A worthy project diminished by Catalano’s impressionistic approach and special pleading.
Clifford Brown's premature death deprived jazz of one of its greatest trumpeters—a loss that seems even more poignant some
forty years later. Born in 1930, in Wilmington, Delaware, Brown began playing in school bands and informal dance groups in his early teens. Encouraged by his parents and teachers, he practiced constantly and soon became a local star. An important influence was Fats Navarro, a brilliant bebop trumpeter whose life was cut short by heroin use. Taking warning from Navarro's fate, Brown became a model for clean living among his generation of jazzmen, and was noted for his amiable disposition. His playing blossomed as he gigged and jammed with top players in the jazz clubs of Philadelphia. After a series of record dates as sideman, and a European tour with Lionel Hampton's band, he returned to the US in 1954 and formed a seminal quintet with drummer Max Roach. In the two years before Brown and pianist Richie Powell died in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, that group made a strong impact on jazz listeners. Unfortunately, Catalano (Performing Arts/Pace Univ.), assuming his readers are intimately familiar with Brown's music, relies primarily on verbal descriptions of his solos, providing only two passages of written music. A few of his other judgments are even more questionable. He takes several gratuitous potshots at Miles Davis, overlooking the possibility that even had Brown survived, he might never have rivaled the later success of the charismatic Davis. Nor did Brown's death send jazz into a tailspin, as Catalano implies; the music remained strong for nearly a decade before rock drove it from popular awareness. Still, the author’s enthusiastic and well-researched summary of Brown's career should send jazz buffs back to their record collections for serious listening.
A worthy project diminished by Catalano’s impressionistic approach and special pleading.Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-19-510083-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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