- Hardcover: 512 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc; First Edition First Printing edition (14 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0306811146
- ISBN-13: 978-0306811142
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.2 x 4.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,679,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Myself Among Others: A Life In Music
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Product Description
Product Description
Here is the story of a middle-class Jewish kid from Boston who became the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and, later, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. . George Wein, who pioneered the idea of bringing jazz to people beyond the club circuit, looks back on his long career and unforgettably describes his relationships --sometimes smooth, sometimes tempestuous--with the great figures he's known: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis, among many, many others. Beginning in 1950 with the opening of his legendary Boston club Storyville, Wein presented jazz in a setting that respected both the musicians and the audience while still earning a profit. Since its founding in 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival has always reflected Wein's vision and grit. Wein opened up a whole new venue to musicians, attracting music immortals as well as aspiring young artists to his outdoor stage. Over the years, Newport became synonymous with jazz festivals in the United States, and it has become the model for similar events worldwide. Through his work, George Wein has expanded the audience for jazz more than anyone else living today, and has received France's Legion d'Honneur and numerous other awards. Myself Among Others illuminates the personalities, legends and performances of jazz's greatest era.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
WE PULL UP ALONGSIDE THE CURB and shift into park. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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7 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A Jazzy Trip Down Memory Lane
21 May 2003
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm only up to page 128 in this wonderful book but am already completely enthralled. As Nat Hentoff said, "He has known more musicians-some very well indeed-than any writer on jazz, and he certainly knows the business end." To read personal accounts of his relationships and experiences with almost every jazz legend I've ever heard of (and some from before my time as well) is mesmerizing. And George Wein's personal life outside of jazz is not exactly "chopped liver" either!! The book is written with a wealth of knowledge, intelligence, insight, warmth, humor and humility. The only criticism I have is that the book is only a little over 500 pages!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
From the "cat houses" of Storyville, to Newport society,
20 Sep 2003
Format:Hardcover
George Wein's wonderful memoir, "Myself Among Others", might just as well have been titled, "Payback Time". Although he chided Alberta Hunter for using the expression, as she mounted the stage, after many years in obscurity, followed by renewed stardom in the eighties, I can't help feeling that George is muttering that phrase to himself, as he rollcalls those sometime irresponsible, sometime neurotic, sometime drug addicted children the world knows as "jazz artists".
George knows the territory very well. As a teenage fan, very competent pianist and singer , jazz night club entreprenuer, and promoter of the "daddy" of the outdoor music festivals, "The Newport Jazz Festival", and oh yes, lecturer at Harvard, in his custom designed jazz course, dare anyone tell George anything about jazz, and the wonderful lunatics that people the jazz world?
Here is what it's like to do business with artists worshipped the world over, like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus. Space precludes naming them all. In addition to dealing with these "darlings", were the torrential rains at outdoor perfomances, political opposition from irrate townspeople, and the piece de resistance of booking concerts, other promoters dissapearing with George's money.
Maybe the presence of a natural built in Prozac machine kept George sane through this craziness, but I have another theory. His passion for the music. When you are hearing a Louis Armstrong, or a Charlie Parker and you truly "get it", there is something that goes beyond mere entertainment, or an expert improvisor. I can't even find adequate words to describe it, but when these men improvise on a popular song, it becomes like a classic solution to a philosophic, or mathematical theorum. It's hard to state the "problem" to be solved, but the true jazz fan knows that Louis, and Bird, and the other masters, came up with incredibly beautiful solutions night after night, year after year.
If you love jazz, and the artists, this book is a must.
George knows the territory very well. As a teenage fan, very competent pianist and singer , jazz night club entreprenuer, and promoter of the "daddy" of the outdoor music festivals, "The Newport Jazz Festival", and oh yes, lecturer at Harvard, in his custom designed jazz course, dare anyone tell George anything about jazz, and the wonderful lunatics that people the jazz world?
Here is what it's like to do business with artists worshipped the world over, like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus. Space precludes naming them all. In addition to dealing with these "darlings", were the torrential rains at outdoor perfomances, political opposition from irrate townspeople, and the piece de resistance of booking concerts, other promoters dissapearing with George's money.
Maybe the presence of a natural built in Prozac machine kept George sane through this craziness, but I have another theory. His passion for the music. When you are hearing a Louis Armstrong, or a Charlie Parker and you truly "get it", there is something that goes beyond mere entertainment, or an expert improvisor. I can't even find adequate words to describe it, but when these men improvise on a popular song, it becomes like a classic solution to a philosophic, or mathematical theorum. It's hard to state the "problem" to be solved, but the true jazz fan knows that Louis, and Bird, and the other masters, came up with incredibly beautiful solutions night after night, year after year.
If you love jazz, and the artists, this book is a must.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Must read
20 May 2003
Format:Hardcover
A "must read" for anyone interested in jazz, music, nostalgia, or a great real life story. It's worth buying just for the photos. Wein is a major cultural icon of our age.
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