The Torero Band • Lennon & McCartney in Tijuana Style

 

Está todo dicho.   /   It's all said.

Sound Pictures The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966–2016

 

More than anyone besides the bandmates themselves, George Martin was the man who created the unique sound of the Beatles. Sound Pictures offers a powerful and intimate account of how he did so.
    The second and final volume of the definitive biography of the man, Sound Pictures traces the story of the Beatles’ breathtaking artistic trajectory after reaching the creative heights of Rubber Soul. As the bandmates engage in brash experimentation both inside and outside the studio, Martin toils along with manager Brian Epstein to consolidate the Beatles’
fame in the face of growing sociocultural pressures, including the crisis associated with the “Beatles are more popular than Jesus” scandal.
Meanwhile, he also struggles to make his way as an independent producer in the highly competitive world of mid-1960s rock ’n’ roll. As Martin and the Beatles create one landmark album after another, including such masterworks as Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (The White Album), and Abbey Road, the internal stakes and interpersonal challenges become ever greater.
   During his post-Beatles years, Martin attempts to discover new vistas of sound recording with a host of acts, including Jeff Beck, America, Cheap Trick, Paul McCartney, and Elton John, his creative breakthroughs followed by unprecedented commercial success. Eventually, though, all roads bring Martin back to the Beatles, as the group seeks out new ways to memorialize their achievement under the supervision of the man who has come to be known as Sir George. Now, more than fifty years after the Beatles’ revolutionary triumphs, Martin’s singular stamp on popular music has become more vital than ever, as successive generations discover the magic of the Beatles and their groundbreaking sound.

 

Kenneth Womack (Autor)  

 

Las muchas vidas de John Lennon

 

 

 

El 8 de diciembre se cumplen treinta años de un hecho que conmocionó al mundo entero: el asesinato de John Lennon. En esta conmemoración no podía faltar la controvertida biografía de Albert Goldman.

En su día, Las muchas vidas de John Lennon fue criticada por desmitificar a Lennon al hablar de sus problemas con las drogas o sus tendencias sexuales. Con el tiempo, Harold Seider, el abogado de Lennon, acabó confirmando muchos de los episodios que Goldman relataba en la biografía. Sin duda, una oportunidad única de conocer el lado más oscuro del gran John Lennon.

Después de entrevistar a más de mil personas y tras seis años de trabajo, Goldman consiguió un retrato de cuerpo entero de un hombre que con sus letras y su música fue el símbolo de una generación que aún se veía capaz de convertir los sueños en realidad.

 

Albert Goldman (Autor)  

 

Chet Atkins • Picks On The Beatles

 

Biography

Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the '50s and '60s. Although he recorded hundreds of solo records, Atkins' largest influence came as a session musician and a record producer. During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks.

And as a guitarist, he was without parallel. Atkins' style grew out of his admiration for Merle Travis, expanding Travis' signature syncopated thumb and fingers roll into new territory. Interestingly, Atkins didn't begin his musical career by playing guitar. On the recommendation of his older brother, Lowell, he began playing the fiddle at a child. However, Chet was still attracted to the guitar, and at the age of nine he traded a pistol for a guitar. Atkins learned his instrument rapidly, becoming an accomplished player by the time he left high school in 1941. Using a variety of contacts, he wound up performing on the Bill Carlisle Show on WNOX in Knoxville, TN, as well as becoming part of the Dixie Swingers. Atkins worked with Homer & Jethro while he was at the radio station. After three years, he moved to a radio station in Cincinnati.

Supporting Red Foley, Atkins made his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1946. That same year, he made his first records, recording for Bullet. Atkins also began making regular performances on the WRVA radio station in Richmond, VA, but he was repeatedly fired because his musical arrangements differed from the expectations of the station's executives. He eventually moved to Springfield, MO, working for the KWTO station. A tape of one of Atkins' performances was sent to RCA Victor's office in Chicago. Eventually, it worked its way to Steve Sholes, the head of country music at RCA. Sholes had heard Atkins previously, and had been trying to find him for several years. By the time Sholes heard the tape, Atkins had moved to Denver, and was playing with Shorty Thompson & His Rangers. Upon receiving the call from RCA, he moved to Nashville to record.

Once he arrived in Nashville, Atkins recorded eight tracks for the label, five of which featured the guitarist singing. Impressed by his playing, Sholes made Atkins the studio guitarist for all of the RCA studio's Nashville sessions in 1949. The following year, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters hired him as a regular on the Grand Ole Opry, making his place in Nashville's musical community secure. While he worked for RCA, he played on many hit records and helped fashion the Nashville sound. RCA appreciated his work and made him a consultant to the company's Nashville division in 1953. That year, the label began to issue a number of instrumental albums that showcased Atkins' considerable talents. Two years later, he scored his first hit with a version of "Mr. Sandman"; it was followed by "Silver Bell," a duet with Hank Snow. By the late '50s, Atkins was known throughout the music industry as a first-rate player. Not only did his records sell well, he designed guitars for Gibson and Gretsch; the popularity of these models continues to the present day.

Sholes left for New York in 1957 to act as head of pop A&R, leaving Atkins as the manager of RCA's Nashville division. However, the guitarist didn't abandon performing, and throughout the early '60s his star continued to rise. He played the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960; in 1961, he performed at the White House. Atkins had his first Top Five hit in 1965 with a reworking of Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax," retitled "Yakety Axe"; in addition to being a sizable country hit, the song crossed over to the pop charts. Atkins' role behind the scenes was thriving as well. He produced hits for the majority of RCA's Nashville acts, including Elvis Presley and Eddy Arnold, and discovered a wealth of talent, including Don Gibson, Waylon Jennings, Floyd Cramer, Charley Pride, Bobby Bare, and Connie Smith. Because of his consistent track record, Atkins was promoted to vice president of RCA's country division when Sholes died in 1968.

