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Title: Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington by John Edward Hasse ISBN: 0-306-80614-2 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Top Ellington biography of the 3 I've read so far
Comment: Beyond Category is the best introduction to Duke Ellington's life and music. It was created to coincide with a Smithsonian exhibit and it offers a quality professional biography of Ellington's life and times. The author considers Ellington's life a series of problems to solve for his mind. Some of these problems are how to learn piano, how to start a band, how to compose with a partner, how to react to the recording band, how to deal with the loss of key soloists, how to compose larger works and ends up hitting many of the high points of Ellington's life and works.
Most of the new research at the time came from Mercer Ellington's enormous donation of his warehouse of materials for the Duke Ellington collectionl. Yet as a book intended for a popular audience, the musical content of this trove was not really fully dealt with. Mercer's collection comes through in the fabulous photographs that are interspersed throughout the book. It may have been better to have all the photographs grouped in several sections as not everyone will have time to read the entire book I suppose.
One very helpful aspect to the book was that at the end of each chapter there was a guide to key recordings of Ellington's life. This type of material is very helpful to those new to Ellington's life.
I found the prose to be clear and adequate although not as lively as some of the other excellent jazz biographies I've read such as Chambers' Milestones.
This book gets a 4.5 star rating for anyone new to Ellington. It's accessible, readable, and gives you several ideas to approach the true gold mine of Ellington's music.
For jazz researchers and scholars, there's still room for a knockout biography of Ellington that adds the information from the Smithsonian collection to wide ranging interviews and even better prose. Researchers will want to read this, but I'm not sure how much of this material is groundbreaking.
4.5 stars for neophytes
3.5 stars for Ellington scholars
4 stars overall
Rating: 5
Summary: Better late than never
Comment: No sentimentality here. Just warm, rich story telling of a great man. I'm actually embarrassed to say that after lifetime of jazz I just dicovered The Duke. This is a very well written and balanced portrayal of a man,his music and his times. If there's more to say I don't want to read it; it's time to listen.
Rating: 5
Summary: excellently researched book
Comment: As an old time lover of Jazz, but rather new to really examining the lives behind its great musicians, and particularly Duke Ellington, I started out with "Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography" by Janna Tull Steed (great book (and just 192 pages) for anyone new to the Duke & jazz). It was Steed's book that really built the interest to explore Ellington in more depth and, Hasse's book is just what I was looking for. It is a hefty book but it is absolutely and completely accessible, just what is required to approach this great man of Jazz.
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Title: Music Is My Mistress by Duke Ellington ISBN: 0306800330 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1976 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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Title: The Duke Ellington Reader by Mark Tucker, Duke Ellington ISBN: 0195093917 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong by Gary Giddins ISBN: 0306810131 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 16 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The World of Duke Ellington by Stanley Dance ISBN: 0306810158 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 26 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu ISBN: 0865475121 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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