Composers Books

En dias pasando y pasando se ve que la mano de Dios se mueve y seguira moviendose en gran manera. Atraves de la musica y literatura Cristiana muchos artistas como mi hermano Marcos Witt esta alcanzando las naciones trayendo la palabra necesitada. Enciende Una Luz saca a la Luz la vida de un Salmista de Dios. Siendo yo un musico para Cristo los libros de Marcos de verdad hacen la diferencia en mi vida. He leido "¿Que Hacemos Con Estos Musicos?" y este libro tambien lo recomiendo. Este libro mas reciente "Enciende Una Luz" es una que cambiara su vida.
¡COMPRELO YA!

Como musico cristiano siempre he buscado saber mas de los adoradores que Dios ha puesto entre nosotros. Marcos Witt explica en este libro como se dio su llamado, todas las cosas que paso para llegar a ser lo que es. Lo impresionante de el, es que dice sus errores. El poder reconocer sus errores como lider dice mucho de el. Marcos Witt cuenta su vida, lo bueno del libro es que el habla con el corazon, menciona muchos de sus suenos, conflictos y errores como lider, y sus grandes logros que solo fueron alcanzados con la ayuda de Dios. Los muchos consejos que el da en su libro son por los años de experiencia que el tiene en la ministracion. Creo que este libro es un libro que ningun musico cristiano involucrado en el ministerio de la musica debe de omitir. Marcos Witt a sido el hombre que Dios a usado en traer una frescura a la adoracion y alabanza en Mexico y en todo Norte, Centro y Sur America sin la meno duda.

Who would know more about Enrico Caruso than his wife! This book is about a man who KNEW what he was doing, how he was doing it and WHY he did it. Caruso's letters will touch your heart because he wrote them in a initable language and you will know the personal side of this great tenor. Dorthy Caruso was an excellent writer gives you an up-close and personal look in to his life and discography. There is also a very interesting appendix in the back of the book. Enrico Caruso didn't live forever but his singing did and still does today. The world will never forget him. He will always be in our hearts. I hope he is singing in Heaven.
A sound man! A sound book!

The book is written by Carusos wife, who he married 3 years before he died . She describes therefore in great detail and citing many letters by him their life and what happened, how is character was etc. She carefully leaves his private life before their marriage out (get this in "my father and my family" by Enrico Caruso jr.:-), but nevertheless - the book is great to read. The first book she wrote about him, shortly after his death (wings of song) is good too and is may be a little bit closer to truth. But to read Carusos letters in this book here is already worth the while....

Key's biography was written shortly after Caruso's death by someone who knew him and loved him as a singer and as a man. All subsequent bios owe much to this one (even Caruso errors, like the weird assertion that his mother bore 18 children).

I love the intimacy, the palpable sense of loss that permeates the book, as if the author would gladly burn his manuscript if only the great tenor would return.

Key made a lot of interviews with Caruso before he died at the age of 48, the interviews found their way into the book. The book is one of the most important about Caruso.

This is a great book! It's one of the best that I've ever read about Eric Clapton. If you're interested in the exact way he felt during the different times of his life and career, then this is the book to get.

This a great book. This book lets you inside the mind and world of one of the worlds greatest guitarist/songwriters of all time.
He talks about growing up without his parents, early days of his music career.Eric also talks about his time in bands:Yardbirds, Cream, John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, Blind Faith and his Seventies/Eighties solo work. You also get his opinion on other guitarists playing. This is an absolute must have if you are a guitar player or just a long time fan of Eric Clapton.There are some great black and white pictures of people Eric has worked with.

"The sententious critic puts me to sleep. I would prefer a critic of imaginative scintillations. He would not be sovereign, nor dressed in red. He would bear the lightning flashes of possible storms." --Michel Foucault

Corbett seems to operate according to Foucault's injunction, and bears quite a few lightning flashes, due to his playful imagination and the imagination of the cutting edge artists he covers. "Extended Play" puts Cage and Clinton in the title, but actually focuses on free jazz/improvisation, not composition or funk. Corbett presents marvelous interviews with European free improvisers, including saxophonists Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey, and drummer Han Bennink, as well as Americans Sun Ra (composer and bandleader),and Anthony Braxton (composer and reed player). He profiles fellow Chicagoans Hal Russell, Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, and Edward Wilkerson Jr. (the latter three all tenor players), English bassist and bandleader Barry Guy, and Sainkho Namtchylak, the only female Siberian Tuva singer in the ranks of European free improv. He does interview John Cage, which I found uninteresting, and George Clinton, which is tremendous.

Whether despite or because of his poststructuralist leanings (I'm with Evan Parker, who, according to Corbett, "...knows I'm a Continental-philosophy kinda guy, which is something he's certain that he isn't."), Corbett takes a stance clearly on the side of "optimism concerning the possibility of resistance," resistance in the realm of popular music against the capitalist status quo.

Presently overseeing the Unheard Music series for Atavistic Records in Chicago -- free jazz/improv tapes buried in the vaults until now -- John Corbett is doing his part to keep ALL the signifiers free!

Like Greil Marcus and Robert Palmer, Corbett looks at (popular?) culture as both a product of and a determinant of culture at large. As a postmodernist, he delves into genres that are largely devoid of quality criticism as few are up to the task. Actually he's probably more of a Nat Hantoff or Frank Kofsky of our time in that he's quick to support what may commonly be refered to as music that tries its listeners patience and willingness to explore. I used this book as a reference for my thesis and have recommended it to several people.

