From Birdland to Broadway: Scenes from a Jazz Life Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

From Birdland to Broadway: Scenes from a Jazz Life Book

In the course of his long career as a bassist, Bill Crow has rubbed elbows with such luminaries as Gerry Mulligan, Marian McPartland, Stan Getz, and Duke Ellington (who coached him through a one-nighter by pointing to the appropriate notes on his keyboard a half-beat before they were played by the orchestra). Still, Crow's vantage point is largely that of a supporting player, bouncing from gig to gig and trimming his style to fit the circumstances. Luckily for us, he's written it all down in From Birdland to Broadway, which is both a spirited account of the freelancer's hand-to-mouth existence and a portrait gallery of Crow's exalted employers. The Seattle native arrived in Manhattan in 1950 with a valve trombone, which he later exchanged for a string bass. He began his jazz education at Birdland--then a kind of world headquarters for bop and progressive swing masters--and went on to play in trios, quartets, big bands, and Broadway pit orchestras (including an eight-year run with 42nd Street). Crow's account of this musical odyssey is a delight: modest, specific, and packed with low-key comedy. Read More

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  • Product Description

    In the 1950s, New York City's Birdland, a club named for Charlie "Bird" Parker, boasted lifesize photomurals of modern jazzzmen from Dizzy Gillespie to Lennie Tristano. Crow's enthralling inside account of his experiences in this musical wonderland is a revealing and marvelous portrait of the jazz world--and was voted Best Jazz Book of 1991 in a Jazz Times readers' poll.

  • 0195069889
  • 9780195069884
  • Bill Crow
  • 1 November 1992
  • Oxford University Press Inc
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 288
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