The following year, Atkins had his last major hit single, "Country Gentleman." In the late '60s and early '70s, several minor hits followed, but only one song, "Prissy" (1968), made it into the Top 40. Instead, the guitarist's major musical contribution in the early part of the '70s was with Homer & Jethro. Under the name the Nashville String Band, the trio released five albums between 1970 and 1972. Following Homer's death, Atkins continued to work with Jethro.

Atkins continued to record for RCA throughout the '70s, although he was creatively stifled by the label by the end of the decade. The guitarist wanted to record a jazz album, but he was met with resistance by the label. In 1982, he left the label and signed with Columbia, releasing his first album for the label, Work It Out With Chet Atkins, in 1983. During his time at Columbia, Atkins departed from his traditional country roots, demonstrating that he was a bold and tasteful jazz guitarist as well. He did return to country on occasion, particularly on duet albums with Mark Knopfler and Jerry Reed, but by and large, Atkins' Columbia records demonstrated a more adventurous guitarist than was previously captured on his RCA albums.

Sadly, Atkins was diagnosed with cancer, and in 1997 doctors removed a tumor from his brain. In his last months, the cancer had made Atkins inactive, and he finally lost the battle on June 30, 2001, at his home in Nashville. Throughout his career, Chet Atkins earned numerous awards, including 11 Grammy awards and nine CMA Instrumentalist of the Year honors, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from NARAS. Although his award list is impressive, it only begins to convey his contribution to country music.

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Biografía

Sin Chet Atkins, es posible que la música country nunca haya llegado a las listas de éxitos del pop en los años 50 y 60. Aunque grabó cientos de discos en solitario, la mayor influencia de Atkins llegó como músico de sesión y productor de discos. Durante los años 50 y 60, ayudó a crear el sonido de Nashville, un estilo de música country que debía casi tanto al pop como a los honky tonks.

Y como guitarrista, no tenía paralelo. El estilo de Atkins surgió de su admiración por Merle Travis, expandiendo la firma de Travis: pulgar sincopado y dedos rodando hacia un nuevo territorio. Curiosamente, Atkins no comenzó su carrera musical tocando la guitarra. Por recomendación de su hermano mayor, Lowell, comenzó a tocar el violín a un niño. Sin embargo, Chet todavía se sentía atraído por la guitarra, y a la edad de nueve años cambió una pistola por una guitarra. Atkins aprendió su instrumento rápidamente, convirtiéndose en un intérprete consumado cuando dejó la escuela secundaria en 1941. Usando una variedad de contactos, terminó actuando en el Bill Carlisle Show en WNOX en Knoxville, TN, así como formando parte de los Dixie Swingers. Atkins trabajó con Homer & Jethro mientras estaba en la estación de radio. Después de tres años, se mudó a una estación de radio en Cincinnati.

Apoyando a Red Foley, Atkins hizo su primera aparición en el Grand Ole Opry en 1946. Ese mismo año, hizo sus primeros discos, grabando para Bullet. Atkins también comenzó a hacer presentaciones regulares en la estación de radio WRVA en Richmond, VA, pero fue despedido repetidamente porque sus arreglos musicales diferían de las expectativas de los ejecutivos de la estación. Eventualmente se mudó a Springfield, MO, trabajando para la estación KWTO. Una cinta de una de las presentaciones de Atkins fue enviada a la oficina de RCA Victor en Chicago. Con el tiempo, se abrió camino hasta Steve Sholes, director de música country de la RCA. Sholes había escuchado a Atkins previamente, y había estado tratando de encontrarlo durante varios años. Para cuando Sholes escuchó la cinta, Atkins se había mudado a Denver, y estaba jugando con Shorty Thompson & His Rangers. Al recibir la llamada de la RCA, se mudó a Nashville para grabar.

Una vez que llegó a Nashville, Atkins grabó ocho temas para el sello, cinco de los cuales incluían el canto del guitarrista. Impresionado por su forma de tocar, Sholes convirtió a Atkins en el guitarrista de estudio de todas las sesiones de Nashville del estudio RCA en 1949. Al año siguiente, la madre Maybelle y las hermanas Carter lo contrataron como cliente habitual en el Grand Ole Opry, lo que aseguró su lugar en la comunidad musical de Nashville. Mientras trabajaba para RCA, tocó en muchos discos de éxito y ayudó a crear el sonido de Nashville. RCA apreció su trabajo y lo hizo consultor de la división de Nashville de la compañía en 1953. Ese año, el sello comenzó a publicar varios álbumes instrumentales que mostraban el considerable talento de Atkins. Dos años más tarde, obtuvo su primer éxito con una versión de "Mr. Sandman", seguido de "Silver Bell", un dúo con Hank Snow. A finales de los años 50, Atkins era conocido en la industria de la música como un reproductor de primera clase. No sólo sus discos se vendieron bien, sino que también diseñó guitarras para Gibson y Gretsch; la popularidad de estos modelos continúa hasta el día de hoy.

Sholes partió a Nueva York en 1957 para actuar como jefe de pop A&R, dejando a Atkins como gerente de la división de Nashville de RCA. Sin embargo, el guitarrista no abandonó la interpretación, y a principios de los años 60 su estrella siguió creciendo. Tocó en el Festival de Jazz de Newport en 1960; en 1961, actuó en la Casa Blanca. Atkins tuvo su primer éxito en el Top Five en 1965 con una revisión de "Yakety Saxe" de Boots Randolph, titulado "Yakety Axe"; además de ser un gran éxito en el país, la canción pasó a las listas de éxitos del pop. El papel de Atkins entre bastidores también fue próspero. Produjo éxitos para la mayoría de las actuaciones de RCA en Nashville, incluyendo a Elvis Presley y Eddy Arnold, y descubrió una gran cantidad de talento, incluyendo a Don Gibson, Waylon Jennings, Floyd Cramer, Charley Pride, Bobby Bare, y Connie Smith. Debido a su consistente historial, Atkins fue ascendido a vicepresidente de la división de países de la RCA cuando Sholes murió en 1968.