Maestro Salmaggi was to Opera what Lee Strasberg was to Acting in NYC for decades. He was a sophisticated, elegant, legendary genius.
He was also a devoted husband and father and served as father figure to many of his young proteges. A must read for Opera aficionados.
And I do have a little personal bias because my parents met through him, and I would not be here if not for that fateful meeting.

I am one of "The Fabulous Maestro"'s grandchildren. This book represents only a small sampling of the wonders this man represented to the opera world. There are so many great stories we know about this legend. This book's author, Edward Ansara did a great job at scratching the service of this fantastic man's life. A must read for any opera afficianado. Enjoy.

I am a amateur Tenor Sax player in Brooklyn NY, and I cannot believe how much this book has helped me with the saxophone. He described my state of mind exactly. I had played saxophone in High School and had not played since my first year of college in 1984. About 5 years ago, I was watching a documentary on Charlie Parker heard him play and decided to take it up again at a time in my life when I was single and had no obligations. I thought I would be able to pick it up again and in a small time become good enough to make a career. However the realities of playing the saxophone soon set in and I realized I would never be good enough able to make a living at it without devoting my whole life and energies to it. Then I got married and the challenges of being married and making a living made it very difficult to keep up with jazz and the saxophone however I persevered. Reading this book let me know that it was ok not to make a career out of music, and be able to enjoy it without the pressures of making a living from it. And to see someone else who is married and still finds the time to practice and play and keep a marriage together,(which I know is not easy) helped me tremendously. He also helped me to understand that the frustrations I felt (and still feel!)in learning to play the saxophone were not a result of some innate inability to play the saxophone but are normal and part of the process!! Should be required reading for all who are interested in playing the saxophone.

If you like jazz but don't know why, this book will help you explain it. If you don't know if you like jazz, it will tell you whom you should listen to. If you are sure you like jazz, you will like the book for showing how important music can be in a life. It is a very entertaining combo of music and autobiography.

Reginald Gerig has done a huge and wonderful job of amassing a complete history of the development of piano technique. I discovered this book while still in University and still use it today, 20 years later. Gerig doesn't just give you historical facts, but real analysis of the actual technical components of different schools of technique - there is practical information in here! Also, the valuable first section investigates the antecedents of piano technique in harpsichord technique, an aspect of the story too often overlooked.

Gerig gives you the whole picture - a 'must have' for any pianist's library.

Alan Fraser, author of The Craft of Piano Playing

Gerig's book on the history of piano teaching is a major work full of valuable information and is indispensable for any class on piano pedagogy. Gerig has done a great service to the piano teaching community by providing background information on the contributions to teaching by all the important figures in recent history, some well known and some lesser known but equally important. His insights into their contributions are well thought out and the bibliography is extensive. Highest recommendation.

You will love Mick Maloney's warm voice lovingly pouring the poetry of Irish music into your ears. This is not the overused "Danny Boy," but a tremendous exploration of traditional ballads that will open your eyes and ears to Ireland's rich history and music.
I recommend first reading the boxed sections in the book for each song. Then listen to that selection on the CD while reading along with the lyrics. Finish with absorbing the 2-page history lesson that accompanies each song.
Later listen to the whole CD, just soaking in the evocative Irish music. The background from reading the book really enhances your enjoyment of the music.

This wonderful book tells the story of the Irish immigration to North America through the songs that they sang. Accompanied by a CD containing sixteen songs performed by the author and his band. The songs are wonderfully performed, making the CD worth the purchase price alone. Each of the songs is accompanied by a two to four page write-up that explains the song, and what was going on in the immigrant Irish (Irish-American and Irish-Canadian, though mostly the former) community at that time.

This book is very handsomely made, with lots of information, interesting pictures, and the CD. Indeed, I would highly recommend this book as a gift. I enjoy having this book, and think that anyone interested in the Irish-Americans will enjoy it as well. I highly recommend this book.

J.R. Boleyn's novel, "Far Way to Even" (an obvious music pun on Stairway to Heaven) is a funny and insightful mystical tale questioning the origins of humanity and the folly of modern man, reminiscent to me of novels akin to Douglas Adams and Tom Robbins. Blatantly jumping literary genres between fiction and nonfiction, Boleyn seemed to be sticking it to every conceived notion of 'how to be a rock god in 3 lifetimes or less.' If it weren't for the fact that his cohort in the book, Chuck Hammer, really did play guitar for Lou Reed and David Bowie, and Shawn Phillips is a real person, I would have found the premise hard to believe. But I did, thanks to the author not taking himself, or rock gods and golfing gods, too seriously. The bit with Jack Lemmon and Bob Hope has me absolutely crawling across the floor. As a lover of the game of golf, I won't spoil the ending for you here because this book deserves a thorough full read. I will say it made me think very hard about 'what is reality' and Mr. Boleyn's careful penetration into higher realms of being is a superb expose on the modern revelations of quantum physics without all the hocuc pocus drivel from accredited scientists. For my own part, I can't wait til the day women do compete in the Master's. After reading this book, Vijay will be prying his foot from his mouth for a long time to come. It's a great read, and for anyone who read the fictional and hard to swallow "Celestine Prophecy", "Far Way to Even" is the real thing. Rock on!

Being neither a golfer or musician, upon recommendation of a friend I purchased Mr. Boleyn's new book. I am however, the proprietor of a winery, and found many points of contact of which I quickly related growth and life of the vineyard to many of the perceptive analogies in this book, especially the chapters concerning quantum theory and manifestation. I recommend this book to any individual seeking self-transformation and reading a good story about acheiving your life goa;s.