Author: Robin D. G. Kelley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439190461
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 624
Get Book Here
Book Description
The first full biography of Thelonious Monk, written by a brilliant historian, with full access to the family's archives and with dozens of interviews.
Author: Hannah Rothschild
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307961990
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Get Book Here
Book Description
Beautiful, romantic and spirited, Pannonica, known as Nica, named after her father’s favorite moth, was born in 1913 to extraordinary, eccentric privilege and a storied history. The Rothschild family had, in only five generations, risen from the ghetto in Frankfurt to stately homes in England. As a child, Nica took her daily walks, dressed in white, with her two sisters and governess around the parkland of the vast house at Tring, Hertfordshire, among kangaroos, giant tortoises, emus and zebras, all part of the exotic menagerie collected by her uncle Walter. As a debutante, she was taught to fly by a saxophonist and introduced to jazz by her brother Victor; she married Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, settled in a château in France and had five children. When World War II broke out, Nica and her five children narrowly escaped back to England, but soon after, she set out to find her husband who was fighting with the Free French Army in Africa, where she helped the war effort by being a decoder, a driver and organizing supplies and equipment. In the early 1950s Nica heard “’Round Midnight” by the jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and, as if under a powerful spell, abandoned her marriage and moved to New York to find him. She devoted herself to helping Monk and other musicians: she bailed them out of jail, paid their bills, took them to the hospital, even drove them to their gigs, and her convertible Bentley could always be seen parked outside downtown clubs or up in Harlem. Charlie Parker would notoriously die in her apartment in the Stanhope Hotel. But it was Monk who was the love of her life and whom she cared for until his death in 1982. Hannah Rothschild has drawn on archival material and her own interviews in this quest to find out who her great-aunt really was and how she fit into a family that, although passionate about music and entomology, was reactionary in always favoring men over women. Part musical odyssey, part love story, The Baroness is a fascinating portrait of a modern figure ahead of her time who dared to live as she wanted, finally, at the very center of New York’s jazz scene.
Author: Jay Caspian Kang
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0525576231
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Get Book Here
Book Description
A “provocative and sweeping” (Time) blend of family history and original reportage that explores—and reimagines—Asian American identity in a Black and white world “[Kang’s] exploration of class and identity among Asian Americans will be talked about for years to come.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Mother Jones In 1965, a new immigration law lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigrants to the United States. Nobody, including the lawmakers who passed the bill, expected it to transform the country’s demographics. But over the next four decades, millions arrived, including Jay Caspian Kang’s parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They came with almost no understanding of their new home, much less the history of “Asian America” that was supposed to define them. The Loneliest Americans is the unforgettable story of Kang and his family as they move from a housing project in Cambridge to an idyllic college town in the South and eventually to the West Coast. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding Asian America, as millions more immigrants, many of them working-class or undocumented, stream into the country. At the same time, upwardly mobile urban professionals have struggled to reconcile their parents’ assimilationist goals with membership in a multicultural elite—all while trying to carve out a new kind of belonging for their own children, who are neither white nor truly “people of color.” Kang recognizes this existential loneliness in himself and in other Asian Americans who try to locate themselves in the country’s racial binary. There are the businessmen turning Flushing into a center of immigrant wealth; the casualties of the Los Angeles riots; the impoverished parents in New York City who believe that admission to the city’s exam schools is the only way out; the men’s right’s activists on Reddit ranting about intermarriage; and the handful of protesters who show up at Black Lives Matter rallies holding “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” signs. Kang’s exquisitely crafted book brings these lonely parallel climbers together and calls for a new immigrant solidarity—one rooted not in bubble tea and elite college admissions but in the struggles of refugees and the working class.
Author: Rob van der Bliek
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199761477
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Get Book Here
Book Description
Of all the major jazz artists, Thelonious Monk was one of the most original musical thinkers--nonconformist, idiosyncratic, imaginative, eccentric--in a word, unique. In The Thelonious Monk Reader, Rob van der Bliek has brought together some of the most revealing pieces ever written on Monk, providing a full portrait of the musician and his impact on the jazz world. Here is a wealth of information that was previously scattered and difficult to locate, including a wide range of articles, profiles, reviews, interviews, liner notes, and music analyses. Ranging in date from 1947 to 1999, these 39 pieces feature the work of some of our best jazz critics, including Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler, Nat Hentoff, Andre Hodeir, Gunther Schuller, Martin Williams, and many others. The book spans Monk's childhood and early recordings with Blue Note and Prestige, his Riverside period and the critical recognition that followed the release of Brilliant Corners, and his fame and fortune during his Columbia years. Readers will find colorful descriptions of Monk's eccentric lifestyle as well as thoughtful commentary on his unorthodox piano technique, which was marked by off-center accents and idiosyncratic voicings, broken rhythms, alternately dense and stripped down chords, and creative use of silence. Rob van der Bliek also provides a general introduction and brief introductions to each piece as well as critical annotations that place the work in context. Controversial, often contradictory, and always engaging, these readings offer a complete view of the man, his music, and his time. The only such book on Monk's life and work, this volume will be "must reading" for jazz fans and scholars, musicians, music lovers, and readers with an interest in African-American culture.
