-
Summertime
- George Gershwin's Life in Music
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $24.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Listening for America
- Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim
- By: Rob Kapilow
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth-century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What Makes It Great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the Great American Songbook, bringing many of our favorite classics to life.
By: Rob Kapilow
-
The History of Jazz, Second Edition
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history.
-
-
An Exciting Opportunity Missed
- By Kindle Customer on 02-02-15
By: Ted Gioia
-
Bibi
- My Story
- By: Benjamin Netanyahu
- Narrated by: David Marantz, Benjamin Netanyahu
- Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s sweeping, moving autobiography, one of the most formidable and insightful leaders of our time tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending Israel and securing its future. Through a host of vivid anecdotes, he narrates his own evolution from soldier to statesman, while providing a unique perspective on leadership, the fraught geopolitics of the Middle East, and his successful efforts to liberate Israel’s economy, which helped turn it into a global powerhouse of technological innovation.
-
-
ביבי מלך ישראל, חי חי וקיים
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
-
1776
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stirring audiobook, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence, when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.
-
-
Front Seat on History
- By Mark on 10-22-05
By: David McCullough
-
Dangerous Rhythms
- Jazz and the Underworld
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership.
-
-
Keep your YouTube handy
- By Vikon on 09-12-22
By: T. J. English
-
The Life and Music of George Gershwin
- By: Ean Wood
- Narrated by: Sheridan Morley
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gershwin's musical genius is undeniable and this book explores both the man and his works with extensive material from the Gershwin's family archive, exclusive interviews with musicians and other unique sources. This fresh account is further livened by a splendid reading from Sheridan Morley who contributes to this entertaining and informed account of one of America's greatest composers.
-
-
Good overview of major works
- By Tim Gray on 09-10-15
By: Ean Wood
-
Listening for America
- Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim
- By: Rob Kapilow
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth-century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What Makes It Great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the Great American Songbook, bringing many of our favorite classics to life.
By: Rob Kapilow
-
The History of Jazz, Second Edition
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history.
-
-
An Exciting Opportunity Missed
- By Kindle Customer on 02-02-15
By: Ted Gioia
-
Bibi
- My Story
- By: Benjamin Netanyahu
- Narrated by: David Marantz, Benjamin Netanyahu
- Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s sweeping, moving autobiography, one of the most formidable and insightful leaders of our time tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending Israel and securing its future. Through a host of vivid anecdotes, he narrates his own evolution from soldier to statesman, while providing a unique perspective on leadership, the fraught geopolitics of the Middle East, and his successful efforts to liberate Israel’s economy, which helped turn it into a global powerhouse of technological innovation.
-
-
ביבי מלך ישראל, חי חי וקיים
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
-
1776
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stirring audiobook, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence, when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.
-
-
Front Seat on History
- By Mark on 10-22-05
By: David McCullough
-
Dangerous Rhythms
- Jazz and the Underworld
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership.
-
-
Keep your YouTube handy
- By Vikon on 09-12-22
By: T. J. English
-
The Life and Music of George Gershwin
- By: Ean Wood
- Narrated by: Sheridan Morley
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gershwin's musical genius is undeniable and this book explores both the man and his works with extensive material from the Gershwin's family archive, exclusive interviews with musicians and other unique sources. This fresh account is further livened by a splendid reading from Sheridan Morley who contributes to this entertaining and informed account of one of America's greatest composers.
-
-
Good overview of major works
- By Tim Gray on 09-10-15
By: Ean Wood
-
Mozart
- The Reign of Love
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 30 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: A man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
-
-
Too many words
- By James Messelbeck on 01-12-21
By: Jan Swafford
-
Something Wonderful
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
- By: Todd S. Purdum
- Narrated by: Todd S. Purdum
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
-
-
Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
- By BigWally on 06-27-18
By: Todd S. Purdum
-
The Bully Pulpit
- Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 36 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Goodwin describes the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. With the help of the "muckraking" press, Roosevelt had wielded the Bully Pulpit to challenge and triumph over abusive monopolies, political bosses, and corrupting money brokers. Roosevelt led a revolution that he bequeathed to Taft only to see it compromised as Taft surrendered to money men and big business. The rupture led Roosevelt to run against Taft for president, an ultimately futile race that gave power away to the Democrats.
-
-
Makes You Forget You Live in the 21st Century Good
- By Cynthia on 01-11-14
-
Will
- By: Will Smith, Mark Manson
- Narrated by: Will Smith
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.
-
-
Will sure loves Will
- By Kejeco on 11-18-21
By: Will Smith, and others
-
Duke
- A Life of Duke Ellington
- By: Terry Teachout
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century - and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world's most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style.
-
-
This audiobook needs music
- By John on 04-08-14
By: Terry Teachout
-
A Woman of No Importance
- The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and - despite her prosthetic leg - helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.
