Life in E Flat The Autobiography of Phil Woods

Life in E Flat   The Autobiography of Phil Woods
Author: Phil Woods
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2020-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 099947765X

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Phil Woods was an American original. One of the greatest saxophonists of all time, he was the first call for Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Oliver Nelson. His iconic improvisation on Billy Joel's hit song "Just the Way You Are" is quite likely the most played instrumental solo in the world. His popularity soared while an expat in Europe during the cultural revolution of the late sixties and early seventies. Upon his return to the States, Woods formed a band that would perform together for four decades. Grammy Awards, dozens of DownBeat Readers Poll victories, and designation as a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master would follow. Life in E Flat is the unvarnished self-portrait of an artist who loved and lived a life of bebop. "I would have to give Phil Woods' sax solo on "Just The Way You Are" credit for making that a hit record." - Billy Joel "Life in E Flat is a gift, a compelling and entertaining memoir by one of the leading alto saxophonists in jazz for 60 years. Woods is a charismatic storyteller-literate, funny, insightful, self-aware, with a keen eye and ear for details that reveal character and wise observations about the music business and the jazz life laced with sardonic wit." - Mark Stryker, author of Jazz From Detroit ""Someone spotted me fondling the saxophone and misinterpreted my avaricious intent as musical interest..." So Phil Wood's lifelong journey began-a saga he relates with an irreverent, self-deprecating wit, from his earliest days in Western Massachusetts to recording timeless music and traveling the world with jazz legends. Time and again, he sets up a story like a punchline's coming, and often they do. What you always get is history rich in detail and long in feeling and self-honesty - the personal stumbles and the musical triumphs. Phil left us in 2015; this book he left us is a gift that shows how so much of him is still here." - Ashley Kahn, music historian and author of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album & Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece "Growing up a New York jazz fan, Phil Woods was always a favorite. He was straight ahead, personal but in control, brimming with ideas: solid in every way. This account of the late jazz man's American journey, assembled with a loving, light touch by the always discerning critic Ted Panken, is like a Woods' gig. Full of the right information, things you thought you knew but didn't (the stories of often being the only white man in the room especially after marrying Charlie Parker's widow are instructive), heartbreaking and triumphant, Life in E-Flat is 100% solid." - Mark Jacobson, author of The Lampshade and Pale Horse Rider, former staff writer of the Village Voice and New York Magazine, and contributing editor for Rolling Stone and Esquire

Life In E Flat The Autobiography of Phil Woods

Life In E Flat   The Autobiography of Phil Woods
Author: Phil Woods
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2020-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0999477641

Download Life In E Flat The Autobiography of Phil Woods Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Phil Woods was an American original. One of the greatest saxophonists of all time, he was the first call for Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Oliver Nelson. His iconic improvisation on Billy Joel's hit song "Just the Way You Are" is quite likely the most played instrumental solo in the world. His popularity soared while an expat in Europe during the cultural revolution of the late sixties and early seventies. Upon his return to the States, Woods formed a band that would perform together for four decades. Grammy Awards, dozens of DownBeat Readers Poll victories, and designation as a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master would follow. Life in E Flat is the unvarnished self-portrait of an artist who loved and lived a life of bebop. "Phil Woods lived all the tropes of the 20th century American artist: defiant modernist, reverent traditionalist, mid-century family man, countercultural nonconformist, homebody, expatriate and road rat; young Turk and grand master. He possessed an abundance of gifts along with the determination to put the hard work in to realize every facet of them, and the great good fortune to grow up blessed by the mentorship of the most distinguished exponents of a golden age of Black American Music. His story tracks the changes of "this old world" through over three quarters of a century of music and life, informing us of what has been gained and lost, reminding us of what happened and what still needs to be done." - Brian Lynch, Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, composer, and educator "I would have to give Phil Woods' sax solo on Just The Way You Are credit for making that a hit record." - Billy Joel "Mr. Phil Woods left an indelible impression on me as a composer, arranger, and instrumentalist. A sincere active transmitter on the stage!" - Eddie Palmieri, ten time Grammy Award winner and NEA Jazz Master "I never worked with a better musician at the same time so unpretentious about the depth, breadth, and total scope of his knowledge and his playing. You hear his unmistakable voice in both his alto saxophone and every note of his very much underrated writing. Phil Woods was a supreme singer and swinger of the music he loved and served so passionately. Equally jazz and man..." - Todd Barkan, Keystone Korner Baltimore and NEA Jazz Master "Phil Woods was a wonderful alto player, a great musician that was at home in any musical situation. His autobiography is a must-read for all jazz fans and musician alike." - Charles McPherson, saxophonist and composer "Phil was in a class of his own....musically of course. But he also had an ear for language... caustic at times, but always honest and heartfelt... truly one of a kind!" - Dave Liebman, NEA Jazz Master

