Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey

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Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey is an idiosyncratic, well-produced, and relatively cheap introduction to a quintessentially American musical invention. With much of the material consisting of excerpts from other sources, and the lack of an index, the tome seems more like a fluffed-up set of liner notes for the accompanying DVD set and CD series than a book--and that's probably the best way to approach it. The book is loosely constructed around the seven films, and there are great writers involved, including Stanley Booth, Hilton Als, Robert Palmer, Richard Hell, Luc Sante, and Robert Gordon. These selections are for the most part inspired, though one wonders why there's not even one page from Alan Greenberg's brilliant Love in Vain screenplay, or anything from LeRoi Jones' classic Blues People. Unlike similar collections, the book gives real props to gospel-blues pioneer Bind Willie Johnson and rightfully places fife and drum patriarch Othar Turner at the top of the blues pantheon. But very little print is given to political, racial, gender and social issues surrounding the music. Not that one wishes it were some heavy academic tome. But, like the celebrated PBS series itself, an aura of missed opportunity hangs over the entire endeavor. Overall, this book makes a fine gift for casual fans of the music and is recommended for those who really enjoyed the series. --Mike McGonigal

Book Description

Rock & roll, jazz, R&B, hip-hop: Without question, today's most popular sounds owe an incalculable debt to that uniquely American musical creation -- The Blues. But the powerful influence of the blues, with its dramatic, artful storytelling about the elemental experience of being alive, is found in the works of some of our most important literary voices as well.

This volume -- a companion to the groundbreaking seven-part documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues -- represents a literary sampler every bit as vibrant and original and diverse as the films and music that inspired it. Included in this stunning collection are newly commissioned essays by David Halberstam, Hilton Als, Suzan-Lori Parks, Elmore Leonard, Luc Sante, John Edgar Wideman, and others; timeless archival pieces by the likes of Stanley Booth, Paul Oliver, and Mack McCormick; evocative color illustrations and rare vintage photography; illuminating and in-depth conversations and portraits of musicians, ranging from Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith to John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton; lyrics of legendary blues compositions; personal essays by the series directors Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett, Richard Pearce, Wim Wenders, Marc Levin, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood; and excerpts from such literary masters as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, Eudora Welty and Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and William Faulkner.

The result is a unique and timeless celebration of the blues, from writers and artists as esteemed and revered as the music that moved them. In these pages one not only reads about the blues, one hears them, feels them, lives them. Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues is more than a timeless collection of great writing to be savored and shared: it is an unforgettable initiation into the very essence of American music and culture.

Customer Reviews:

The Blues...........2004-06-23

"The blues - it's kind of like religion, really." - Peter Green

In this companion book to MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS THE BLUES: A MUSICAL JOURNEY, a PBS/DVD series, numerous music historians and period writers take on the task of capturing the very essence of the genre that gave birth to rock and roll. Peter Guralnick says in his introduction that the purpose of the companion book was to "reflect and refract the spirit of the blues" and to compile "something deeper and more spiritual than a mere recitation of the facts."

Mainstay blues historians such as Christopher John Farley, Peter Guralnick, Alan Lomax, Paul Trynka, and Robert Gordon have their place in the companion book by contributing their biographical and historical research as well as adding some new information to the blues arsenal. Excerpts from Gordon's CAN'T BE SATISFIED: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MUDDY WATERS and Trynka's PORTRAIT OF THE BLUES are included alongside new entries such as Christopher John Farley's "Bessie Smith: Who Killed the Empress?" Present day fiction writers like Suzan Lori-Parks and Toure also offer their contributions on the blues and the legacy it left behind.

While the usual historians are included in the book, there also are many mainstream writers who have come across the blues at times in their lives. Among others, there are excerpts from Ralph Ellison's acclaimed INVISIBLE MAN, James Baldwin's FIRE NEXT TIME, and Faulkner's SOLDIER'S PAY. All of these pieces relate to the blues within their own context, and the result is a first hand account of how the blues have affected many.

The blues is an element of American culture that has spawned the genesis of many things from R&B to rock and roll and everything in between. Although the televised version of Martin Scorsese's chronicle of this genre is excellent and informative in its own right, this book affords an experience that can only be garnered by turning pages, scrutinizing photos, and reading and re-reading the bottom line, which turns out to be the blues.

Book Description

Scorsese’s life and work are presented through interviews with the director as well as more than twenty major celebrity figures, providing a rare look at the process and inspiration behind the films of America’s premier director. Martin Scorsese: A Journey features exclusive movie stills and on-location photographs and interviews with more than twenty major film stars, including forewords by Steven Spielberg and Michael Powell. The author provides the reader with insights into Scorsese’s imagination and influences, and his relationships with his family and colleagues. This updated edition also explores such directorial works as Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead, and the much-talked-about Gangs of New York. An updated chronology, filmography, and index are included.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book for Scorsese Fans & Students.......2001-03-30

Examines Director Martin Scorsese's career from the beginning to Cape Fear (although it seems that the book had to go to press before Cape Fear was actually released, as there's a discernable lack of substance in that chapter).

