Music Related Books

I'd be curious about an review of that one.
I'm just getting started, but if you like Gatton or the music scene around WDC in the 70s you'll like this.
The writing is nothing special, kind of like reading a collection newspaper articles, with a lot of interviews and quotes from musicians, family, and friends.
 
I'm just getting started, but if you like Gatton or the music scene around WDC in the 70s you'll like this.
The writing is nothing special, kind of like reading a collection newspaper articles, with a lot of interviews and quotes from musicians, family, and friends.
Cool.
I don't have much time reading these days, but I'll keep it in mind for the future.
 
Cool.
I don't have much time reading these days, but I'll keep it in mind for the future.
I've finished the Gatton biography "Unfinished Business - The Life & Times of Danny Gatton" by Ralph Heibutzki. I wrote earlier that it reads like a collection newspaper articles, with a lot of interviews and quotes from musicians, family, and friends. This is pretty much it, the author reports, but does not synthesize any of the interviews, nor does he attempt to reconcile any conflicting points of view, nor even any contradictions from the same interviewee. If you're hoping to find out why Danny Gatton committed suicide, this book is not for you. Or if you're a gear head, you won't get much in-depth descriptions of Danny's guitars and amps.
On the other hand, if you're simply curious about who Danny Gatton is, or if you live in the DC area and want to read about some of the local clubs that Danny played in, give this book a try.
 
I found this First Edition / First Printing Penguin Guide to Jazz CD-Vinyl-Cassette on Amazon for 99 cents (USED) in Good condition. I had one in the late 90's but I have no idea what happened to it. Honestly, I probably loaned it and never got it back.

This is the 1992 first edition by Cook and Morton. IMO, one of the finest guides ever published. I may get the latest edition as well just to have it in the library.

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I've finished the Gatton biography "Unfinished Business - The Life & Times of Danny Gatton" by Ralph Heibutzki. I wrote earlier that it reads like a collection newspaper articles, with a lot of interviews and quotes from musicians, family, and friends. This is pretty much it, the author reports, but does not synthesize any of the interviews, nor does he attempt to reconcile any conflicting points of view, nor even any contradictions from the same interviewee. If you're hoping to find out why Danny Gatton committed suicide, this book is not for you. Or if you're a gear head, you won't get much in-depth descriptions of Danny's guitars and amps.
On the other hand, if you're simply curious about who Danny Gatton is, or if you live in the DC area and want to read about some of the local clubs that Danny played in, give this book a try.
Thanks.
I dig those kinds of books.
 
2 chapters into this and very enjoyable, and of interest to gear-heads as well as musicologists. Found cheap copies at the Strand Bookstore in NYC. Unsure if available on their website at the price I paid ($13.50):

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digital-signatures

Digital Signatures

The Impact of Digitization on Popular Music Sound
By Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen and Anne Danielsen
Overview
Is digital production killing the soul of music? Is Auto-Tune the nadir of creative expression? Digital technology has changed not only how music is produced, distributed, and consumed but also—equally important but not often considered—how music sounds. In this book, Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen and Anne Danielsen examine the impact of digitization on the aesthetics of popular music. They investigate sonically distinctive “digital signatures”—musical moments when the use of digital technology is revealed to the listener. The particular signatures of digital mediation they examine include digital reverb and delay, MIDI and sampling, digital silence, the virtual cut-and-paste tool, digital glitches, microrhythmic manipulation, and autotuning—all of which they analyze in specific works by popular artists.

Combining technical and historical knowledge of music production with musical analyses, aesthetic interpretations, and theoretical discussions, Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen offer unique insights into how digitization has changed the sound of popular music and the listener’s experience of it. For example, they show how digital reverb and delay have allowed experimentation with spatiality by analyzing Kate Bush’s “Get Out of My House”; they examine the contrast between digital silence and the low-tech noises of tape hiss or vinyl crackle in Portishead’s “Stranger”; and they describe the development of Auto-Tune—at first a tool for pitch correction—into an artistic effect, citing work by various hip-hop artists, Bon Iver, and Lady Gaga.
 
I've been bathroom-reading an early edition of "The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock & Heavy Metal" by Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver, from circa 1983. An odd book, basically listing bands that meet the authors' perceived criteria of "heavy" - there's actually quite a few non-heavy bands included, not to mention lots of AOR and pomp bands. But kinda neat to see mentions of all these 2nd and 3rd tier groups that one stumbles upon in the dollar bins. Unfortunately the write-ups are fairly skimpy are there are loads of factual errors. Also bands listed that at the time had no music released (lots of NWoBHM) and flamed out before recording anything. So yeah, sort of a curio piece.

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I picked this up today at GW. A really interesting technical guide for GE turntables, tape decks and recorders from 1965-1970. Tons of drawings, photos and schematics.

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Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever

Farrah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008.

Interesting background on the families of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Both had grandparents with personal memories of the Reconstruction-era South.
 
The Sound I Saw is a collection of photos made in Harlem in the 1960s but not published until 2001. It's a great book to look through, especially while listening to some cool jazz!

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