-
-
Maybe it’s the narrator?
- By Andrea on 09-18-19
By: Sonia Purnell
-
Irving Berlin
- New York Genius
- By: James Kaplan
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called - by George Gershwin, among others - the greatest songwriter of the golden age of the American popular song. "Berlin has no place in American music," legendary composer Jerome Kern wrote; "He is American music." In a career that spanned an astonishing nine decades, Berlin wrote some 1,500 tunes, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "God Bless America", and "White Christmas". From ragtime to the rock era, Berlin's work has endured in the very fiber of American national identity.
-
-
The Greatest Songwriter?
- By Orson Scott Card on 02-19-20
By: James Kaplan
-
Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism
- By: Thomas Brothers
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive account of Louis Armstrong - his life and legacy - during the most creative period of his career. Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone.
-
-
Very in-depth look at Armstrong's crucial years.
- By Rob G. on 09-30-15
By: Thomas Brothers
-
Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
-
-
Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
-
Paul Newman
- A Life
- By: Shawn Levy
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blue eyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic renegades, broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such revered films as The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Color of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was also an oddity in Hollywood: The rare box-office titan who cared about the craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for the staying power of his marriage, and the humble celebrity who made philanthropy his calling card.
-
-
Charismatic subject makes for great reading
- By Glory on 07-25-09
By: Shawn Levy
-
Beethoven
- A Life in Nine Pieces
- By: Laura Tunbridge
- Narrated by: Laura Tunbridge
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven's career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation.
-
-
Engaging, interesting, nice format
- By George on 07-04-22
By: Laura Tunbridge
-
Delta Blues
- The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Chris Abernathy
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The blues grew out of the plantations and prisons, the swampy marshes and fertile cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta. With original research and keen insights, Ted Gioia - the author of a landmark study of West Coast jazz and the critically acclaimed The History of Jazz - brings to life the stirring music of the Delta, evoking the legendary figures who shaped its sound and ethos: Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, and others.
-
-
A well-researched history of the blues
- By Joselo on 08-19-21
By: Ted Gioia
Publisher's Summary
New York City native and gifted pianist George Gershwin blossomed as an accompanist before his talent as a songwriter opened the way to Broadway, where he fashioned his own brand of American music. He composed a long run of musical comedies, many with his brother Ira as lyricist, but his aspirations reached beyond commercial success.
A lifetime learner, Gershwin was able to appeal to listeners on both sides of the purported popular-classical divide. In 1924 - when he was just 25 - he bridged that gap with his first instrumental composition, Rhapsody in Blue, an instant classic.
From that time forward his work as a composer, pianist, and citizen of the Jazz Age made him in some circles a leader on America's musical scene. In the late 1920s Gershwin extended the range of the shows he scored to include the United Kingdom. Moreover, having polished his skills as an orchestrator, he pushed boundaries again in 1935 with the groundbreaking folk opera Porgy and Bess - his magnum opus.
Acclaimed music historian Richard Crawford traces the arc of Gershwin's remarkable life, seamlessly blending colorful anecdotes with a discussion of Gershwin's unforgettable oeuvre.
More from the same
What listeners say about Summertime
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen E Jacobs
- 10-28-19
Read this first
I was intrigued by the idea of a biography of Geshwin, so I downloaded this book.
In the introduction, the author explains he's musicology professor. I can see that in this book. Vast passages describe the music in all sorts of detail about structure, etc. I'm not that knowledgeable about music, so this was lost on me.
This all makes sense as what could be an academic text, but the book isn't so described.
It would have been so much better if in the descriptions of the music were accompanied by selections of that which is being discussed. That would have made this book excellent for someone like me.
The narrator is excellent as always. He, along with the subject matter, is why I bought this book.
If you're into music enough to appreciate all the discussions then this would be a 5 star listen. If not, a biography that focused more on the composer's life and times would be preferable.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cancelled
- 01-22-23
Wonderful , but poinient bio of a musical genius!!
Sad and truthful -story of the young genius .Gershwin's short tragic life. What a loss for music!!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kyle Michel
- 08-30-22
Not what I was hoping for.
This book was a disappointment. I was hoping for a bio on George Gershwin that explicated the person and placed him in the context of his times. That book would relate to the reader his personality and his relationships with others around him. It would talk about Gershwin’s artistic work and how his art innovated on others’ before him and how it affected what came after him. It would talk about how he was perceived by the general public compared to how the general public was perceiving other artists at the time and how the general public was accepting/reacting to the same and other musical styles. It would leave the reader feeling like they they had a good sense of what it was like to know George Gershwin if you had lived in his times and followed his career.
The reader gets a little bit of that, and can kinda intuit some of that. But, this book leaves the reader feeling more like they would had they sat in a library and read old newspaper and magazine articles about Gershwin and his musicals and performances.
