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CANONGATE BOOKS

James Kaplan

3 Shades Of Blue : Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans & The Lost Empire Of Cool

    1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the other members of Miles's sextet come together to record the bestselling jazz album of all time: Kind of Blue. 3 Shades of Blue follows the paths of Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and their roads on from there. It's a book about music and business, race and heroin, and an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering.

    But above all this is the story of three very different men - their struggles, their choices, their inspiration. The tapestry of their lives is, in James Kaplan's hands, an American Odyssey.


    Alan Light

    What Happened, Miss Simone? : A Biography

      Drawing on glimpses into previously unseen diaries, rare interviews and childhood journals, and with the aid of her daughter, What Happened, Miss Simone? tells the story of the classically trained pianist who became a soul legend, a committed civil rights activist and one of the most influential, provocative and least understood artists of our time. This is the story of the real Miss Simone.

      Michel Faber

      Listen : On Music, Sound And Us

        'I'm not here to change your mind about Dusty Springfield or Shostakovich or Tupac Shakur or synthpop. I'm here to change your mind about your mind.' There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what's going on inside us when we listen.

        Michel Faber explores two big questions: how we listen to music and why we listen to music. To answer these he considers biology, age, illness, the notion of 'cool', commerce, the dichotomy between 'good' and 'bad' taste and, through extensive interviews with musicians, unlocks some surprising answers. From the award-winning author of The Crimson Petal and the White and Under the Skin, this curious and celebratory book reflects Michel Faber's lifelong obsession with music of all kinds.

        Listen will change your relationship with the heard world.

        Mark Hodkinson

        No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy : Memoirs Of A Working-Class Reader

          Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles, at the last count.

          No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It's about the schools, the music, the people - but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It's about a family who didn't see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories.

          It's also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Laura says: This is a fantastic book. A beautifully written tale of growing up in a northern town in the 70s and 80s and discovering the power of books and music. There's also a lovely thread running through the book of Mark's relationship with his grandad. Maybe it resonated so much with me as I'm of a similar age, but I think regardless of when or where you grew up, this is a really wonderful read.

          Nick Cave

          The Sick Bag Song - Reprint

            The Sick Bag Song chronicles Cave's 22-city journey around North America in 2014. Racked by romantic longing and exhaustion, Cave teases out the significant moments - the people, the books and the music - that have influenced and inspired him, and drops them into his sick bag. The book began its life scribbled onto airline sick bags and later evolves into a restless contemporary epic, exploring love, loss, inspiration and memory.

            Rick Rubin

            The Creative Act : A Way Of Being

              Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable.

              Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output; it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

              The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments - and lifetimes - of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.


              Johnny Cash

              Forever Words : The Unknown Poems

                Since his first recordings in 1955, Johnny Cash has been an icon in the music world. In his newly discovered poems and song lyrics, we see the world through his eyes. The poetry reveals his depth of understanding, both of the world around him and within - his frailties and his strengths alike.

                He pens verses in his hallmark voice, reflecting upon love, pain, freedom, fame and mortality. Illustrated with facsimile reproductions of Cash's own handwritten pages, Forever Words is a remarkable addition to the canon of one of America's heroes. His music is a part of our collective history, and here he demonstrates the depth of his talent as a writer.

                Edited and introduced by Paul Muldoon, with a foreword by John Carter Cash, this is a book sure to delight and surprise fans the world over.



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