Al año siguiente, Atkins tuvo su último gran éxito, "Country Gentleman". A finales de los'60 y principios de los'70, le siguieron varios éxitos menores, pero sólo una canción, "Prissy" (1968), llegó al Top 40. En cambio, la mayor contribución musical del guitarrista en la primera parte de los años 70 fue con Homer & Jethro. Bajo el nombre de Nashville String Band, el trío lanzó cinco álbumes entre 1970 y 1972. Después de la muerte de Homero, Atkins continuó trabajando con Jethro.

Atkins continuó grabando para RCA a lo largo de los años 70, aunque fue ahogado creativamente por el sello a finales de la década. El guitarrista quería grabar un disco de jazz, pero el sello se encontró con la resistencia. En 1982, dejó el sello y firmó con Columbia, lanzando su primer álbum para el sello, Work It Out With Chet Atkins, en 1983. Durante su estancia en Columbia, Atkins se alejó de sus raíces tradicionales en el campo, demostrando que también era un guitarrista de jazz audaz y de buen gusto. De vez en cuando regresó al país, particularmente en álbumes de dúo con Mark Knopfler y Jerry Reed, pero en general, los discos de Columbia de Atkins demostraron ser un guitarrista más aventurero de lo que era capturado previamente en sus álbumes de RCA.

Lamentablemente, a Atkins le diagnosticaron cáncer, y en 1997 los médicos le extirparon un tumor del cerebro. En sus últimos meses, el cáncer había dejado inactivo a Atkins, y finalmente perdió la batalla el 30 de junio de 2001, en su casa de Nashville. A lo largo de su carrera, Chet Atkins ganó numerosos premios, incluyendo 11 premios Grammy y nueve honores como Instrumentista del Año de CMA, así como un premio de logros de toda una vida de NARAS. Aunque su lista de premios es impresionante, sólo comienza a transmitir su contribución a la música country.

www.misterguitar.us ...

Sarah Vaughan • Songs Of The Beatles

 

In the 1940s, when most women singers adorned big bands as stage attractions rather than legitimate members of jazz ensembles, Sarah Vaughan, along with her predecessor Ella Fitzgerald, helped elevate the vocalist's role as equal to that of the jazz instrumentalist. A woman known for her many vicissitudes, Vaughan's outspoken personality and artistic eloquence brought her the names “Sassy” and “The Divine One.” A talented pianist, she joined the ranks of the 1940s bebop movement and became, as a member of the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine bands, one of its most celebrated vocalists. Her dynamic vocal range, sophisticated harmonic sense, and horn-like phrasing brought Vaughan million-selling numbers and a stage and recording career that spanned half a decade.

Sarah Lois Vaughan was born the daughter of Asbury and Ada Vaughan on March 27, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. As a youth Vaughan took piano lessons and attended the Mount Zion Baptist Church, where she served as a church keyboardist. At home Vaughan played the family's upright piano and listened to the recordings of jazz artists Count Basie and Erskine Hawkins. After discovering Newark's numerous theaters and movie houses, she skipped school and left home at night to watch dances and stage shows. By age 15, she performed at local clubs, playing piano and singing.

Not long after, Vaughan took the train across the river to Harlem to frequent the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theatre. One evening, in 1943, she sat in at the Apollo amateur show, a fiercely competitive contest that often exposed lesser talents to the harsh criticism of the theater's audience. Vaughan's moving performance of “Body and Soul” not only brought a fever of applause from the crowd, it also caught the attention of singer Billy Eckstine. Eckstine informed his bandleader Earl “Fatha” Hines about the young singer. Hines then allowed Vaughan to attend the band's uptown band rehearsal. At the rehearsal, Vaughan's singing won immediate praise from Hines and his musicians. One of the premiere modern big bands of the era, Hines's ensemble included such talents as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, saxophonist Charlie Parker, and trombonist J. J. Johnson. As the only female bandmember, Vaughan shared the vocal spotlight with Eckstine and played piano, often in duet settings with Hines. Vaughan debuted at the Apollo with Hines's band on April 23, 1943.

Not long after, most of Hines's modernist sidemen, including Gillespie, Parker, and Eckstine, gradually left the band. Vaughan remained briefly with Hines's band until she accepted an invitation to join Eckstine's newly-formed bebop big band in 1944. In December of that year, she cut her first side “I'll Wait and Pray,” backed by the Eckstine band, which included Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons, and pianist John Malachi.

Through the intercession of jazz writer and pianist Leonard Feather, Vaughan recorded her first date as a leader for the small Continental label. Under the production of Feather, Vaughan and Her All-Stars attended their session on New Year's Eve 1944. Acting as the session's producer and pianist, Feather assembled such sidemen as Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Georgie Auld to cut four sides: “Signing Off,” Feather's “No Smoke Blues,” Gillespie's “Interlude” (a vocal version of “Night in Tunisia”), and “East of the Sun,” on which Gillespie replaced Feather on keyboard.On a second session, Feather relinquished the piano duties to Nat Jaffe, and brought together Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

After a nearly year-long stay with Eckstine, Vaughan left the band. With the exception of a job with the sextet of bassist and trombonist John Kirby in the winter of 1945, she performed as a solo act. On May 11, 1945 she recorded “Lover Man” with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In October of 1945 Vaughan signed with Musicraft label, and, in the same month, recorded for the label with jazz violinist Stuff Smith's group. Her Musicraft 1946 recording of Tadd Dameron's “If You Could See Me Now” is considered a modern classic. She also recorded with the bands of Dickie Wells and Georgie Auld.

