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Music Related Books

Last month I finished George Martin's "All You Need is Ears." Great stuff on working in the Abbey Road studios from 1950, how the Parlophone label (part of EMI) was transformed from a sideline into the flagship label for the Beatles. Really interesting to get his take on recording techniques, how stereo recording revolutionized things, etc. Martin_ears_.jpg
 
I had this book in my shopping cart at Amazon for almost a month and just pulled the trigger yesterday when ordering the Strayhorn book. I used to be an avid reader of Downbeat, but in the last five years or so I switched to JazzTimes and then Jazziz. Yet I can't deny that the interviews n Downbeat were stellar and having a bulk of them in one publication is something I've always wanted to have in the collection, and read. Now I can.

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KrisM said:
That one looks fantastic, Billy.
Click to expand...

I agree, Kris. I had my eye on this book for a long while and finally put it in my Amazon Cart last month. I always made it a point to read the interviews in "Downbeat" and most of them were pretty good. It's the only way we can peek into the mind of the Jazz legends, provided the interviewers were doing their job. I'm looking forward to reading this one more than any I have read in a very long time.

I've got a book and 1/2 ahead of it, (History of Jazz and Illustrated Strayhorn) so won't get to it until late December, but I'll keep you posted when I finish it.
 
Just finished Jackson and Gans new book on the Grateful Dead This Is All A Dream We Dreamed. I've now read all the Dead and Dead related books except Bill K's new auto-biography. I admit that I scanned my way through most of the pages about drug use, the Pranksters, etc. I'm just burned out reading about all that and not interested in substance abuse after growing up in the house that I did and the mark that alcoholism has left on me. I much enjoyed this book because IIRC this one has more about the music, the songs, the albums, and the workings of the band than any of the others. These are all the things I'm most interested in. The authors did a great job of stitching together old and new interviews of the band and the greater Dead family. Many of their sources are in print for the first time. My time with this was well spent!
 
OK, I'm digging into "The Great Jazz Interviews" by Alkyer and Enright re: the "Downbeat" Jazz interviews through the decades.
The book (340 pages) is very well contents tabled BY DECADE to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

The compilation starts int he 30's and ends in the 2000's. I've been skimming it for the last few days and reading an interview here and an interview there. So far, it's an amazing book to have in the collection and I'm glad I finally pulled the trigger.

I found this one used on Amazon, but it was listed as MINT and MINT it was. Looks brand new and still has the newly printed smell. I got it for about 40 percent of the cover price. Along with the interviews are the accompanying photography and that alone is worth the price of admission to me. I remember when Pops was posting a few of his amazing photographs in my "This Day in Jazz" thread a few years ago and the photos in this book remind me of that.

It's sort of addicting reading this book because I can't just read ONE interview and call it a day. I constantly want to get back to it and read another interview and study the photography.

FYI;

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