all of them, as his own life was inexorably entwined with that of his chameleon sister.

He tangled with a cast of characters from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, to Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss, Demi Moore, and, of course, Guy Ritchie, whose advent in Madonna's life splintered the loving relationship Christopher once had with her.

The mirror image of his legendary sister, with his acid Ciccone tongue, Christopher pulls no punches as he tells his astonishing story.

Life with My Sister Madonna is the juicy, can't-put-it-down story you've always wanted to hear, as told by Madonna's younger brother.

Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life

Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Product Description
"In this book I hope to reach a new audience with the positive message of America’s greatest music, to show how great musicians demonstrate on the bandstand a mutual respect and trust that can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life–from individual creativity and personal relationships to conducting business and understanding what it means to be American in the most modern sense."
--Wynton Marsalis

In this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relating–for individuals, communities, and nations. Marsalis shows us how to listen to jazz, and through stories about his life and the lessons he has learned from other music greats, he reveals how the central ideas in jazz can influence the way people think and even how they behave with others, changing self, family, and community for the better. At the heart of jazz is the expression of personality and individuality, coupled with an ability to listen to and improvise with others. Jazz as an art--and as a way to move people and nations to higher ground--is at the core of this unique, illuminating, and inspiring book, a master class on jazz and life by a brilliant American artist.

An Interview with Wynton Marsalis

Q: You’re a musician and composer. Why did you write this book, which is about life and lots of other things besides jazz?
A: When I first decided to become a musician, at the age of 12 or 13, I was inspired by my father, and by the New Orleans jazz tradition. I was under the impression that I had only to learn the fundamentals of music--rhythm, melody, harmony, texture--to progress as a musician. What I didn’t know then was that over the next three decades, jazz music would teach me many significant things about living. This book grew out of ten years of conversatins with my friend Geoff Ward, and is my attempt to share some of it—about how important it is to be yourself in the world, and at the same time create while respecting the creativity of others.

Q: What does the title of this book, Moving to Higher Ground, mean to you?
A: Too often in life, petty squabbles and small-mindedness keep us from realizing a higher purpose. In jazz, that higher purpose is not theoretical: We want to sound good. And when we do, you can hear what it’s like when people are really trying to get along. It’s purely human: In Jazz, you can mess up and still come together, still move together to higher ground. The title means ascending through engagement.

Q: You suggest that the ideas at the heart of jazz can carry over into everyday life. How so?
A: Let’s take two ideas in jazz that are most central: swinging and the blues.

Swinging is the art of negotiation with someone else, under the pressure of time. It shows you how opposites can come together, without compromising who they are. The one who plays the highest-sounding instrument in the rhythm section--the time-keeping cymbal--has to find a way of working with the one who plays the lowest instrument, the bass. And the bass player, who plays the softest instrument, has to find a way of working with the player of the loudest, the drums. To succeed, everybody has to have a very clear idea of the common goal: What exactly are we here to do? In jazz we know: swing. In life, if everyone involved can agree on a primary objective, a group can accomplish almost anything.

The blues is many things--a musical form, a distinctive sound, a universal feeling--but above all, the blues is survival music. It’s message is simple: things are never so bad that they can’t get any better. It’s about crying over something, actually wailing--and it’s about coming back. The words may be sad but the dancing shuffle (the definitive rhythm of the blues) is always happy or heading toward happiness. The blues is about what is--and what is has demons and angels sitting at the same table. That’s a bitter-sweet and realistic message about life that everybody needs, that everybody can hear and respond to. I’ve heard people respond to it, all over the world.

Q: How do jazz principles apply to, say, holding a successful meeting?
A: If you come to a meeting without an agenda it’s probably not going to be a very good meeting. In jazz improvisation, the agenda is the form of the song. But an agenda alone doesn’t guarantee success. If everybody feels free to participate, unexpected things are sure to come up and will have to be dealt with intelligently. That’s true in jazz improvisation, too. Things are bound to come up. Some need to be discarded right away. Others need to be expounded upon. Anyone in the rhythm section playing along behind the soloist can decide, "Hey, we need to investigate this further." And the soloist can respond, "Yeah, let’s go into that." It’s a system of checks and balances, but what makes it work is the fact that everybody is listening and responding to what the soloist is saying without ever forgetting the agenda. That’s a pretty good model for swinging, and for getting things done.

Q: How do jazz principles apply to a family?
The central relationship on the bandstand is between the bass and the drums. They’re opposites of volume and register. The drums are the loudest and the swung cymbal is the highest-pitched while the bass is the softest and lowest-pitched. In order to swing, the right-hand stroke on the cymbal must find the right-hand pluck of the bass on every beat. While it is impossible to line those beats up with metronomic perfection it is possible to achieve a perfect intent to be together. That’s what you would like to see with a mama and a daddy. They represent gender opposites. While they try to come together to solve a problem we can go in the direction of a good time. When they don’t--when one is too loud or the other is unyielding--it becomes a matter of endurance, not swinging.