The author spends way way too much time detailing the plot of every. single. musical Gershwin wrote - even the ones that were commercial flops. These are drawn out mechanical descriptions of the characters and the scenes and storylines of every one. The detail is too much to follow probably because this just isn’t what I, as the reader, was looking for. I wanted to know about Gershwin, not read cliff notes on all his plays and musicals.
When the author does talk about his life, we get some feel for who he was, but a lot of what we get is detail on contracts, where he went when, and performance dates (including one inexcusable section where the author just lists ad nauseum something like 30-40 dates and venues on some tour Gershwin did). Again, mechanical recapitulations of objective facts that don’t really give the reader a feel for the person who was George Gershwin.
This book may be what others are looking for, especially if they are interested in brief (somewhat) summaries of all his different musicals, musical pieces, and Porgy and Bess (an hour-plus walk-thru scene by scene - whew!). That just isn’t what I was hoping for.
Finally, the narrator is competent, but has a somewhat droning, slow-talking sorta 1970s newscaster throwback style that does not help liven the authors’ somewhat lifeless content.
I’ve never given a book fewer than 4 stars. I was just disappointed with this book and it didn’t get better as the book went on.
Related to this topic
-
Irving Berlin
- New York Genius
- By: James Kaplan
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called - by George Gershwin, among others - the greatest songwriter of the golden age of the American popular song. "Berlin has no place in American music," legendary composer Jerome Kern wrote; "He is American music." In a career that spanned an astonishing nine decades, Berlin wrote some 1,500 tunes, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "God Bless America", and "White Christmas". From ragtime to the rock era, Berlin's work has endured in the very fiber of American national identity.
-
-
The Greatest Songwriter?
- By Orson Scott Card on 02-19-20
By: James Kaplan
-
Duke
- A Life of Duke Ellington
- By: Terry Teachout
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century - and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world's most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style.
-
-
This audiobook needs music
- By John on 04-08-14
By: Terry Teachout
-
Can't Buy Me Love
- By: Jonathan Gould
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 29 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise.
-
-
Light on gossip, rich on context
- By Tad Davis on 10-29-13
By: Jonathan Gould
-
Unmasked
- A Memoir
- By: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Narrated by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and School of Rock. In Unmasked, written in his own inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements.
-
-
Lost in the weeds
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-18
-
Something Wonderful
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
- By: Todd S. Purdum
- Narrated by: Todd S. Purdum
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
-
-
Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
- By BigWally on 06-27-18
By: Todd S. Purdum
-
Down the Highway
- The Life of Bob Dylan
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: Peter Markinker
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Down the Highway is an essential biography for Bob Dylan fans and all music enthusiasts, delivering the full, fascinating story of the life and work of this great artist. Author Howard Sounes interviewed more than 250 key people in Dylan’s circle, and gained access to previously unseen documents, to create a fresh and compelling book that takes the reader on a journey from Dylan’s childhood in a Minnesota mining town, through his rise to fame in the 1960s, to his current status as the senior figure in popular music.
-
-
I'm a little late to the party
- By BrassHat on 06-05-17
By: Howard Sounes
-
Irving Berlin
- New York Genius
- By: James Kaplan
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called - by George Gershwin, among others - the greatest songwriter of the golden age of the American popular song. "Berlin has no place in American music," legendary composer Jerome Kern wrote; "He is American music." In a career that spanned an astonishing nine decades, Berlin wrote some 1,500 tunes, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "God Bless America", and "White Christmas". From ragtime to the rock era, Berlin's work has endured in the very fiber of American national identity.
-
-
The Greatest Songwriter?
- By Orson Scott Card on 02-19-20
By: James Kaplan
-
Duke
- A Life of Duke Ellington
- By: Terry Teachout
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century - and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world's most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style.
-
-
This audiobook needs music
- By John on 04-08-14
By: Terry Teachout
-
Can't Buy Me Love
- By: Jonathan Gould
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 29 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise.
-
-
Light on gossip, rich on context
- By Tad Davis on 10-29-13
By: Jonathan Gould
-
Unmasked
- A Memoir
- By: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Narrated by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and School of Rock. In Unmasked, written in his own inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements.
-
-
Lost in the weeds
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-18
-
Something Wonderful
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
- By: Todd S. Purdum
- Narrated by: Todd S. Purdum
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
-
-
Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
- By BigWally on 06-27-18
By: Todd S. Purdum
-
Down the Highway
- The Life of Bob Dylan
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: Peter Markinker
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Down the Highway is an essential biography for Bob Dylan fans and all music enthusiasts, delivering the full, fascinating story of the life and work of this great artist. Author Howard Sounes interviewed more than 250 key people in Dylan’s circle, and gained access to previously unseen documents, to create a fresh and compelling book that takes the reader on a journey from Dylan’s childhood in a Minnesota mining town, through his rise to fame in the 1960s, to his current status as the senior figure in popular music.
