Popular music

In the early 1930s an exciting new musical form arose in Chicago known as the gospel blues.

Through the study of a large variety of musical practices from the U.

On January 16, 1938 Benny Goodman brought his swing orchestra to America's venerated home of European classical music, Carnegie Hall.

Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "e;eclectic, exciting, convincing, provocative"e; and in The Washington Post Book World as "e;brilliantly original,"e; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The story of the music that accompanies the cinematic adventures of Ian Fleming's intrepid Agent 007 is one of surprising real-life drama.

With its rich but underappreciated musical heritage, Washington, D.

In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American authors pioneered a mode of musical writing that quite literally resounded beyond the printed page.

We have grown accustomed to corporate influence in retail outlets, restaurants, and even higher education-but what happens when corporations take over desire?

When jazz musicians get together, they often delight one another with stories about the great, or merely remarkable, players and singers they've worked with.

Graced by more than 200 illustrations, many of them seldom seen and some never before published, this sparkling volume offers vivid portraits of the men and women who created country music, the artists whose lives and songs formed the rich tradition from which so many others have drawn inspiration.

The power of music, the way it works on the mind and heart, remains an enticing mystery.

The birth of rock 'n roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "e;musical riots put to a switchblade beat"e;--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify?

Michael Steinberg's highly successful listener's guides--The Symphony and The Concerto--have been universally praised for their blend of captivating biography, crystal clear musical analysis, and delightful humor.

An extraordinary prodigy of Mozartean abilities, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a distinguished composer and conductor, a legendary pianist and organist, and an accomplished painter and classicist.

Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, Robert Schumann went on to become one of the world's great composers.

When Jimi Hendrix transfixed the crowds of Woodstock with his gripping version of "e;The Star Spangled Banner,"e; he was building on a foundation reaching back, in part, to the revolutionary guitar playing of Howlin' Wolf and the other great Chicago bluesmen, and to the Delta blues tradition before him.

"e;I've done everything in the theatre except marry a property man,"e; Fanny Brice once boasted.

"e;Industrial"e; is a descriptor that fans and critics have applied to a remarkable variety of music: the oildrum pounding of Einsturzende Neubauten, the processed electronic groans of Throbbing Gristle, the drumloop clatter of Skinny Puppy, and the synthpop songcraft of VNV Nation, to name just a few.

Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture.

The "e;Second Quintet"e; -- the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s -- was one of the most innovative and influential groups in the history of the genre.

For jazz historians, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings mark the first revolution in the history of a music riven by upheaval.

For jazz historians, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings mark the first revolution in the history of a music riven by upheaval.

Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture.

The "e;Second Quintet"e; -- the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s -- was one of the most innovative and influential groups in the history of the genre.

Austin City Limits is the longest running musical showcase in the history of television, and it still captivates audiences forty years after its debut on the air.

When people hear the name "e;Clooney,"e; they automatically think of George Clooney, one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

From "e;Over the Rainbow"e; to "e;Moon River"e; and from Al Jolson to Barbra Streisand, The Songs of Hollywood traces the fascinating history of song in film, both in musicals and in dramatic movies such as High Noon.

A composer and lyricist of enormous innovation and influence, Marc Blitzstein remains one of the most versatile and fascinating figures in the history of American music, his creative output running the gamut from films scores and Broadway operas to art songs and chamber pieces.

Today Georges Bizet is most immediately recognized as the composer of the acclaimed opera Carmen.

At its most intimate level, music heals our emotional wounds and inspires us.

Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music.

Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music.

In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Dorothy Fields penned the words to more than four hundred songs, among them mega-hits such as "e;On the Sunny Side of the Street,"e; "e;I Can't Give You Anything But Love,"e; "e;The Way You Look Tonight,"e; and "e;If My Friends Could See Me Now.

Edited by prominent musician and scholar Leonard Brown, John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music is a timely exploration of Coltrane's sound and its spiritual qualities that are rooted in Black American music-culture and aspirations for freedom.

At its most intimate level, music heals our emotional wounds and inspires us.

Keith Jarrett ranks among the most accomplished and influential pianists in jazz history.

The prevailing discourse surrounding urban music education suggests the deficit-laden notion that urban school settings are "e;less than,"e; rather than "e;different than,"e; their counterparts.

Modern Moves traces the movement of American social dance styles between black and white cultural groups and between immigrant and migrant communities during the early twentieth century.

When Discovering Modernism was first published, it shed new and welcome light on the birth of Modernism.

A mesmerizing figure in concert, Charles Munch was celebrated for his electrifying public performances.

Modest Musorgsky was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian music.

Immediately upon publication in 1998, the Encyclopedia of Country Music became a much-loved reference source, prized for the wealth of information it contained on that most American of musical genres.

Although he died in a tragic car accident at twenty-five, Clifford Brown is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz, a trumpet player who ranks with Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, and a leading influence on contemporary jazz musicians.

This VSI offers readers something no other introduction to folk music does: a cross-cultural, comparative approach, a survey of the basic issues as they have unfolded over time, and specific examples from widely differing sites of how folk musicians themselves, as well as corporations, non-governmental organizations, and governments have made full use of the available resources, older and newer strategies, and multiple agendas that keep the folk music process alive in an increasingly interconnected, yet still localized world.

What was the first jazz record?

In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend.

"e;There are no definitive histories,"e; writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "e;because the past keeps looking different as the present changes.

What was the first jazz record?