Hailed by Metronome magazine as the “Influence of the Year” in 1948, Vaughan rose to jazz stardom. In the following year, she signed a five-year contract with Columbia and recorded her classic “Black Coffee” with the Joe Lippman Orchestra—a number that climbed to number 13 on Billboard's pop charts. For Columbia she recorded in various settings and attended two sessions that emerged as the albums “Summertime,” with the Jimmy Jones band, and “Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi,” both of which featured trumpeter Miles Davis. Vaughan was now presenting herself as a pop singer who could do popular ballads in a straightforward style, the soft, sultry sound of her voice unfurling with hypnotic effect, moving with ease between her soprano and contralto registers. During the next year, Vaughan made her first trip to Europe. During her stay in England she sang to enthusiastic audience at Royal Albert Hall.

In 1954, Vaughan signed a contract with the Mercury label and recorded numerous sides primarily in orchestral settings. In December of the same year, her trio—pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Joe Benjamin, and drummer Roy Haynes—joined 24-year-old trumpet talent Clifford Brown, saxophonist Paul Quinichette, and flutist Herbie Mann to record the LP Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown. Surrounded by first-rate musicians sensitive to her vocal talent, Vaughan produced an album that, as the author to the original LP's notes wrote, “It is doubtful whether anyone, including Sarah herself, is likely to be able to find any more completely satisfying representation of her work, or any more appropriate musical setting than are offered in this LP. These sides are sure to rank among the foremost achievements of her decade as a recording artist.”

During a stint at Chicago's Mr. Kelly's nightclub in August of 1957, Vaughan recorded a live album with her trio: pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Roy Haynes. In the following year, she and pianist Ronnell Bright recorded with the Count Basie Band and took part in a session in Paris under the direction of orchestra leader and conductor Quincy Jones, issued as the Mercury LP, “Vaughan and Violins.”

In 1958, Vaughan was earning a yearly income of $230,000. In July of the following year, she scored her first million-selling hit, “Broken Hearted Melody,” with the Ray Ellis Orchestra. A hit with both black and white audiences, “Broken Hearted Melody,” which was nominated for a Grammy Award, reached number five on the pop R&B charts.

When Vaughan's contract with Mercury ended in the fall of 1959, she signed with Roulette Records and became, over the next few years, one the label's biggest stars. Her 1960 sessions for Roulette included “The Divine One,” arranged by Jimmy Jones and a session with Count Basie Band featuring such talents as trumpeters Thad Jones and Joe Newman and saxophonists Frank Foster and Billy Mitchell. Featured in duet numbers with singer Joe Williams, the Basie Band session produced the sides, “If I Were a Bell” and “Teach Me Tonight.”

Several arrangements recorded with the Basie Band in January of 1961, were complied as the album “Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie.” Vaughan signed with Mercury again in 1963. Her recorded work in the sixties featured the ensembles of Benny Carter, Quincy Jones, and Gerald Wilson. Her trio accompanists included noted pianists Roland Hanna and Bob James. Vaughan debuted on the Mainstream record label with the 1971 LP “A Time in Life.” On her 1977 live recording at Ronnie Scott's in the Soho section of London, Vaughan produced a classic with her rendition of “Send in the Clowns.”

In 1978, she recorded an album backed by pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louie Bellson. Recorded with an-star line up, she devoted two albums, in 1979, to the music of Duke Ellington, “Duke Ellington Songbook One,” and “Duke Ellington Songbook Two.” Though she had been nominated for Grammy Awards several times, including a nomination for her 1979 effort “I Love Brazil,” Vaughan did not win her first Grammy until 1982 for “Gershwin Live!.”

Throughout the 1980s Vaughan recorded on the Pablo label, often with the label's featured artists Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Dizzy Gillespie. As she told Max Jones in Talking Jazz; “Now that I've been in so long, you know, I can work with whom I want to. I have more say now over what jobs I do and how I want to do them.” During a trip to Brazil in 1987, she recorded the CBS album “Brazilian Romance,” and afterward appeared at a festival in Rio de Janeiro. On her last recording—Quincy Jones's all-star 1989 album “Back on the Block,” she sang with Ella Fitzgerald on the introduction of “Birdland.” In February, of the same year, she received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

A tireless live performer who still maintained a fine voice, Vaughan showed little signs of artistic diminution. Offstage, however, band members began to notice the slowed pace of her walk and her shortness of breath. Diagnosed with lung cancer, she died on April 4, 1990.

Jazz artists and critics have described Sarah Vaughan as a musical innovator whose voice reached the level of the finest jazz instrumentalists. Betty Carter told how “Sarah Vaughan took those melodies and did something with them. She opened the door to do anything you wanted with a melody.” From her first appearances on the jazz scene in the early 1940s until her death, Vaughan's voice became a model of excellence and an inspiration of those venturing to strive beyond the role of popular vocal entertainer and into the higher realm of musical artistry.

Sarah Vaughan received in her lifetime an Emmy Award, for individual achievement, 1981; Grammy Award for best jazz vocalist, 1982; Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, 1985; Grammy Award, for lifetime achievement, 1989.

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En el decenio de 1940, cuando la mayoría de las mujeres cantantes adornaban las grandes bandas como atracciones del escenario en lugar de ser miembros legítimos de los conjuntos de jazz, Sarah Vaughan, junto con su predecesora Ella Fitzgerald, contribuyó a elevar el papel de la vocalista al de la instrumentista de jazz. Mujer conocida por sus muchas vicisitudes, la personalidad franca y la elocuencia artística de Vaughan le valieron los nombres de "Sassy" y "The Divine One". Pianista de talento, se unió a las filas del movimiento de bebop de los años 40 y se convirtió, como miembro de las bandas de Earl Hines y Billy Eckstine, en una de sus vocalistas más célebres. Su dinámico rango vocal, su sofisticado sentido armónico y su fraseo parecido al de las trompetas le proporcionaron a Vaughan números de venta millonarios y una carrera escénica y discográfica que duró media década.