My Life in E flat

My Life in E flat
Author: Chan Parker
Publsiher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2021-11-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781643362786

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A memoir of the Jazz Age and a life profoundly influenced by it My Life in E-flat is the remarkable memoir of a woman who witnessed some of the most important movements in the history of jazz. Through her autobiography, Chan Parker provides intimate insights into the music and into life with Charlie Parker, the key figure in the development of bebop and one of the most important of all jazz musicians. Born Beverly Dolores Berg in New York City at the height of the Jazz Age, Parker's father was a producer of vaudeville shows and her mother was a dancer in Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic. Parker became part of the jazz culture as a nightclub dancer and later as the wife of jazz saxophonists Charlie Parker and then Phil Woods. In a moving and candid portrait of Charlie Parker, the author describes in harrowing detail a man of incredible talent besieged with addictions and self-destructiveness. She painfully recounts his death at the age of 35 while married to her and its effect on her life as well as on the musical world. Parker's honest portrait of one of the most gifted musicians in jazz provides unique insight into the history of the music and the difficulties faced by African American performers during the 1940s. Parker also reflects on her struggle to find her own voice and on her work with Clint Eastwood on the film biography of Charlie Parker, Bird (1988).

Jazz Dialogues

Jazz Dialogues
Author: Jon Gordon
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0999477676

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Backstage, on the bus, or in the studio, saxophonist Jon Gordon, winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone competition, chats with several generations of great musicians. From Jay McShann to Renee Rosnes, Jazz Dialogues lets the reader hang out with dozens of jazz artists to learn about their careers, influences, and the dues they've paid. These candid, poignant, and often hilarious conversations paint a first-person portrait of jazz history. Artists include: Jay McShann, Eddie Locke, Cab Calloway, Maria Schneider, Jan Garbarek, Ken Peplowski, Tim Hagans, Mark Turner, Hank Mobley, Bill Easley, Doc Cheatham, Scott Robinson, Eddie Bert, Phil Woods, Danny Bank, Billy Drummond, Ben Monder, Charles McPherson, Milt Hinton, Ben Riley, Bill Stewart, Art Blakey, Jon-Erik Kellso, Eddie Chamblee, Jimmy Lewis, Chuck Redd, Bill Charlap, McCoy Tyner, Melissa Aldana, Ronnie Mathews, Kevin Hays, Jim McNeely, Steve Wilson, Red Holloway, Barney Kessel, Joe Williams, Quincy Davis, Bob Mintzer, Dick Hyman, Lee Konitz, Leroy Jones, Renee Rosnes, David Sanborn, Gil Evans, Don Sickler, Sean Smith, Sarah Vaughn, Derrick Gardner, Sylvia Cuenca, Harold Mabern, Gene Bertoncini, Mike LeDonne, Essiet Okon Essiet, Bill Mays, and Joe Magnarelli.