-
-
I'm a little late to the party
- By BrassHat on 06-05-17
By: Howard Sounes
-
Listen to This
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Listen to This, which takes its title from a beloved 2004 essay in which Ross described his late-blooming discovery of pop music, showcases the best of Ross’s writing from more than a decade at The New Yorker. These pieces, dedicated to classical and popular artists alike, are at once erudite and lively.
-
-
Educational!
- By Jason Anschutz on 07-10-15
By: Alex Ross
-
Nilsson
- The Life of a Singer-Songwriter
- By: Alyn Shipton
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," he won Grammy awards, wrote and recorded hit songs, and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox, or as underrated, as Harry Nilsson. In this first ever full-length biography, Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence and his gradual emergence as a uniquely talented singer-songwriter.
-
-
Annoying mispronunciations.
- By Bruce Neilson on 02-25-20
By: Alyn Shipton
-
Mozart
- The Reign of Love
- By: Jan Swafford
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 30 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: A man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
-
-
Too many words
- By James Messelbeck on 01-12-21
By: Jan Swafford
-
Jimmy Page
- The Definitive Biography
- By: Chris Salewicz
- Narrated by: Tom McGairl
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An in-depth biography of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page by the acclaimed biographer of Bob Marley and Joe Strummer, based upon the author's extensive research and interviews.
-
-
Light & Shade was more "definitive"
- By Forget about it on 03-04-20
By: Chris Salewicz
-
Nothing's Bad Luck
- The Lives of Warren Zevon
- By: C. M. Kushins
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As is the case with so many musicians, the life of Warren Zevon was blessed with talent and opportunity yet also beset by tragedy and setbacks. Raised mostly by his mother with an occasional cameo from his gangster father, Warren had an affinity and talent for music at an early age. After an impromptu performance in the right place at the right time, a record deal landed on the lap of a teenager who was eager to set out on his own and make a name for himself. But of course, where fame is concerned, things are never quite so simple.
-
-
Great Content ......but
- By Art Lover on 06-26-19
By: C. M. Kushins
-
Bright Lights, Dark Shadows
- The Real Story of Abba
- By: Carl Magnus Palm
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 26 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exploration of all aspects of the Abba member’s lives and careers. Amazingly detailed, it examines the group member’s family backgrounds, the pre-Abba days, the legendary 70s, the marriages, the divorces, the business ups and downs, and the post-Abba solo careers.
-
-
Awesome! -- All the Swedish words pronounced!
- By Howard_a on 06-18-12
By: Carl Magnus Palm
-
Fab: The Intimate Life of Paul McCartney
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 25 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He is the proud torchbearer of the Beatles, the greatest band in the history of popular music, and one of the most closely-studied artists in show business, yet secrets and surprises remain in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. The full story is told in Fab. Howard Sounes, author of the acclaimed Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, spent more than two years investigating every aspect of Sir Paul’s life and work, including interviewing over 200 people.
-
-
fascinating biography
- By Robyn on 09-21-14
By: Howard Sounes
-
Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin
- The Early Years, 1926-1966
- By: Kenneth Womack
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles. George Martin's working-class childhood and musical influences profoundly shaped his early career in the BBC's Classical Music department and as head of the EMI Group's Parlophone Records. Out of them flowed the genius behind his seven years producing the Beatles' incredible body of work, including such albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road.
-
-
Extremely informative but tiresome accents
- By John R. Blackburn Jr. on 10-12-17
By: Kenneth Womack
-
Homeward Bound
- The Life of Paul Simon
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To have been alive during the last 60 years is to have lived with the music of Paul Simon. The boy from Queens scored his first hit record in 1957, just months after Elvis Presley ignited the rock era. As the songwriting half of Simon & Garfunkel, his work helped define the youth movement of the '60s. On his own in the '70s, Simon made radio-dominating hits. He kicked off the '80s by reuniting with Garfunkel to perform for half a million New Yorkers in Central Park. Five years later Simon's album Graceland sold millions. And it doesn't stop there.
-
-
Now I Know
- By KellysHero718 on 11-01-16
-
Sophisticated Giant
- The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon
- By: Maxine Gordon
- Narrated by: Joe Morton, Terria Joseph, Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his “solo” turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter’s personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times.
-
-
Beautifully Told
- By Light Mentat on 03-23-21
By: Maxine Gordon
-
Paul Simon
- The Life
- By: Robert Hilburn
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through such hits as "The Sound of Silence", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Still Crazy After All These Years", and "Graceland", Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs for a half-century about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most honored and beloved songwriters in American pop music history. His music has gone beyond the sales charts into our cultural consciousness. He was the first songwriter awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
-
-
Missed opportunity
- By Mark L. Berry on 07-22-18
By: Robert Hilburn