Author: Leo Walker Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated ISBN: Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
Organized, lucid, and definitive, this book presents a complete coverage of the spectacular reign of the dance bands during Prohibition, wartime, and the postwar boom. The author's knowledge, gleaned from firsthand association with the music business and its prominent people, is matched only by his unbounded enthusiasm for the music he writes about. Here he recounts more than three decades of entertainment, tracing the growth of the bands from the early small combos to the days when many boasted thirty men including large string sections and seven or eight vocalists. The over 400 pictures include the first organized dance orchestras, the big bands of the twenties in which the popular leaders. This authoritative chronicle of one of the nation's most colorful eras is sure to evoke fond memories in those old enough to remember it, and instill yearnings for halcyon days in younger readers as well.
Author: Lawrence McClellan Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 0313058121 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 402
Book Description
Today's Retro Swing bands, like the Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Brian Setzer Orchestra, all owe their inspiration to the original masters of Swing. This rich reference details the oeuvre of the leading Swing musicians from the WWII and post-WWII years. Chapters on the masters of Swing (Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, Billy Strayhorn), the legendary Big Band leaders (such as Les Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Vaughan Monroe, etc.), vocalists (including Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington), and Small Groups (Louis Jordan, Art Tatum, Charlie Ventura, etc.) introduce these timeless musicians to a new generation of musicians and music fans. An opening chapter recounts how the cultural changes during the war and postwar years affected performers-especially women and African-Americans-and an A-to-Z appendix provides synopses of almost 700 entrants, including related musicians and famous venues. A bibliography and subject index provide additional tools for those researching Swing music and its many roles in mid-century American culture. This volume is a perfect sequel to Dave Oliphant's The Early Swing Era: 1930 to 1941. Together, these books provide the perfect reference guide to an enduring form of American music.
Author: Lewis A. Erenberg Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226215180 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
During the 1930s, swing bands combined jazz and popular music to create large-scale dreams for the Depression generation, capturing the imagination of America's young people, music critics, and the music business. Swingin' the Dream explores that world, looking at the racial mixing-up and musical swinging-out that shook the nation and has kept people dancing ever since. "Swingin' the Dream is an intelligent, provocative study of the big band era, chiefly during its golden hours in the 1930s; not merely does Lewis A. Erenberg give the music its full due, but he places it in a larger context and makes, for the most part, a plausible case for its importance."—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World "An absorbing read for fans and an insightful view of the impact of an important homegrown art form."—Publishers Weekly "[A] fascinating celebration of the decade or so in which American popular music basked in the sunlight of a seemingly endless high noon."—Tony Russell, Times Literary Supplement
Author: John Dunning Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199770786 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 841
Book Description
Now long out of print, John Dunning's Tune in Yesterday was the definitive one-volume reference on old-time radio broadcasting. Now, in On the Air, Dunning has completely rethought this classic work, reorganizing the material and doubling its coverage, to provide a richer and more informative account of radio's golden age. Here are some 1,500 radio shows presented in alphabetical order. The great programs of the '30s, '40s, and '50s are all here--Amos 'n' Andy, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Lone Ranger, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, and The March of Time, to name only a few. For each, Dunning provides a complete broadcast history, with the timeslot, the network, and the name of the show's advertisers. He also lists major cast members, announcers, producers, directors, writers, and sound effects people--even the show's theme song. There are also umbrella entries, such as "News Broadcasts," which features an engaging essay on radio news, with capsule biographies of major broadcasters, such as Lowell Thomas and Edward R. Murrow. Equally important, Dunning provides a fascinating account of each program, taking us behind the scenes to capture the feel of the performance, such as the ghastly sounds of Lights Out (a horror drama where heads rolled and bones crunched), and providing engrossing biographies of the main people involved in the show. A wonderful read for everyone who loves old-time radio, On the Air is a must purchase for all radio hobbyists and anyone interested in 20th-century American history. It is an essential reference work for libraries and radio stations.
Author: Richard E. Caves Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674001640 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 472
Book Description
"To explain the logic of these arrangements, the author draws on the analytical resources of industrial economics and the theory of contracts. He addresses the winner-take-all character of many creative activities that brings wealth and renown to some artists while dooming others to frustration; why the "option" form of contract is so prevalent; and why even savvy producers get sucked into making "ten-ton turkeys," such as Heaven's Gate."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Richard Grudens Publisher: celebrity profiles publilshing ISBN: 9781575792484 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
Here is the quintessential Bing Crosby tribute from the pen of author and music historian, Richard Grudens, documenting the story of Crosby's colourful life, family, radio and television shows, and films; the amazing success story of a career that pioneered popular music spanning generations and inspiring many followers: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, Eddie Fisher, Pat Boone, Elvis Presley and Billy Eckstine, all of whom acknowledge their debt right between the covers of this book. An inspirational introduction by his lovely wife, Kathryn Grant Crosby, is followed by endearing, anecdotal accounts of those ubiquitous 'Road' films with Bob Hope, and detailed personal testimonials from show business icons in their own words. A 'must read' for Crosby fans, collectors, admirers, music lovers, and everyone who cherishes the music and anecdotes of the players involved in the Golden Age of Popular Music.
Author: Mark Rotella Publisher: Macmillan + ORM ISBN: 1429978473 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 367
Book Description
Amore is Mark Rotella's celebration of the "Italian decade"—the years after the war and before the Beatles when Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett, among others, won the hearts of the American public with a smooth, stylish, classy brand of pop. In Rotella's vivid telling, the stories behind forty Italian American classics (from "O Sole Mio," "Night and Day," and "Mack the Knife" to "Volare" and "I Wonder Why") show how a glorious musical tradition became the sound track of postwar America and the expression of a sense of style that we still cherish. Rotella follows the music from the opera houses and piazzas of southern Italy, to the barrooms of the Bronx and Hoboken, to the Copacabana, the Paramount Theatre, and the Vegas Strip. He shows us the hardworking musicians whose voices were to become ubiquitous on jukeboxes and the radio and whose names—some anglicized, some not—have become bywords for Italian American success, even as they were dogged by stereotypes and prejudice. Amore is the personal Top 40 of one proud son of Italy; it is also a love song to Italian American culture and an evocation of an age that belongs to us all.
Author: Jim Cox Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786474343 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 266
Book Description
What became of radio after its Golden Age ended about 1960? Not long ago Arbitron found that almost 93 percent of Americans age 12 and older are regular radio listeners, a higher percentage than those turning to television, magazines, newspapers, or the Internet. But the sounds they hear now barely resemble those of radio's heyday when it had little competition as a mass entertainment and information source. Much has transpired in the past fifty-plus years: a proliferation of disc jockeys, narrowcasting, the FM band, satellites, automation, talk, ethnicity, media empires, Internet streaming and gadgets galore... Deregulation, payola, HD radio, pirate radio, the fall of transcontinental networks, the rise of local stations, conglomerate ownership, and radio's future landscape are examined in detail. Radio has lost a bit of influence yet it continues to inspire stunning innovations.
Author: Leo Walker
Author: Leo Walker
Author: Lawrence McClellan
Author: Lewis A. Erenberg
Author: John Dunning
Author: Richard E. Caves
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office
Author: Richard Grudens
Author: Mark Rotella
Author: Jim Cox