Jazz from Detroit

Jazz from Detroit
Author: Mark Stryker
Publsiher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2019-07-08
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780472074266

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Jazz from Detroit explores the city’s pivotal role in shaping the course of modern and contemporary jazz. With more than two dozen in-depth profiles of remarkable Detroit-bred musicians, complemented by a generous selection of photographs, Mark Stryker makes Detroit jazz come alive as he draws out significant connections between the players, eras, styles, and Detroit’s distinctive history. Stryker’s story starts in the 1940s and ’50s, when the auto industry created a thriving black working and middle class in Detroit that supported a vibrant nightlife, and exceptional public school music programs and mentors in the community like pianist Barry Harris transformed the city into a jazz juggernaut. This golden age nurtured many legendary musicians—Hank, Thad, and Elvin Jones, Gerald Wilson, Milt Jackson, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, and others. As the city’s fortunes change, Stryker turns his spotlight toward often overlooked but prescient musician-run cooperatives and self-determination groups of the 1960s and ’70s, such as the Strata Corporation and Tribe. In more recent decades, the city’s culture of mentorship, embodied by trumpeter and teacher Marcus Belgrave, ensured that Detroit continued to incubate world-class talent; Belgrave protégés like Geri Allen, Kenny Garrett, Robert Hurst, Regina Carter, Gerald Cleaver, and Karriem Riggins helped define contemporary jazz. The resilience of Detroit’s jazz tradition provides a powerful symbol of the city’s lasting cultural influence. Stryker’s 21 years as an arts reporter and critic at the Detroit Free Press are evident in his vivid storytelling and insightful criticism. Jazz from Detroit will appeal to jazz aficionados, casual fans, and anyone interested in the vibrant and complex history of cultural life in Detroit.

Stratusphunk

Stratusphunk
Author: Duncan A Heining
Publsiher: Dr Duncan a Heining
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2020-11-20
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1527278050

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Stratusphunk - George Russell was a unique figure in jazz. He was a theoretician, a composer of note, a working musician, and an educator. He began his life's work developing the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization in the mid-forties. One of a rare breed of thinker-musicians, through his ideas and music, Russell had a remarkable influence on the development of jazz after 1950. From his early composition with Dizzy Gillespie of "Cubano-Be, Cubano-Bop," through the changes wrought by modal jazz as a consequence of his ideas, to his impact on the Scandinavian and European scenes, his achievements are among the most outstanding in the music. His life story weaves its way through contemporary jazz intersecting with the lives of many of its most colourful characters. Charlie "Bird" Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, Gil Evans, Charlie Mingus, and Carla Bley were not just Russell's contemporaries. They were his peers, his colleagues and his friends. He touched their lives and music and, in turn, was encouraged by them. Originally published in 2010 under the title George Russell: The Story of an American Composer, Duncan Heining's biography of George Russell appears in a newly revised paperback edition for the first time.

What it is

What it is
Author: Dave Liebman,Lewis Porter
Publsiher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780810882034

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Dave Liebman is one of the leading forces in contemporary jazz. Prominently known for performing with Miles Davis and Elvin Jones, he has exerted considerable influence as a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, author, and educator. In What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist, friend, pianist, and noted jazz scholar Lewis Porter conducts a series of in-depth interviews with Liebman, who discusses his professional, personal, and musical relationships with notable musicians, as well as such personal matters as contracting polio as a child. Featuring rare photos from Liebman's personal collection, this fascinating and witty story will not only appeal to jazz fans and scholars but also to those readers interested in the story of how a young man followed his dream to become one of the leading jazz artists of our time.

Adrenalized

Adrenalized
Author: Phil Collen
Publsiher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781476751658

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revelatory and redemptive memoir from the lead guitarist of the legendary band Def Leppard--the first book ever written by one of its members--chronicling the band's rise to superstardom and how they've maintained it for three decades. Maybe you've heard of Phil Collen as the rock star who gave up alcohol and meat more than twenty-five years ago. Most likely you've seen him shirtless--in photos or in real life--flaunting his impeccably toned body to appreciative female fans. But it wasn't always like this. Collen worked his way up from nothing, teaching himself guitar from scratch as a teenager by imitating his heroes. He slogged it out in London-based pub bands for years, long before Def Leppard transformed from unknowns to icons, from playing openers in near-empty arenas to headlining in those same stadiums. But as Collen discovered, true overnight success is a myth. Like the other band members, he had to struggle and fight his way to the top; in the end, he says, "our work ethic saved us." This is Collen's story--an underdog tale featuring a bunch of ordinary working-class lads who rose to mega-stardom, and an account of the failures, triumphs, challenges, and rock-hard dedication it takes to make dreams come true.--Adapted from book jacket.