University of California Press Blog» Music

UC Press Podcast: The Amazing Bud Powell

ssilverman — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:24:39 +0000

In this special edition of the UC Press Podcast, our Music editor Mary Francis introduces author Guy Ramsey, whom she’s worked with for 10 years. Read Mary’s account of the backstory behind the project, then listen to the podcast below.

I’ve worked with Guy Ramsey on some truly fantastic projects, starting with his ground-breaking Race Music: [more...]

New Orleans Suite Authors Talk Post-Katrina Music with UC Santa Cruz

ssilverman — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:00:48 +0000

UC Santa Cruz recently interviewed Eric Porter, Professor of History and American Studies, and Lewis Watts, professor of Art, about their new book, New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition. Using both visual evidence and the written word, Watts and Porter pay homage to the city, its region, and its residents, by mapping recent and often contradictory social [more...]

Moral Fire and Mitt Romney

ssilverman — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 02:43:23 +0000

This guest post is cross-posted from Joseph Horowitz’s blog, Unanswered Question. Horowitz is the author of Moral Fire and many other books. Previously a New York Times music critic, then Executive Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, he is currently Artistic Director of DC’s Post-Classical Ensemble.

Moral Fire and Mitt Romney by Joseph Horowitz

As readers of this blog [more...]

Clark Terry Wins Satchmo Award

ssilverman — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:18:17 +0000

Clark Terry(Photo: Quincy Cavers)

Big congratulations are in order for Clark Terry, who recently received the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation‘s prestigious Satchmo Award, which carries a $5,000 prize. On Terry’s website, his wife Gwen writes that Terry was ecstatic when he received the news, and said with tears in his eyes, “I appreciate each and [more...]

UC Press Author Discovers Oldest Known Woody Guthrie Recordings

ssilverman — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:40:33 +0000

Guest Post by Peter La Chapelle

Woody Guthrie would have been 100 years old this month and there have been a number of academic conferences and celebrations across the country.

There has also been a parade of press coverage about the hard travelling Woody, a singer-songwriter, an activist, and author of such prototypically American songs as “This [more...]

An Acquiring Eye: Mary Francis on Cinema and Music Books and Journals

ssilverman — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:48:12 +0000

In the newest Acquiring Eye feature, Humanities Publisher Mary Francis gives us her take on the music and cinema titles and journals coming out this spring.

Starting with one of the flagship publications from our Journals Division, Film Quarterly is always a treat to find in the mailbox. Never an issue goes by when I don’t [more...]

Author Reflections: Remembering Don Cornelius and Black Television Pioneers

ssilverman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:38:53 +0000

The first entry in our Author Reflections series comes from Matt Delmont, author of The Nicest Kids in Town. In The Nicest Kids in Town, Matt deftly places the TV show American Bandstand squarely in the civil rights struggles going on in Philadelphia during the 1950s. Here, Matt shares his thoughts around the passing of [more...]

Becoming Haunted: The Music in Your Head

ssilverman — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:17:04 +0000

Guest Post by Lawrence Kramer

“Why do we personify ourselves in music?” The question, emphasis included, came up in an earlier blog post of mine dealing with the impromptu competition among readers of the New York Times to secure their favorite classical composers a spot on a ten-best list constructed by the newspaper’s chief music critic, [more...]

Steve Waksman Wins 2010 Woody Guthrie Book Award

ssilverman — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:46:17 +0000

Steve Waksman has been named the winner of the 2010 Woody Guthrie Award for This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk by the U.S. branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. The Woody Guthrie Book Award committee, which was comprised of Anahid Kassabian (University [more...]

Beyond Greatness: What Was at Stake in the The Ten-Best List of Classical Composers

ssilverman — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:35:39 +0000

Guest Post by Lawrence Kramer

Who, in rank order, were the ten greatest classical composers? Anthony Tommasini, the chief music critic of the New York Times, recently offered an annotated list (January 21, 2011) after airing the question in several articles. Tommasini was well aware that the project was impossible: any such list could represent only [more...]