A lively, indulgent memoir.
A musician reflects on his career and experiences from the Depression Era through the present.
Hull brings to life his years as a big band leader and musician, starting with his youth in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was encouraged by a musical mother—a bandleader who eventually retired to raise her children. Strong memories include carrying his sax on the bus in a pillowcase—the family couldn’t afford a proper case—to go hear music locally, and hopefully be called on to play. He wasn’t. Undaunted, Hull starts his own band, plays with others and goes to college. He gets married and has eight children along the way, though the marriage eventually ends in divorce after suffering through long separations due to Hull’s life on the road. He forms the Jazz Giants, who get a rare opportunity to play the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival—a high point in his career. Afterward, the band discovers the recording is of poor quality and plans for an album are scrapped. He meets famous people such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie and aspires to bigger fame. In the ’70s, he scales down to a lounge act of six people and gets into the Las Vegas scene by backing up Vic Damone with a string ensemble. Later in life, he produces cruise-ship shows. Eventually Hull’s son locates a CD from an Armed Services Radio recording of the Newport Festival via the Library of Congress. Although Hull presents a vividly described and engaging memoir, full enjoyment of the author’s adventures is somewhat hindered by the thought of his wife home alone raising eight kids. Also, he ends some chapters with alternate endings of how things might have been, then employs a “voice of conscience” to remind him to say what actually happened, which can be distracting. But Hull’s life is an interesting one, nonetheless.
A lively, indulgent memoir.Pub Date: April 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0981972787
Page Count: 290
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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