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A CALL TO ASSEMBLY

Name: A CALL TO ASSEMBLY
Author: Willie Ruff
ISBN: 0-670-83800-4

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MUSICAL STORYTELLER

by Willie Ruff ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1991

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Compellingly well-told life and musical education of a jazz bassist/French-horn player who rose from rural Alabama poverty to being a world traveler, player with great jazz orchestras, and teacher at Yale. As a boy, Ruff lived midway between W.C. Handy's house and Helen Keller's, sang, played the piano and drums, and was inspired by a visit to his school by the great composer of ``St. Louis Blues.'' Ruff's mother taught him early not to let Jim Crow demean him. At 14, he lied about his age and joined the Army for the musical education it assured him on the G.I. Bill. In the Army, he met black career men who were musicians, and one, Pete Lewis, who taught him French horn. Lewis also awakened in him a lifelong love of black soldiers, who fought for this country from its beginnings and about whom Ruff turned up some ennobling but neglected research. Before the Army's desegregation policy was announced, he served at the all-black Lockbourne, Ohio, military post and there got into symphonic music and advanced horn-playing. Later, in 1949, he studied under Paul Hindemith at Yale, but decided against being a classical player and switched to jazz as a career, along with teaching. He played with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie, and recorded with Miles Davis, who suggested he voice his French horn like a singer. Notably, he toured China, Russia, and Africa, played solo in St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, and had the gift of a complex horn piece written for him by Duke Ellington's composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn in his last year. Ruff displays an affecting sense of mission in passing along his own education, and a lovely ear for jive talk. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: July 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-670-83800-4

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.