Singers and the Song

Led by Frank Sinatra, the generation that emerged during and after World War II raised the performance of the popular song to the level of art form. This book examines some of the most gifted of these singers--people like Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, Sarah Vaughan, and Andy Russell. _____Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge as intelligent, skillful, and fully conscious artists dedicated to their work. Lees's insights and anaylsis reveal Sinatra in particular as we've never seen him before. Calling him "our poet laureate, the best singer we've ever heard," Lees points out Sinatra's technical virtuosity--his extraordinary breath control and ability to link one phrase to another, his exquisite enunciation (especially the way he can brilliantly sustain consonants like m, n, l, and r), his uncanny ability to sing into a microphone so that it seemed as natural as speech. As Julius LaRosa said, "He was able to turn a 32-bar song into a 3-act play." _____But the book is not just about singers. It is also about composers, including the great film composer Hugo Friedhodfer, and the supremely talented lyricist Johnny Mercer. It is about language: a fascinating chapter compares English with French, revealing the implications for lyricists (for example, only four words rhyme with "love" in English while 51 rhyme with "amour" in French!). It is about the social history of twentieth century America, seen through the mirror of popular music. And it's about war--a theme that runs through the book, from the Viking conquest of northwestern France through World War II to the present. Humanity's creative impulse--the yearning to raise our voices in song--is contrasted to mankind's increasing destructivenss. _____ The book's themes are linked at the end in the story of the making of one extraordinary album created by an international group of figures, with Lees himself as lyricist translating and adapting poems of Pope John Paul II, and Sarah Vaughan as the featured singer.

Arts & Photography

LEES, Gene

Music

Oxford University Press

Gene Lees, author of the highly acclaimed Singers and the Song, offers, in Meet Me at Jim and Andy's, another tightly integrated collection of essays about post-War American music. This time he focuses on major jazz instrumentalists and bandleaders. Jim and Andy's, on 48th Street just west of Sixth Avenue, was one of four New York musicians' haunts in the 1960s--the others being Joe Harbor's Spotlight, Charlie's, and Junior's. "For almost every musician I knew," Lees writes, "[it was] a home-away-from-home, restaurant, watering hole, telephone answering service, informal savings (and loan) bank, and storage place for musical instruments." In a vivid series of portraits, we meet its clientele, an unforgettable gallery of individualists who happen to have been major artists--among them Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Billy Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Paul Desmond. We share their laughter and meet their friends, such as the late actress Judy Holliday, their wives, even their children (as in the tragic story of Frank Rosolino). We learn about their loves, loyalties, infidelities, and struggles with fame and, sometimes alcohol and drug addiction. The magnificent pianist Bill Evans, describing to Lees his heroin addiction, says, "It's like death and transfiguration. Every day you wake in pain like death, and then you go out and score, and that is transfiguration. Each day becomes all of life in microcosm." Himself a noted songwriter, Lees writes about these musicians with vividness and intimacy. Far from being the inarticulate jazz musicians of legend, they turn out to be eloquent indeed, and the inventors of a colorful slang that has passed into the American language. And of course there was the music. A perceptive critic with enormous respect for the music he writes about, Lees notes the importance and special appeal of each artist's work, as in this comment about Artie Shaw's clarinet: "A fish, it has been said, is unaware of water, and Shaw's music so permeated the very air that it was only too easy to overlook just how good a player and how inventive and significant an improviser he was."

Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World

Dizzy Gillespie. Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. Benny Carter, the true "Gentleman of Jazz." And Bix Beiderbecke, the F. Scott Fitzgerald of players. The story of jazz is a story of individuals--enormously gifted, dedicated, sometimes driven, yet often gentle people. In this volume, Gene Lees continues his richly entertaining and informative chronicle of the lives and times of jazz with a new collection of fourteen memorable essays drawn from his renowned Jazzletter. Waiting for Dizzy adds to the insights of his two previous collections, Meet Me at Jim &amp; Andy's and Singers and the Song, both highly acclaimed. Meet Me at Jim and Andy's won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Lyricist, essayist, and music historian, Gene Lees draws on a lifetime of experience--and in many cases friendships--in the jazz world to bring fresh insights to the lives and work of these magnificent artists, whether he is discussing why any guitarists have unsteady time or the complex role of race in jazz history. He is a repository of the humor of the jazz musician, recounting their wit and practical jokes: Ray Brown and Herb Ellis dying their hair as a gag on Oscar Peterson, or Joe Venuti trying to nail a foot-tapping tenor player's shoe to the floor. And as a perceptive cultural historian, he questions the jazz myth that no white musician ever made a significant contribution to jazz. But the heart of Waiting for Dizzy is its exquisitely crafted character studies, warm pictures of the men (and women) who created and continue to create this music. He begins in the era of its first great flowering, the 1920s. He then presents a gallery of vivid portraits of a diverse group of musicians, including the seminal arranger Bill Challis, Joe Venuti, Herb Ellis, Benny Carter, Lenny Breau, and Edmund Thigpen. The theme of discrimination against black Americans turns up frequently, as in the portraits of Al Grey and Hank Jones. Readers meet Spiegle Wilcox, the 87-year-old trombonist who played in the legendary Jean Goldkette band of the mid-20s, and left the music world only to return to playing 50 years later; Emily Remler, the tragic, determined, gifted guitarist who sought to break the sex barrier and her own drug habit, only to die all too young in a far-away place; and Bud Shank, the fine alto saxophonist who disappeared into the numbing atmosphere of studio work, and at last rebelled to return to jazz. The books final essay is its pinnacle: a day spent in the recording studio with Dizzy Gillespie, surrounded by brilliant younger musicians who are his spiritual children, among them Art Farmer and Phil Woods. It is a lyrical, affectionate, and affecting portrait of one of the three or four most important figures--and the most loved-- in jazz history. From Bix to Dizzy, from swing to be-bop, from the 1920s to the 1990s, Waiting for Dizzy is an exhilarating collection by the author The Washington Post Book World calls "not only an extraordinarily perceptive reporter and analyst of jazz performance, jazz history, and jazz people, but also one of those writers who's a joy to read on any subject at all."

Waiting for Dizzy

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Leader of the Band: The Life of Woody Herman

Few people know jazz as well as Gene Lees. As a musician, songwriter, former editor of Down Beat, and creator of the acclaimed Jazzletter, he has steeped himself in the music for decades. And no one writes about jazz better than Lees. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the leading jazz historians. The Washington Post called him "one of those writers who's a joy to read on any subject at all." No less than Dizzy Gillespie has called Lees "the glowing jewel of jazz" for his perceptive writing about the music. Now comes the book that jazz lovers (and Lees's fans) have been waiting for--Leader of the Band, a vivid, full-scale biography of Woody Herman. Asked by Herman in 1986 to write his biography, Gene Lees has spent close to a decade working on it, interviewing many of Herman's childhood friends and lifelong acquaintances as well as numerous musicians, including Les Brown, Milt Jackson, Peggy Lee, Tony Martin, and Red Norvo. The result is a strikingly immediate and well informed portrait of one of the great figures in jazz history--a musical giant whose career spanned the big band and bebop eras. Lees unfolds Herman's dramatic life from his childhood in Milwaukee to his final tragic days hounded by the IRS. We follow his rise to prominence in the 1930s as leader of "the band that plays the blues," when he quickly earned the love and respect of his peers that became the enduring hallmark of his career. Lees illuminates Herman's great success between 1945 and 1950, when bebop rapidly developed, revealing how Herman successfully made the transition with bands that became famous as Herman's "First Herd" and "Second Herd." (The Second Herd in particular won a stellar place in the annals of bebop, boasting many brilliant musicians, most notably, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz.) Lees also captures the ultimate tragedy that broke Herman's career--when Herman's manager diverted the band's withholding tax to settle gambling debts. Herman was tormented by the IRS for decades, until he died, penniless, in 1987. Along the way, Lees brings to life the weary routine of performing on the road, with its constant one-night engagements and unending travel, broken only by brief stays at home and moments of camaraderie. And perhaps most important, we not only see Herman's legion of friends and admirers, we see why this commanding figure was so loved and respected, even by that fractious bunch who make their living by playing jazz. Woody Herman played a central role in the development of jazz--and he played it, as he did the music, with dignity and breathtaking ability. In Leader of the Band, one of our finest writers captures the life of this great bandleader, vividly portraying the triumph and tragedy of a life in jazz.

Led by Frank Sinatra, the generation that emerged during and after World War II raised the performance of the popular song to the level of art. Gene Lees' fascinating book examines some of the most gifted of these singers, including Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, and Sarah Vaughan. Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge--in Singers and the Song--as intelligent, skillful, and fully conscious artists dedicated to their work. Lees also discusses the composers, including the great film composer, Hugo Friedhodfer, and the supremely talented lyricist, Johnny Mercer; explores the language of the popular song; focuses on the social history of twentieth-century America, seen through the mirror of popular music; and examines the theme of war, from the Viking conquest of northwestern France, through World War II, to the present.

Gene Lees, author of the highly acclaimed Singers and the Song, offers, in Meet Me at Jim &amp; Andy's, another tightly integrated collection of essays about postwar American music. This time he focuses on major jazz instrumentalists and bandleaders. In a vivid series of portraits, Lees introduces the clientele of Jim &amp; Andy's, one of the most popular New York musicians' haunts in the sixties. This unforgettable gallery of individualists included Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Billy Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Paul Desmond among many others. Lees, himself a noted songwriter, writes about these musicians with vividness and intimacy. Far from being the inarticulate jazz musicians of legend, they turn out to be eloquent indeed as the inventors of a colorful slang that has passed into the American language.