Author: Robert Justice
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
ISBN: 1643858432
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Get Book Here
Book Description
Laced with atmospheric poetry and literature and set in the heart of Denver's black community, this gripping crime novel pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice—and a crooked detective who wreaks havoc…with deadly consequences. What happens to a deferred dream—especially when an innocent man's life hangs in the balance? Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row. Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother's Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father's name. Just as she nears success, it's announced that Langston will be put to death in thirty days. In a desperate bid to find freedom for her father, Liza enlists the help of Eli Stone, a jazz club owner she met at the classic Five Points venue, The Roz. Devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, Eli is trying to find solace by reviving the club…while also wrestling with the longing to join her in death. Everyone has a dream that might come true—but as the dark shadows of the past converge, could Langston, Eli, and Liza be facing a danger that could shatter those dreams forever?
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780142001745
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Get Book Here
Book Description
The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
Author: Scott Sophfronia
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506464963
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Get Book Here
Book Description
What if we truly belong to each other? What if we are all walking around shining like the sun? Mystic, monk, and activist Thomas Merton asked those questions in the twentieth century. Writer Sophfronia Scott is asking them today. In The Seeker and the Monk, Scott mines the extensive private journals of one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past for guidance on how to live in these fraught times. As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love. She asks: What is the connection between contemplation and action? Is there ever such a thing as a wrong answer to a spiritual question? How do we care about the brutality in the world while not becoming overwhelmed by it? By engaging in this lively discourse, readers will gain a steady sense of how to dwell more deeply within--and even to love--this despairing and radiant world.
Author: Thelonious Monk
Publisher: Hal Leonard
ISBN: 1476876495
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Get Book Here
Book Description
(Artist Books). The music of Thelonious Monk is among the most requested of any jazz composer, but accurate lead sheets and sources have never been widely available until now. This folio has 70 of the master composer/pianist's most familiar pieces, as well as a number of obscure and unrecorded tunes, in easy-to-read versions. Includes counterlines and ensemble parts for many pieces, as well as bass-lines and piano voicings where applicable. Also includes a biography, a glossary, and a definitive discography of the compositions in the book. Titles include: Ask Me Now * Bemsha Swing * Blue Monk * Blue Sphere * Boo Boo's Birthday * Bright Mississippi * Brilliant Corners * Bye-Ya * Crepuscule With Nellie * Criss Cross * 52nd Street Theme * Functional * Gallop's Gallop * Hackensack * I Mean You * In Walked Bud * Jackie-ing * Let's Cool One * Little Rootie Tootie * Misterioso * Monk's Mood * Nutty * Off Minor * Pannonica * Played Twice * Rhythm-a-ning * 'Round Midnight * Ruby, My Dear * Straight No Chaser * Thelonious * Well You Needn't * and 39 more.
Author: William H. Hallahan
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504059042
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Get Book Here
Book Description
The bestselling author of The Search for Joseph Tully “will keep you up all night” with this paranormal thriller of heaven and hell, sinners and saviors (The New York Times). In a masterful blending of myth and reality, the eternal conflict between good and evil comes to life in this modern-day love story. It ostensibly begins twenty-five years ago with the birth of Brendan Davitt in County Clare, Ireland, to American parents. Brendan’s arrival is accompanied by strange portents: the scream of the shrike, the banshee’s wail, the sighting of an evanescent priest called the Magus and his white bull mastiff. But in fact, the novel begins eons ago, when the angel Lucifer challenges God’s authority and falls from heaven. In retaliation, Lucifer corrupts Eve and so brings death to men. God is angry, and this is his judgment: The angel Timothy, only a temporary traitor in the heavenly war, will be punished by having to wander the earth in the guise of a priest. He must look for a human with a purple aura, a sign of saint-like benevolence, who will forgive Timothy for his part in the heavenly rebellion. If the priest is forgiven, Lucifer—now called Satan—and his friends will be destroyed. “An endlessly compelling story, energetically told . . . One fun ride, with scenes of brilliantly conceived suspense, and a hypnotic, dreamy atmosphere.” —Storyteller
Author: Thomas Fitterling
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book explores Monk's earliest years growing up in North Carolina, his heyday as a composer/bandleader, and the twilight of his career. The author analyzes Monk's recorded legacy, from his first dates with Coleman Hawkins in 1944 to the 1971 London sessions with Art Blakey and Al McKibbon.