Sarah Lois Vaughan nació como hija de Asbury y Ada Vaughan el 27 de marzo de 1924 en Newark, Nueva Jersey. En su juventud Vaughan tomó clases de piano y asistió a la Iglesia Bautista Mount Zion, donde sirvió como teclista de la iglesia. En casa, Vaughan tocaba el piano vertical de la familia y escuchaba las grabaciones de los artistas de jazz Count Basie y Erskine Hawkins. Después de descubrir los numerosos teatros y cines de Newark, faltó a la escuela y salió de casa por la noche para ver bailes y espectáculos. A los 15 años, actuó en clubes locales, tocando el piano y cantando.

Poco después, Vaughan tomó el tren que cruzaba el río hacia Harlem para frecuentar el Savoy Ballroom y el Teatro Apolo. Una noche, en 1943, asistió al espectáculo de aficionados del Apolo, un concurso ferozmente competitivo que a menudo exponía a los talentos menores a las duras críticas del público del teatro. La conmovedora interpretación de Vaughan de "Cuerpo y Alma" no sólo trajo una fiebre de aplausos de la multitud, sino que también llamó la atención del cantante Billy Eckstine. Eckstine informó a su director de banda, Earl "Fatha" Hines, sobre el joven cantante. Hines permitió entonces que Vaughan asistiera al ensayo de la banda en la zona alta de la ciudad. En el ensayo, el canto de Vaughan obtuvo el elogio inmediato de Hines y sus músicos. Una de las primeras grandes bandas modernas de la época, el conjunto de Hines incluía talentos como los trompetistas Dizzy Gillespie y Fats Navarro, el saxofonista Charlie Parker y el trombonista J. J. Johnson. Como único miembro femenino del grupo, Vaughan compartía el centro de atención vocal con Eckstine y tocaba el piano, a menudo a dúo con Hines. Vaughan debutó en el Apolo con la banda de Hines el 23 de abril de 1943.

Poco después, la mayoría de los músicos modernistas de Hines, incluyendo a Gillespie, Parker y Eckstine, dejaron gradualmente la banda. Vaughan permaneció brevemente con la banda de Hines hasta que aceptó una invitación para unirse a la recién formada big band de bebop de Eckstine en 1944. En diciembre de ese año, cortó su primer lado "I'll Wait and Pray", respaldado por la banda de Eckstine, que incluía a Dizzy Gillespie, los saxofonistas Dexter Gordon y Gene Ammons, y el pianista John Malachi.

Por la intercesión del escritor de jazz y pianista Leonard Feather, Vaughan grabó su primera cita como líder para el pequeño sello Continental. Bajo la producción de Feather, Vaughan y sus estrellas asistieron a su sesión en la víspera de Año Nuevo de 1944. Actuando como productor y pianista de la sesión, Feather reunió a hombres como Dizzy Gillespie y el saxofonista Georgie Auld para cortar cuatro lados: "Signing Off", "No Smoke Blues" de Feather, "Interludio" de Gillespie (una versión vocal de "Night in Tunisia"), y "East of the Sun", en la que Gillespie sustituyó a Feather en el teclado.en una segunda sesión, Feather cedió las tareas de piano a Nat Jaffe, y reunió a Gillespie y Charlie Parker.

Tras una estancia de casi un año con Eckstine, Vaughan dejó la banda. Con la excepción de un trabajo con el sexteto del bajista y trombonista John Kirby en el invierno de 1945, actuó como solista. El 11 de mayo de 1945 grabó "Lover Man" con Dizzy Gillespie y Charlie Parker. En octubre de 1945 Vaughan firmó con el sello Musicraft, y, en el mismo mes, grabó para el sello con el grupo del violinista de jazz Stuff Smith. Su grabación de Musicraft 1946 de "If You Could See Me Now" de Tadd Dameron es considerada un clásico moderno. También grabó con las bandas de Dickie Wells y Georgie Auld.

Aclamado por la revista Metronome como la "Influencia del año" en 1948, Vaughan alcanzó el estrellato del jazz. Al año siguiente, firmó un contrato de cinco años con Columbia y grabó su clásico "Black Coffee" con la Joe Lippman Orchestra- un número que subió al número 13 de las listas de pop de Billboard. Para Columbia grabó en varios escenarios y asistió a dos sesiones que surgieron como los álbumes "Summertime", con la banda de Jimmy Jones, y "Sarah Vaughan en Hi-Fi", ambos con el trompetista Miles Davis. Vaughan se presentaba ahora como una cantante pop que podía hacer baladas populares con un estilo sencillo, el sonido suave y sensual de su voz desplegándose con efecto hipnótico, moviéndose con facilidad entre sus registros de soprano y contralto. Durante el año siguiente, Vaughan hizo su primer viaje a Europa. Durante su estancia en Inglaterra cantó ante un público entusiasta en el Royal Albert Hall.

En 1954, Vaughan firmó un contrato con el sello Mercury y grabó numerosos lados principalmente en escenarios orquestales. En diciembre de ese mismo año, su trío-pianista Jimmy Jones, el bajista Joe Benjamin y el baterista Roy Haynes se unieron al talento de trompeta de 24 años Clifford Brown, al saxofonista Paul Quinichette y al flautista Herbie Mann para grabar el LP Sarah Vaughan con Clifford Brown. Rodeada de músicos de primera categoría sensibles a su talento vocal, Vaughan produjo un álbum que, como escribió el autor de las notas del LP original, "Es dudoso que alguien, incluida la propia Sarah, pueda encontrar una representación más completamente satisfactoria de su trabajo, o un escenario musical más apropiado que el que se ofrece en este LP". Estos lados están seguros de estar entre los logros más importantes de su década como artista de grabación."