Q: What can jazz teach us about our feelings and ourselves as individuals?
A: We’re all given the gift of creativity. It comes out in all kinds of ways--the way we talk or dress or cook or whistle. I remember when I was a kid my friends and I used to see who could cut grass in the most creative way. But many times young people are put down for having a gift or skill that doesn’t fit with somebody else’s idea of what he or she should do with their lives. Jazz is the opposite of that. It tells you, "That’s you! Take pride in this thing. Express yourself. Your sound is unique. Work on it. Understand it." Often it teaches you to celebrate yourself.

When we talk about expressing feelings in jazz, we mean spiritual feelings, empathetic feelings, feelings that are beyond thought. In jazz, musical ideas move too quickly for you to stop and analyze or to formulate a lie. By the time you think about it, that moment of music is long gone. Jazz teaches you to cherish how you feel in the moment. It puts a premium on having faith in the people you’re playing with. Because the second you lose that faith and start to question what they’re doing, the distraction takes your mind off the music and onto bad decisions that you will surely begin to make. The combination of emotional honesty and mutual trust that jazz demands can help you if applied to almost any field.

Q: How can jazz help you understand your own friends and family better?
A: At first it may seem like a paradox, but jazz helps you understand other people by teaching you that you never really know anybody. When you play music with someone--even someone you think you know really well--they’ll play things you don’t expect and can’t anticipate. You’ll go in one direction, based on what you think is going to happen and they’ll take a completely different path. Jazz lets people be free, and to surprise you--and them. It doesn’t let you mail in your response or let you lump people into categories that turn out to be meaningless.

It also shows you that people, even geniuses, evolve over time. The Duke Ellington who played in 1931 was very different from the Duke of 1961. So you learn to be patient with other people and respect the progress they’ve made and are still capable of making. One of the biggest challenges in dealing with friends and family is communication and more communication. Jazz forces us to communicate with people while recognizing their objectives, and over objectives, and where we can come together.

Q: How is jazz related to America, the country that created it?
A: This art form was created to explain who we are. We have rights and responsibilities in the music just as we do as citizens. The Constitution can be amended and songs can always be added to or changes. In jazz we place a premium on the individual’s right to self-expression but we also insist on checks and balances between one person’s rights infringing on another--the soloists and the rhythm section have to work things out together. Otherwise the piece is a mess.

Jazz allows us to improvise, to negotiate with one another. It’s the sound of many people coming together in one thing. You might be from Chicago and be Jewish but you can stand on this bandstand with a Creole from New Orleans and when both of y’all play, you’ll agree on what sounds good, and you’ll agree on it because you both can hear it. It’s democracy in action and it allows us, for all our faults, to see the success of our history. It tells us who we have been, who we are now, and who we can be in the future.

Q: Why is jazz especially relevant today?
A: This country is looking for change. Just look at what’s going on: An African American and a woman were leading contenders for the presidency; Big questions of race and identity; millions of brand-new voters turning out. Barack Obama carrying southern states in the primaries with a charismatic message of coming together. It’s a different time in our country and I think it’s the perfect time for this music.

Now, jazz has always been timely because it deals with the timeless issues of people, and of our democracy. Louis Armstrong dealt with them. So did Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. But if you listen to political candidates today, they almost never talk about culture. It’s never really been part of our national dialogue and it should be, because it’s the best was for us actually to come together. We talk a lot about having national conversations and we’ve tried legislating unity. But we need to understand that art can bring people who are different together. Jazz provides a context for all the experiences we as human beings share.

The direction of our culture is ascendant. Jazz is a perfect embodiment of that. Jazz is ascendant. If we take a long view of the past 150 years, we won’t come to the conclusion that things are getting worse. We still have problems of corruption and greed. Jazz can provide a good antidote for them, too. To maintain their integrity, musicians have had to make many decisions that placed substance over commercial success. Jazz musicians have always aspired to an almost Utopian vision of a country in which everybody would come together and swing.

The contemporary excitement around empowering people is not new to jazz. Jazz is empowerment. Its first great achievement was to empower individual musicians to take part in the creative process through improvisation. Participation is essential to a healthy American democracy, and it’s essential to America’s greatest music, too. Everybody has to participate to make it sound good. Whether you’re playing or listening, you have to be active. If you’re just sitting there and waiting for something to happen, nothing will. I hope this book will empower as many people as possible to take part by showing how an understanding of jazz and its principles can change your life, and our lives together.

The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photos, Letters, Memories & More from Q’s Personal Collection

Quincy Jones

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Editorial Review:

Everything you love about American popular culture is Quincy Jones. As an artist and impresario Quincy Jones has been the creative catalyst for over 50 years of American cultural phenomena orchestrating the sounds of Frank Sinatra, setting the ambiance for Steven Spielberg, cultivating the talent of Michael Jackson, and introducing the world Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith--to name a few. The Complete Quincy Jones examines the diverse virtuosity of Quincy Jones, celebrating his prolific contribution to American art and culture. Comprised of personal interviews and recollections with Jones, this collection peers behind the veil of
celebrity, with extraordinary access to his creative inspirations and labors. Through private notebooks, correspondence, and photographs Jones offers unprecedented introspection into the depths of his creativity and the histories of his ventures. From the volumes of his memorabilia, Jones emerges as a contemplative and dynamic maestro, thriving on intuition and ceaselessly pursuing the soul of his art.

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