To gather wonderful tales of how Scorsese works, Kelly interviews the director's friends, family members, casts, and crews. Oh, and the Secretary to the President of Cyprus!! (See details about The Last Temptation of Christ). Quoted stories, observations, and comments all contribute to a fine portrait of one of our greatest active cinema artists. (And, to the delight of film buffs everywhere, text shows that Scorsese is first and foremost an unabashed movie fan)! Kelly's system provides the reader to form own opinions about Scorsese, rather than making a lot of critical conclusions.

In pursuit of my undergrad degree, I used this book quite a bit for research toward essays I wrote about Scorsese's films. Not at all a chore to read, it was a very enjoyable book, great for the fan as well as the film scholar.

Good index, good filmography. Brief forewards by Michael Powell and Steven Spielberg hint at more than a bit of pure jealousy!

fantastic bio!.......2000-03-31

this is one of the best, in-depth bio's that I have read. And what a subject! Martin Scorsese is a god-like director that has made such films as Good Fellas Casino and Taxi Driver. The book is filled with interveiws from fellow directors and drew/cast etc. Great format! It's like reading a behind the scene's documentry.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful companion to the DVD........2002-12-29

This extraordinary book on the last hundred years American cinema is an exceptionally well written, edited and researched document of the film, without any of the usual scholarly classroom didactics or conceited Hollywood self-congratulatory posturing. Scorsese's humble voice is evident throughout, and it is one of self-confidence, clarity and enthusiasm. The book is a wonderful companion to the DVD.

It's kind of corny.......2000-02-17

I was reading it to find out some tips, yet it was a corny book. I didn't like it.

Highly recommed book to supplement the programme.......1998-08-15

This book is more of a transcript of the 4½ hour long master piece of the documentary, but it's curtainly worth the money. Here you have all the still pictures from the hundreds of film Scorsese comments in his programme. A book for every filmbuffs bookself.

TYPICAL PICTURE BOOK.......1998-07-11

YOU WOULD THINK THE AUTHORS WOULD WRITE SOMETHING. THEY PROBABLY TALKED AND TRANSCRIBED WHAT SCORSESE SAID. YOU FIGURE WITH A GUY LIKE SCORSESE THAT HE WOULD HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT HIS FAVORITE MOVIES AND THE MOVIES THAT INFLUENCED HIM SO MUCH. HE DOES NOT DO THAT IN THIS BOOK. IT IS FULL OF NICE PICTURES, BUT NOT MUCH AS INFORMATION GOES. YOU EXPECT TO LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT THE MOVIES HE LOVES BUT HE DOESN'T GIVE ANY USEFUL INFORMATION. HE PROBABLY THOUGHT THAT IF IT HAD A LOT OF GLOSSY STILLS OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIES THE BOOK WOULD SELL. THE THING IS THIRTY DOLLARS AND NOT REALLY WORTH IT. HE SEEMS TO BE SAYING THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER WHEREVER YOU READ ABOUT HIM OR SEE HIM ON TV. HE IS AN EXPERT BUT WHY DOESN'T HE SHOW THAT IN THIS BOOK. IT IS VERY VERY SKIMPY AND UNLIKE HIS MOVIES LACK CONTENT. IF HE SPENT MORE TIME WITH THE BOOK INSTEAD OF HAVING SOMEONE ELSE WRITE IT AND THEN CHECK AND OKAY THE BOOK, THE BOOK MAY HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE SOMETHING OF A GREAT BOOK ON FILM AND FILM HISTORY AS WELL AS THE FIRST GREAT FILM CRITICISM BOOK BY A WORKING FILM DIRECTOR SINCE THE BOOKS OF TRUFFAUT. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. WHAT HE SHOULD DO NOW IS REWRITE THE BOOK FOR THE PAPERBACK RELEASE. THIS BOOK IS NOT WORTH THE WEIGHT.

