Engelska

In Absolutely on Music, internationally Haruki Murakami sits down with his friend Seiji Ozawa, the revered former conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for a series of conversations on their shared passion: music. Over the course of two years, Murakami and Ozawa discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from Bartók to Mahler, and from pop-up orchestras to opera. They listen to and dissect recordings of some of their favorite performances, and Murakami questions Ozawa about his career conducting orchestras around the world. Culminating in Murakami's ten-day visit to the banks of Lake Geneva to observe Ozawa's retreat for young musicians, the book is interspersed with ruminations on record collecting, jazz clubs, orchestra halls, film scores, and much more. A deep reflection on the essential nature of both music and writing, Absolutely on Music is an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of two maestros.

Songs that sell the most copies become hits, but some of those hits become something more - iconic recordings that not only inspire a generation but also alter the direction of music. In this follow-up to his classic <i>Anatomy of a Song</i>, writer and music historian Marc Myers tells the stories behind fifty-five more rock, pop, R&B, country and reggae hits through intimate interviews with the artists who wrote and recorded them.<br/><br/>Part oral history, part musical analysis, <i>Anatomy of 55 Hit Songs</i> ranges from Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Bad Moon Rising' to Dionne Warwick's 'Walk On By', The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' and Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. Bernie Taupin recalls how he wrote the lyrics to Elton John's 'Rocket Man'; Joan Jett remembers channeling her rage against how she had been unfairly labeled and treated into 'Bad Reputation' and Ozzy Osbourne, Elvis Costello, Bob Weir, Sheryl Crow, Alice Cooper, Roberta Flack, John Mellencamp, Keith Richards, Carly Simon and many others reveal the emotions and technique behind their major works.

Guns N' Roses: Band That Time Forgot (revised) [Bok / Pocket]

<b>'Hip Hip is not History, it's Our story. Brilliant book'</b><br/><b>Craig Charles</b><br/><br/> In this landmark book, <i>Hip-Hop Is History</i>, Grammy- and Academy Award-winning filmmaker and <i>NYT</i> bestselling author, Questlove, skilfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits-and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story of a cultural revolution and a sweeping, grand theory of the evolution of the great artistic movement of our time. And Questlove, of course, approaches it with not only the encyclopaedic fluency and passion of an obsessive fan but also the expertise and originality of an innovative participant.<br/><br/> Hip-hop is history, and also <i>his </i>history.

Irish Ukulele Songbook - 30 Favorites To Strum & Sing [Bok / Pocket]

<b>With a foreword by Paul McCartney</b><br/><br/><b>'It's semi-devotional -- a really special place' </b>Florence Welch<br/><b>'There are certain things that are mythical. Abbey Road is mythical' </b>Nile Rodgers<br/><br/>Many people will recognise the famous zebra crossing. Some visitors may have graffitied their name on its hallowed outer walls. Others might even have managed to penetrate the iron gates. But what draws in these thousands of fans here, year after year? What is it that really happens behind the doors of the most celebrated recording studio in the world?<br/><br/>It may have begun life as an affluent suburban house, but it soon became a creative hub renowned around the world as a place where great music, ground-breaking sounds and unforgettable tunes were forged - nothing less than a witness to, and a key participant in, the history of popular music itself.<br/><br/>What has been going on there for over ninety years has called for skills that are musical, creative, technical, mechanical, interpersonal, logistical, managerial, chemical and, romantics might be tempted add, close to magic.<br/><br/><b>This is for the people who believe in the magic.</b>

<b>'Always up close and personal, always tenacious and informed by deep background, and always vivid and veracious' <i>The Times</i></b><br/><br/>The greatest popular songs, whether it's Aretha Franklin singing 'Respect' or Bob Dylan performing 'Blind Willie McTell', have a way of embedding themselves in our memories. You remember a time and a place and a feeling when you hear that song again. In <i>Holding the Note</i>, David Remnick writes about the lives and work of some of the greatest musicians, songwriters, and performers of the past fifty years. He portrays a series of musical lives - Leonard Cohen, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and more - and their unique encounters with the passing of that essential element of music: time. These are intimate portraits of some of the greatest creative minds of our time written with a lifetime's passionate attachment to music that has shaped us all.