Sing the praises of a timeless tunesmith, revisit the glory days of Max’s Kansas City, speed down the punk highway, take a deep dive into both sides of The Faces, or play some major jazz changes. That’s all she wrote for next week. Read for yourself:
Harold Arlen And His Songs
By Walter Frisch
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Harold Arlen And His Songs is the first comprehensive book about the music of one of the great song composers of the 20th century. Arlen wrote many standards of the Great American Songbook — including Get Happy, Over the Rainbow, Stormy Weather, Come Rain or Come Shine and The Man That Got Away. Author Walter Frisch places these and other songs in the context of a career that took Arlen from Buffalo to Harlem’s Cotton Club, Broadway stages and the film studios of Hollywood. Even with their complex melodies, harmonies, and formal structures, Arlen’s tunes remain accessible and memorable. As Frisch shows, he blended influences from his father’s Jewish cantorial tradition, his experience as a jazz arranger and performer, and peers like Gershwin, Kern and Berlin. Arlen always emphasized the collaborative nature of songwriting, and he worked with the top lyricists of his day, including Ted Koehler, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer, and Ira Gershwin. Harold Arlen and His Songs is structured around these and Arlen’s other partnerships, analyzing individual songs as well as the shows or films in which they appear. The book also treats Arlen’s performances of his own music as a vocalist and pianist, through numerous recordings and appearances on radio and television. A final chapter explores the interpretations of his songs by great singers, including Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.”
Down at Max’s Vol. 1: True Tales From The Rock ’n’ Roll Underground
By Peter Crowley
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Peter Crowley, the music curator of Max’s Kansas City, tells it like it is in his first volume of stories. A teenage runaway from Vermont who has seen it all from the West Village in the 1960s to the colour sound of California to managing and booking bands during the punk explosion of the 1970s. Like a beer for a breakfast, this book offers a reflection on what it was really like to be there (you know where), from someone who was.”
Small Faces & The Faces: Every Album, Every Song
By Andrew Darlington
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Small Faces. Big sound. There were but four Small Faces. First, they were the sharp little mod fourpiece of the All Or Nothing Decca years, Carnaby Street, Ready Steady Go! and Rave magazine. Then they were the irreverent freakbeat experimentalists of the Immediate years, with Tin Soldier, Lazy Sunday and classic album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. Their hits were praised, covered and imitated by subsequent rock musicians such as Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher. When The Small Faces split, Steve Marriott formed Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, and the rest of the band became The Faces with the addition of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood and vocalist Rod Stewart. The Faces became one of the biggest rock bands of the ’70s via albums such as A Nod Is As Good As A Wink… To A Blind Horse and Ooh La La or worldwide hit Stay With Me. When those bands came to a natural end, and with Itchycoo Park returned to the top ten, The Small Faces reformed for two more albums. Were they ill-advised or are they ripe for re-evaluation? The evidence is laid out here. For this is the full story song-by-song, from the very start, to the end.”
Down The Punk Rock Highway
By Jared Forman
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Evoking and channelling the spirit of rebellion, energy and freedom that defines the punk rock movement, Down The Punk Rock Highway is a testament to the determination of the writers’ mission to detail and capture the scene, people and places that made punk rock what it was, is and can be over 35 years. Whether you’re feeling nostalgic for the glory days of the ’80s and want to revisit it, or just dipping your toes in the punk ocean for the first time and want to find out what it’s all about, you’ll find what you’re looking for as you venture down the punk rock highway. Music, history and everything in between can be found in these pages. So wave your family and friends goodbye, throw your cases in the trunk, and start your engine. It’s time to head Down The Punk Rock Highway. Featuring interviews with members of Toxic Reasons, Doom, Happy Spastics, Adolescents, MDC, The Avengers, Reagan Youth, Subhumans, Channel 3, Social Unrest, The Hated, The Maggots, Mission of Burma, Anti-Nowhere-League, The Detonators, Distraught, False Prophets and Icons of Filth, Jim Testa of Jersey Beat fame, the History of Danger House Records, the stories of ABC No Rio and Gilman Street and personal accounts and memories, from scene veterans and activists, Jared Forman’s book is a punk completists dream.”
Playing the Changes: Jazz At An African University And On The Road
By Darius Brubeck & Catherine Brubeck
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Catherine and Darius Brubeck’s 1983 move to South Africa launched them on a journey that helped transform jazz education. Blending biography with storytelling, the pair recount their time at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where they built a pioneering academic program in jazz music and managed and organized bands, concerts, and tours around the world. The Brubecks and the musicians faced innumerable obstacles, from the intensification of apartheid and a lack of resources to the hardscrabble lives that forced even the most talented artists to the margins. Building a program grounded in multi-culturalism, Catherine and Darius encouraged black and white musicians to explore and expand the landscape of South African jazz together Their story details the sometimes wily, sometimes hilarious problem-solving necessary to move the institution forward while offering insightful portraits of South African jazz players at work, on stage, and providing a soundtrack to the freedom struggle and its aftermath. Frank and richly detailed, Playing The Changes provides insiders’ accounts of how jazz intertwined with struggle and both expressed and resisted the bitter unfairness of apartheid-era South Africa.”