Durante una temporada en el club nocturno Mr. Kelly's de Chicago en agosto de 1957, Vaughan grabó un álbum en directo con su trío: el pianista Jimmy Jones, el bajista Richard Davis y el batería Roy Haynes. Al año siguiente, ella y el pianista Ronnell Bright grabaron con la Count Basie Band y participaron en una sesión en París bajo la dirección del líder de la orquesta y director Quincy Jones, publicado como el LP de Mercury, "Vaughan and Violins".

En 1958, Vaughan ganaba un ingreso anual de 230.000 dólares. En julio del año siguiente, consiguió su primer éxito de un millón de dólares, "Melodía de Corazón Roto", con la Orquesta de Ray Ellis. Un éxito entre el público blanco y negro, "Melodía de Corazón Roto", que fue nominada a un premio Grammy, alcanzó el número cinco en las listas de R&B pop.

Cuando el contrato de Vaughan con Mercury terminó en el otoño de 1959, firmó con Roulette Records y se convirtió, en los años siguientes, en una de las mayores estrellas del sello. Sus sesiones de 1960 para Roulette incluyeron "The Divine One", arreglada por Jimmy Jones y una sesión con Count Basie Band con talentos como los trompetistas Thad Jones y Joe Newman y los saxofonistas Frank Foster y Billy Mitchell. Presentada en números de dúo con el cantante Joe Williams, la sesión de Basie Band produjo los lados, "If I Were a Bell" y "Teach Me Tonight".

Varios arreglos grabados con la Basie Band en enero de 1961, se cumplieron como el álbum "Sarah Vaughan y Count Basie". Vaughan firmó con Mercurio de nuevo en 1963. Su trabajo grabado en los sesenta incluía los conjuntos de Benny Carter, Quincy Jones y Gerald Wilson. Su trío de acompañantes incluía a los famosos pianistas Roland Hanna y Bob James. Vaughan debutó en el sello discográfico Mainstream con el LP de 1971 "A Time in Life". En su grabación en vivo de 1977 en Ronnie Scott's en el Soho de Londres, Vaughan produjo un clásico con su interpretación de "Send in the Clowns".

En 1978, grabó un álbum respaldado por el pianista Oscar Peterson, el guitarrista Joe Pass, el bajista Ray Brown y el baterista Louie Bellson. Grabado con una formación de estrellas, dedicó dos álbumes, en 1979, a la música de Duke Ellington, "Duke Ellington Songbook One" y "Duke Ellington Songbook Two". Aunque había sido nominada a los premios Grammy varias veces, incluyendo una nominación por su esfuerzo de 1979 "I Love Brazil", Vaughan no ganó su primer Grammy hasta 1982 por "Gershwin Live!".

A lo largo de los años 80 Vaughan grabó en el sello Pablo, a menudo con los artistas del sello Count Basie, Oscar Peterson y Dizzy Gillespie. Como le dijo a Max Jones en Talking Jazz; "Ahora que llevo tanto tiempo, ya sabes, puedo trabajar con quien quiera. Ahora tengo más que decir sobre los trabajos que hago y cómo quiero hacerlos". Durante un viaje a Brasil en 1987, grabó el álbum de la CBS "Romance Brasileño", y después apareció en un festival en Río de Janeiro. En su última grabación, el álbum estrella de Quincy Jones de 1989 "Back on the Block", cantó con Ella Fitzgerald en la introducción de "Birdland". En febrero del mismo año, recibió un premio Grammy por el logro de toda una vida.

Un incansable intérprete en vivo que aún mantenía una voz fina, Vaughan mostró pequeños signos de disminución artística. Sin embargo, fuera del escenario, los miembros de la banda empezaron a notar el ritmo lento de su andar y su falta de aliento. Diagnosticada con cáncer de pulmón, murió el 4 de abril de 1990.

Los artistas y críticos de jazz han descrito a Sarah Vaughan como una innovadora musical cuya voz alcanzó el nivel de los mejores instrumentistas de jazz. Betty Carter contó cómo "Sarah Vaughan tomó esas melodías e hizo algo con ellas. Ella abrió la puerta para hacer cualquier cosa que quisieras con una melodía". Desde sus primeras apariciones en la escena del jazz a principios de la década de 1940 hasta su muerte, la voz de Vaughan se convirtió en un modelo de excelencia y una inspiración para aquellos que se aventuran a ir más allá del papel de animador vocal popular y entrar en el reino superior del arte musical.

Sarah Vaughan recibió en vida un premio Emmy, por logros individuales, 1981; un premio Grammy por mejor vocalista de jazz, 1982; una estrella del Paseo de la Fama de Hollywood, 1985; un premio Grammy, por logros de toda una vida, 1989.

 

 

  

 

 

John Lennon The Life

 

For more than a quarter century, biographer Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being a Beatle was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, Norman presents the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon ever published.

This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never seen before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.

“[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” -New York Times

Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days. 

 

Philip Norman (Author) 

 

Who Wrote the Beatle Songs?: A History of Lennon-McCartney

 

Who Wrote the Beatle Songs: A History of Lennon-McCartney is a book in the tradition of Mark Lewisohn’s The Beatles Recording Sessions, Walter Everett’s The Beatles as Musicians, Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head, and Tim Riley’s Tell Me Why —it surveys all of the songs by the Beatles. However, unlike those books, Who Wrote the Beatle Songs concentrates solely on songwriting. It also has a strong biographical element: I tell the fascinating story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as songwriters.

