| Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker Contributor(s): Crouch, Stanley (Author), Kenerly, Kevin (Read by) |
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ISBN: 1482967669 ISBN-13: 9781482967661 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks OUR PRICE: $26.96 Product Type: MP3 CD - Other Formats Published: January 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Music - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General - Music | Genres & Styles - Jazz |
| Dewey: B |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.3" W x 6.7" (0.35 lbs) |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker is the first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities on jazz and culture in America. Throughout his life, Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at the age of thirty-four. Drawing on interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members, Kansas City Lightning re-creates Parker's Depression-era childhood; his early days navigating the Kansas City nightlife, inspired by lions like Lester Young and Count Basie; and on to New York, where he began to transcend the music he had mastered. Crouch reveals an ambitious young man torn between music and drugs, between his domineering mother and his impressionable young wife, whose teenage romance with Charlie lies at the bittersweet heart of this story. With the wisdom of a jazz scholar, the cultural insights of an acclaimed social critic, and the narrative skill of a literary novelist, Stanley Crouch illuminates this American master as never before. |
Contributor Bio(s): Crouch, Stanley: - Stanley Crouch has been writing about jazz music and the American experience for more than forty years. He has twice been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, for his essay collections Notes of a Hanging Judge and The All-American Skin Game. His other books include Always in Pursuit, The Artificial White Man, and the acclaimed novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome. Since 1987 he has served on and off as the artistic consultant for jazz programming at Lincoln Center and is a founder of the jazz department known as Jazz at Lincoln Center. The president of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, he is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a regular columnist for the New York Daily News. Kenerly, Kevin: -Kevin Kenerly earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in fifteen seasons, playing dozens of roles. His audiobook credits include Eddie Signwriter and Stephen King's The Running Man. |