Dizzy Gillespie. Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. Benny Carter, the true "Gentleman of Jazz." And Bix Beiderbecke, the F. Scott Fitzgerald of players. The story of jazz is a story of individuals--enormously gifted, dedicated, sometimes driven, yet often gentle people. In this volume, Gene Lees, continues his richly entertaining and informative chronicle of the lives and times of jazz with a new collection of fourteen memorable essays drawn from his renowned Jazzletter. Waiting for Dizzy adds to the insights of his two previous collections, Meet Me at Jim &amp; Andy's and Singers and the Song, both highly acclaimed. Meet Me at Jim and Andy's won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Lyricist, essayist, and music historian, Gene Lees draws on a lifetime of experience--and in many cases friendships--in the jazz world to bring fresh insights to the lives and work of these magnificent artists, whether he is discussing why any guitarists have unsteady time or the complex role of race in jazz history. He is a repository of the humor of the jazz musician, recounting their wit and practical jokes: Ray Brown and Herb Ellis dying their hair as a gag on Oscar Peterson, or Joe Venuti trying to nail a foot-tapping tenor player's shoe to the floor. And as a perceptive cultural historian, he questions the jazz myth that no white musician ever made a signficant contribution to jazz. But the heart of Waiting for Dizzy is its exquisitely crafted character studies, warm pictures of the men (and women) who created and continue to create this music. He begins in the era of its first great flowering, the 1920s. He then presents a gallery of vivid portraits of a diverse group of musicians, including the seminal arranger Bill Challis, Joe Venuti, Herb Ellis, Benny Carter, Lenny Breau, and Edmund Thigpen. The theme of discrimination against black Americans turns up frequently, as in the portraits of Al Grey and Hank Jones. Readers meet Spiegle Wilcox, the 87-year-old trombonist who played in the legendary Jean Goldkette band of the mid-20s, and left the music world only to return to playing 50 years later; Emily Remler, the tragic, determined, gifted guitarist who sought to break the sex barrier and her own drug habit, only to die all too young in a far-away place; and Bud Shank, the fine alto saxophonist who disappeared into the numbing atmosphere of studio work, and at last rebelled to return to jazz. The books final essay is its pinnacle: a day spent in the recording studio with Dizzy Gillespie, surrounded by brilliant younger musicians who are his spiritual children, among them Art Farmer and Phil Woods. It is a lyrical, affectionate, and affecting portrait of one of the three or four most important figures--and the most loved-- in jazz history. From Bix to Dizzy, from swing to be-bop, from the 1920s to the 1990s, Waiting for Dizzy is an exhilarating collection by the author The Washington Post Book World calls "not only an extraordinarily perceptive reporter and analyst of jazz performance, jazz history, and jazz people, but also one of those writers who's a joy to read on any subject at all."

It was none other than Louis Armstrong who said, "These people who make the restrictions, they don't know nothing about music. It's no crime for cats of any color to get together and blow." "You can't know what it means to be black in the United States--in any field," Dizzy Gillespie one said, but Gillespie vigorously objected to the proposition that only black people could play jazz. "If you accept that premise, well then what you're saying is that maybe black people can only play jazz. And black people, like anyone else, can be anything they want to be." In Cats of Any Color, Gene Lees, the acclaimed author of three previous collections of essays on jazz and popular music, takes a long overdue look at the shocking pervasiveness of racism in jazz's past and present--both the white racism that long ghettoized the music and generations of talented black musicians, and what Lees maintains is an increasingly virulent reverse racism aimed at white jazz musicians. In candid interviews, living jazz legends, critics, and composers step forward and share their thoughts on how racism has affected their lives. Dave Brubeck, part Modoc Indian, discusses native Americans' contribution to jazz and the deeply ingrained racism that for a time made it all but impossible for jazz groups with black and white players to book tours and television appearances. Horace Silver looks back on his long career, including the first time he ever heard jazz played live. Blacks were not not allowed into the pavilion in Connecticut where Jimmie Lunceford's band was performing, so the ten-year-old Silver listened and watched through the wooden slats surrounding the pavilion. "And oh man! That was it!" Silver recalls. Red Rodney recalls his early days with Charlie "Bird" Parker, and pianist and composer Cedar Walton tells of the time Duke Ellington played at the army base at Ford Dix and allowed the young enlisted Walton to sit in. Tracing the jazz world's shifting attitude towards race, many of the stories Lees tells are inspiring--Brubeck cancelling 23 out of 25 concert dates in the South rather than replace black bass player Eugene Wright, or Silver insisting that while he strives to provide his fellow black musicians opportunities, "I just want the best musicans I can get. I don't give a damn if they're pink or polka dot." Others are profoundly disturbing--Lees' first encounter with Oscar Peterson, after a Canadian barber flatly refused to cut Peterson's hair, or Wynton Marsalis on television claiming that blacks have been held back for so many years because the music business is controlled by "people who read the Torah and stuff." From the old shantytowns of Louisville, to the streets of South Central L.A., to the up-to-the-minute controversies surrounding Marsalis's jazz program at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Masters awards given by the NEA, Cats of Any Color confronts racism head-on. At its heart is a passionate plea to recognize jazz not as the sole property of any one group, but as an art form celebrating the human spirit--not just for the protection of individual musicians, but for the preservation of the music itself.

Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White

It was none other than Louis Armstrong who said, "These people who make the restrictions, they don't know nothing about music. It's no crime for cats of any color to get together and blow." "You can't know what it means to be black in the United States--in any field," Dizzy Gillespie once said, but Gillespie vigorously objected to the proposition that only black people could play jazz. "If you accept that premise, well then what you're saying is that maybe black people can only play jazz. And black people, like anyone else, can be anything they want to be." In Cats of Any Color, Gene Lees, the acclaimed author of three previous collections of essays on jazz and popular music, takes a long overdue look at the shocking pervasiveness of racism in jazz's past and present--both the white racism that long ghettoized the music and generations of talented black musicians, and what Lees maintains is an increasingly virulent reverse racism aimed at white jazz musicians. In candid interviews, living jazz legends, critics, and composers step forward and share their thoughts on how racism has affected their lives. Dave Brubeck, part Modoc Indian, discusses native Americans' contribution to jazz and the deeply ingrained racism that for a time made it all but impossible for jazz groups with black and white players to book tours and television appearances. Horace Silver looks back on his long career, including the first time he ever heard jazz played live. Blacks were not not allowed into the pavilion in Connecticut where Jimmie Lunceford's band was performing, so the ten-year-old Silver listened and watched through the wooden slats surrounding the pavilion. "And oh man! That was it!" Silver recalls. Red Rodney recalls his early days with Charlie "Bird" Parker, and pianist and composer Cedar Walton tells of the time Duke Ellington played at the army base at Ford Dix and allowed the young enlisted Walton to sit in. Tracing the jazz world's shifting attitude towards race, many of the stories Lees tells are inspiring--Brubeck cancelling 23 out of 25 concert dates in the South rather than replace black bass player Eugene Wright, or Silver insisting that while he strives to provide his fellow black musicians opportunities, "I just want the best musicans I can get. I don't give a damn if they're pink or polka dot." Others are profoundly disturbing--Lees' first encounter with Oscar Peterson, after a Canadian barber flatly refused to cut Peterson's hair, or Wynton Marsalis on television claiming that blacks have been held back for so many years because the music business is controlled by "people who read the Torah and stuff." From the old shantytowns of Louisville, to the streets of South Central L.A., to the up-to-the-minute controversies surrounding Marsalis's jazz program at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Masters awards given by the NEA, Cats of Any Color confronts racism head-on. At its heart is a passionate plea to recognize jazz not as the sole property of any one group, but as an art form celebrating the human spirit--not just for the protection of individual musicians, but for the preservation of the music itself.

Gene Lees is probably the best jazz essayist in America today, and the book that consolidated his reputation was Singers and the Song, which appeared in 1987. Now this classic volume is being rereleased in an expanded edition. The new edition retains a number of famous pieces from the original volume, some in expanded form, such as Lees's classic profile of Frank Sinatra. Lees has also retained his marvelous essay on lyric writing, his piece on the art of Edith Piaf, and his admiring look at the genius of songwriter Johnny Mercer. The expanded edition offers seven new essays that are no less accomplished. Here readers will find a wonderful tribute to "the sweetest voice in the world," Ella Fitzgerald; a moving interview with Jackie and Roy Kral; Lees's account of his involvement with Bossa Nova music and his collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim. We also read about Julius La Rosa, the lyrics of "Yip" Harburg, Harry Warren's unforgettable compositions, and the elegant Arthur Schwartz, writer of "Dancing in the Dark" and many other memorable songs. Here then is an engaging volume that weaves together colorful portraits of major performers and insightful glimpses into the art of singing and songwriting.

Singers and the Song II

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by LEES, Gene. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by LEES, Gene

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by LEES, Gene. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Singers and the Song

Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World

Waiting for Dizzy

Leader of the Band: The Life of Woody Herman

Singers and the Song

Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World

Waiting for Dizzy

Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White

Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White

Singers and the Song II