The Beatles are arguably the most influential group in the history of popular music, and the single most important element in their success was their songwriting. Unlike rock stars such as Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, they were songwriters first and performers second. They have been widely misunderstood because the history of their songwriting has not been examined carefully. Setting aside the songs of Harrison and Starr at this time, all their songs were attributed to “Lennon-McCartney,” which suggests 50-50 songwriting ownership, in the tradition of George and Ira Gershwin. In fact, most of the Beatle songs were dominated by Paul or by John, and some were written entirely by one or the other (such as John’s “Across the Universe” or Paul’s “Hey Jude”).

After the Beatles breakup, Lennon and McCartney have given a number of interviews discussing who wrote which Beatle songs. Unfortunately, these interviews are often contradictory, a natural result of trying to remember events that took place many years (sometimes decades) earlier. John had a tendency to emphasize individual authorship in his interviews, while Paul frequently remembered collaboration (though often “finishing” collaboration, after one writer had substantially begun the song). To evaluate such complex, contradictory evidence, I’ve tried to use standard historical tools to come to a valid judgment on who wrote each Beatle song.

The result is the first comprehensive, detailed assessment of who wrote the Beatle songs. Every chapter is devoted to a Beatles album, and its attendant singles. I give a careful attribution for every song and tell the story of how it was written. Then I evaluate conflicts or unities in the evidence. So this book is full of great stories—how John wrote “She Said She Said” after he heard Peter Fonda tell of a near-death experience at a party with the Byrds in L.A.; how Paul wrote “Yesterday” in his sleep, then sang it for months with the lyrics “Scrambled eggs—Oh baby, how I love your legs”; how George’s mother, Louise French Harrison, filled in a gap in “Piggies” with “What they need’s a damn good whacking!”.

When this survey is complete, we can draw conclusions about the individual songwriting talents of Paul, John and George, and can reject many widespread stereotypes about them. One cliché is that John specialized in rock while Paul produced ballads. Actually, both of them wrote strong rock songs (like Paul’s “Helter Skelter”) and strong quiet songs (like John’s “Goodnight”). Another common misapprehension is that the Beatles’ best songs were based on close collaboration; actually, as these two songwriters progressed in maturity they wrote together less. Paradoxically, the songwriting flourished as the collaboration decreased.

John became increasingly interested in lyrics, while Paul was always obsessively devoted to music (though they both wrote great music and lyrics at times). Who Wrote the Beatle Songs will celebrate and give a wealth of insight into the idiosyncratic brilliance of both of the Beatles’ two main songwriters.

Distinguished musicologist Michael Hicks has written, of Who Wrote the Beatle Songs, “A special book indeed: an exhaustive—and blessedly fussy—compendium of the impulses behind every Beatles (and Beatles-born) recording. Authoritative and tantalizing, it offers new insights for even the most seasoned Beatles aficionado.”

 

  Todd M. Compton (Author)

 

How the Beatles Destroyed Rock N Roll An Alternative History of American Popular Music

"There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and hiphop.

As its blasphemous title suggests, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll rejects the conventional pieties of mainstream jazz and rock history. Rather than concentrating on those traditionally favored styles, the book traces the evolution of popular music through developing tastes, trends and technologies―including the role of records, radio, jukeboxes and television ―to give a fuller, more balanced account of the broad variety of music that captivated listeners over the course of the twentieth century. Wald revisits original sources―recordings, period articles, memoirs, and interviews―to highlight how music was actually heard and experienced over the years. And in a refreshing departure from more typical histories, he focuses on the world of working musicians and ordinary listeners rather than stars and specialists. He looks for example at the evolution of jazz as dance music, and rock 'n' roll through the eyes of the screaming, twisting teenage girls who made up the bulk of its early audience. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and the Beatles are all here, but Wald also discusses less familiar names like Paul Whiteman, Guy Lombardo, Mitch Miller, Jo Stafford, Frankie Avalon, and the Shirelles, who in some cases were far more popular than those bright stars we all know today, and who more accurately represent the mainstream of their times.

Written with verve and style, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll shakes up our staid notions of music history and helps us hear American popular music with new ears.

The Ultimate Music Guide The Beatles

 

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The British Invasion How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America

 

 

The explosion of British bands onto the American rock scene in the 1960s is examined in this thorough history. Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first trip to the United States, this look at British rock music covers in detail the pre-Beatles music that first gave Americans a taste of the British style, Beatlemania, and the British acts that followed their lead, including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. This account includes in-depth interviews with key figures and fully updated information on this dynamic time in American pop music. Previously unseen photographs and reproduced newspaper front pages provide a visual history of that music explosion.

 

Paul McCartney Many Years from Now

 

A definitive, authorized portrait of Paul McCartney draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews and access to personal archives to chronicle the private life and successful career of one of the world's most famous musicians, the world of the Beatles, his partnership with John Lennon, and more.

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Here, There and Everywhere • My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles

 

 

 

 

Geoff Emerick (Author), Howard Massey (Author)  

 

 

A Social History of Early Rock ‘n’ Roll in Germanyː Hamburg from Burlesque to The Beatles, 1956-69

A Social History of Early Rock 'n' Roll in Germany explores the people and spaces of St. Pauli's rock'n'roll scene in the 1960s. Starting in 1960, young British rockers were hired to entertain tourists in Hamburg's red-light district around the Reeperbahn in the area of St. Pauli. German youths quickly joined in to experience the forbidden thrill of rock'n'roll, and used African American sounds to distance themselves from the old Nazi generation. In 1962 the Star Club opened and drew international attention for hosting some of the Beatles' most influential performances. In this book, Julia Sneeringer weaves together this story of youth culture with histories of sex and gender, popular culture, media, and subculture.
By exploring the history of one locale in depth, Sneeringer offers a welcome contribution to the scholarly literature on space, place, sound and the city, and pays overdue attention to the impact that Hamburg had upon music and style. She is also careful to place performers such as The Beatles back into the social, spatial, and musical contexts that shaped them and their generation.
This book reveals that transnational encounters between musicians, fans, entrepreneurs and businessmen in St. Pauli produced a musical style that provided emotional and physical liberation and challenged powerful forces of conservatism and conformity with effects that transformed the world for decades to come.

