A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010 M11 2 - 832 páginas

Will Friedwald’s illuminating, opinionated essays—provocative, funny, and personal—on the lives and careers of more than three hundred singers anatomize the work of the most important jazz and popular performers of the twentieth century. From giants like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland to lesser-known artists like Jeri Southern and Joe Mooney, they have created a body of work that continues to please and inspire. Here is the most extensive biographical and critical survey of these singers ever written, as well as an essential guide to the Great American Songbook and those who shaped the way it has been sung.
 
The music crosses from jazz to pop and back again, from the songs of Irving Berlin and W. C. Handy through Stephen Sondheim and beyond, bringing together straightforward jazz and pop singers (Billie Holiday, Perry Como); hybrid artists who moved among genres and combined them (Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé); the leading men and women of Broadway and Hollywood (Ethel Merman, Al Jolson); yesterday’s vaudeville and radio stars (Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor); and today’s cabaret artists and hit-makers (Diana Krall, Michael Bublé). Friedwald has also written extended pieces on the most representative artists of five significant genres that lie outside the songbook: Bessie Smith (blues), Mahalia Jackson (gospel), Hank Williams (country and western), Elvis Presley (rock ’n’ roll), and Bob Dylan (folk-rock).
 
Friedwald reconsiders the personal stories and professional successes and failures of all these artists, their songs, and their performances, appraising both the singers and their music by balancing his opinions with those of fellow musicians, listeners, and critics.
 
This magisterial reference book—ten years in the making—will delight and inform anyone with a passion for the iconic music of America, which continues to resonate throughout our popular culture.

 

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Contenido

Lorez Alexandria
3
Harold Arlen
10
Gene Austin
24
Pearl Bailey
31
Josephine Baker
40
Andy
48
Al Bowlly
57
DeeDee Bridgewater
64
Johnny Mathis 688 Bea Wain 635
496
Carmen McRae 319 Ethel Waters
505
Johnny Mercer 627 Elizabeth Welch 574
511
Helen Merrill 33 Andy Williams 689
520
Joe Mooney 344 Julie Wilson
532
Lee Morse 664 Edythe Wright 634
543
Marion Harris
555
Adelaide Hall
568

Una Mae Carlisle
73
June Christy
82
Peter Cincotti
88
Freddy Cole
99
Russ Columbo
105
Barbara Cook
116
Clarence Johnstone 582 Johnnie Ray 683
379
Etta Jones 723 Della Reese
385
Jack Jones 255 Dianne Reeves 38 9
394
Howard Keel 720 Little Jimmy Scott
400
Eartha Kitt 269 Bobby Short
408
Roy Kral 693 Ginny Simms 636
417
Cleo Laine 698 Carol Sloane
426
Dorothy Lamour 647 Jeri Southern
432
Steve Lawrence 281 Kay Starr
442
Julia Lee 668 Barbra Streisand
451
Peggy Lee 287 Maxine Sullivan
459
Julie London 299 Jack Teagarden 4 67
473
Kevin Mahogany 758 Sophie Tucker
481
Andrea Marcovicci 762 George Bon BonTunnell 641
489
Betty Hutton
579
Helen Ward Martha Tilton and Helen
588
Ivie Anderson
596
Male Band Singers IIExceptional
640
Sir Noel Coward
656
48
659
Lee Morse
664
Frankie Laine Johnnie
680
King Pleasure
691
Teddi
700
668
743
From Connie
747
Allan Harris Kevin Mahogany
756
552
768
Bob Dylan
781
576
790
Bessie Smith
802
Hank Williams
808
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Acerca del autor (2010)

Will Friedwald writes about music for The Wall Street Journal and was the jazz (and cabaret) critic for The New York Sun. He is the author of eight books, including Stardust Melodies: A Biography of Twelve of America’s Most Popular Songs; Jazz Singing: America’s Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond; Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art; and The Good Life (with Tony Bennett). He has written nearly five hundred liner notes for compact discs, for which he has received eight Grammy nominations. He has also written for Vanity Fair, The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, American Heritage, and The New York Times, among other publications.

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