 

 

by Julia Sneeringer (Author)  

 

Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll

 

Allen Klein was like no one the music industry had seen before. Though he became infamous for allegedly causing the Beatles’ breakup and robbing the Rolling Stones, the truth is both more complex and more fascinating. As the manager of the Stones and then the Beatles—not to mention Sam Cooke, Pete Townshend, Donovan, the Kinks, and numerous others—he taught young soon-to-be legends how to be businessmen as well as rock stars. While Klein made millions for his clients, he was as merciless with them as he was with anyone, earning himself an outsize reputation for villainy that has gone unchallenged until now. Through unique, unprecedented access to Klein’s archives, veteran music journalist Fred Goodman tells the full story of how the Beatles broke up, how the Stones achieved the greatest commercial success in rock history, and how the music business became what it is today.

 

“Fred Goodman is a superb writer . . . and his account here of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most polarizing figures could not be more readable. The even-handed tone, the supposition that readers are moderately intelligent and sophisticated, and the rather astounding involvement Allen Klein had with pop music’s largest legends—put all that together, and you’ve got one highly engrossing read.” —Yahoo! Music

“Succeed[s] both as a compelling work of rock ’n’ roll history and as a cautionary business primer.” —Wall Street Journal

“Fred Goodman makes this world come alive, and any fan of rock or insider tales of the music industry will be in heaven reading about this fascinating, troubling character.”

— Judd Apatow, Omnivoracious

“Writing about contracts, percentages, and deals can be tedious, but Goodman makes it as exciting as reading about an artist’s sex life. The book explodes with inside dope.”

—New York Daily News



Fred Goodman (Author)


 

Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America

 

That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. In Can’t Buy Me Love, Jonathan Gould explains why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise. Nearly twenty years in the making, Can’t Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism.

Beginning with their adolescence in Liverpool, Gould describes the seminal influences––from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to The Goon Show and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland––that shaped the Beatles both as individuals and as a group. In addition to chronicling their growth as singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists, he highlights the advances in recording technology that made their sound both possible and unique, as well as the developments in television and radio that lent an explosive force to their popular success. With a musician’s ear, Gould sensitively evokes the timeless appeal of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration and their emergence as one of the most creative and significant songwriting teams in history.

Behind the scenes Gould explores the pivotal roles played by manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin, credits the influence on the Beatles’ music of contemporaries like Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Ravi Shankar, and traces the gradual escalation of the fractious internal rivalries that led to the group’s breakup after their final masterpiece, Abbey Road. Most significantly, by chronicling their revolutionary impact on popular culture during the 1960s, Can’t Buy Me Love illuminates the Beatles as a charismatic phenomenon of international proportions, whose anarchic energy and unexpected import was derived from the historic shifts in fortune that transformed the relationship between Britain and America in the decades after World War II.

From the Beats in America and the Angry Young Men in England to the shadow of the Profumo Affair and JFK’s assassination, Gould captures the pulse of a time that made the Beatles possible—and even necessary. As seen through the prism of the Beatles and their music, an entire generation’s experience comes astonishingly to life. Beautifully written, consistently insightful, and utterly original, Can’ t Buy Me Love is a landmark work about the Beatles, Britain, and America. 

 

Jonathan Gould (Author) 

Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles

 

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life-from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early triumphs at the legendary Cavern Club and the massive onslaught of Beatlemania itself. By mapping the group's development as an artistic fusion, Womack traces the Beatles' creative arc from their first, primitive recordings through Abbey Road and the twilight of their career.




In order to communicate the nature and power of the band's remarkable achievement, Womack examines the Beatles' body of work as an evolving art object. He investigates the origins and creation of the group's compositions, as well as the songwriting and recording practices that brought them to fruition. Womack's analysis of the Beatles' albums transports readers on a journey through the Beatles' heyday as recording artists between 1962 and 1969, when the band enjoyed a staggering musical and lyrical leap that took them from their first album Please Please Me, which they recorded in the space of a single day, to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album, and Abbey Road-albums that collectively required literally thousands of hours to produce. In addition to considering the band's increasing self-consciousness about the overall production, design, and presentation of their art, Womack explores the Beatles' albums as a collection of musical and lyrical impressions that finds them working towards a sense of aesthetic unity. In Long and Winding Roads, Womack reveals the ways in which the Beatles gave life to a musical synthesis that would change the world.

 

Kenneth Womack (Author) 

 

THE BEATLES Solo NME Originals The Solo Years 1970-1980

 

The Ultimate Music Guide John Lennon

 

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Paul McCartney - Tribute to the Rock & Roll Legend

 

This publication is the ultimate tribute to the Rock & Roll legend! From his early days, through his early days when he found fame with two young guitar playing friends, to his amazing solo career, we cover it all. Remember when Paul dreams up an imaginary group that inspires Sgt. Pepper’s, The Beatles’ psychedelic masterpiece. Or when the Fabs launch their Apple Records label empire and release their groundbreaking White Album. We look at his personal life as well as the life you may already know.

A Cellarful of Noise [Epstein, Brian]

 

"Here are the untold stories that only someone close to the Beatles could know!" The autobiography of the man who discovered the Beatles and other great British artists, Brian Epstein.