Scorsese: A Journey Through the American Psyche

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Scorsese: A Journey Through the American Psyche

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Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey.(African Music Everywhere)(Book Review): An article from: Notes

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Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey.(African Music Everywhere)(Book Review): An article from: Notes
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Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1973 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey.(African Music Everywhere)(Book Review)
Author: Edward Komara
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 61 Issue: 1 Page: 104(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues A Musical Journey

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Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues A Musical Journey
Peter, et als, eds Guralnick
Manufacturer: Amistad
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OERUI2

Customer Reviews:

Would have been a great magazine article.......2006-07-18

Martin is obviously a passionate, committed, and highly knowledgeable fan of progressive rock. He is fully entitled to his opinions. Unfortunately, Martin ties himself up in philosophical knots -- and envelops himself in the political correctness of tenured academia -- to justify the inconsistent categorization/taxonomy of progressive rock that ultimately derives from his tastes. This is too bad, because a more consistent and fair-minded treatise would have been more valuable. It also would have most likely not been book-length, because the tedious "Toward a Theory" chapter could have been condensed into 10 pages or less. Martin would also have known to avoid this tedium if he had read Ben Watson's "Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play"... but then Martin has no use for Frank Zappa, so of course he didn't read it.

Martin may be a philosopher, but he is evidentially not up on his Aristotlean logic. If he were, he would understand the following:

!JT
JT -> PF
HC -> FZ

Did This Guy Take Writing Lessons From Heidegger?.......2004-03-21

I really wanted to like this book. I like a lot of Progressive Rock. I like a lot of philosophy. Unfortunately, Professor Martin writes with a meandering obscurity that resembles Yes lyrics at their most impenetrable, or like reading Hegel after not having slept for sixteen hours. Simply put, Martin is an appallingly bad writer. It's too bad that as writing models, Martin bypassed Schopenhauer, Hume & Nietzsche. He seems to prefer Hegel, Fichte and Heidegger.

I agree with several of Martin's opinions, though. I love King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant, and all of these bands are given thoughtful analysis by Prof. Martin. Martin has little time for Rush; considering that Rush is the most overrated prog band ever, I heartily concur.

Frank Zappa isn't included among the giants of progressive music (Martin takes something like eight pages to explain why Zappa isn't covered, but he never gets much beyond the "I don't like his lyrics" stage ). Zappa's music is, truly, more "progressive" than most of the bands covered here. Personally, I think I detect a political bias on Martin's part: one gets the feeling that had Zappa wrote Utopian lyrics that involved gnomes and fairies, or had embraced the Left as had his contemporaries, he would take up a major part of this book. Some more curious omissions are Captain Beefheart & Pink Floyd.

As far as Martin's philosophy is concerned, he is apparently of the Hegelian-Marxist school of thought. Perhaps that is why his theory of a progressive-rock "Zeitgeist" never really gets going. The main flaw, in my opinion, is that this "logic of history" approach is biased from the get-go. For his theory to work, Martin had to leave out inconvenient accessories. That explains the absence of Zappa.

Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons would be proud.......2003-07-29

This book is simply a train wreck in its approach to discussing evrything under the sun. The author has a keen understanding of rock's evolution, but his writing is a shambles. Alternating between indescribable academic Marxist philosophy one minute, to anecdotal mentions of gathering 'round the piano with fellow nerds to knock out a few chords of "Siberean Khatru" - it can be a real slog. The one argument Martin has that he fully develops is that "Yes is the greatest band ever because I say so". It gets pretty amateurish.

There also an annoying habit of quoting Bill Bruford and Robert Fripp and informing the reader that their views on progressive rock are simply "misinformed". A much wiser choice is Paul Stump's excellent "The Music's all that Matters" which is full of lucid writing placed into a coherent whole. Stump's book will appeal to any music fan - highly recommended.

Unsuccessful in its goals.......2001-12-21

Martin claims to be moving "toward a theory" of what progressive is about throughout his text, but he never gets there.

His attempts to link various philosophical positions to the music are interesting, but end up being extremely long digressions away from the main topic. Martin clearly does not believe that less is more when it comes to the unnecessarily excessive length of these digressions. He could make his philosophical points more succinctly in a few pages; instead he takes 150, by which time many readers will feel they are reading a philosophy book, not a music book.

Martin also spends too much time discussing specific prog rock albums, he arranges his approach in a chronological unfolding, which is good, but he then proceeds to get a full one-third of the years wrong for the albums he mentions. This totally undermines his chronological ordering, and is supremely sloppy work. Instead of relying on his memory of these album release dates, all he had to do was check the actual CD or LP for the year. For example, Martin constantly refers to Yes' "Fragile" as being one of the highlights of 1971, when it was not even released until January 1972. This from a writer who has a book out about Yes!

Readers will also be confused at the choices Martin makes. Martin takes many, many pages to describe prog rock as being experimental, multi-stylistic, often conceptual, and imbued with enormous counterculture/philosophical/political significance. Yet Martin does not feel that the genre's superstar group, Pink Floyd, meets this definition, but yet a pop/rock band like Caravan does. Aren't albums like Floyd's "Ummagumma" and "Animals" precisely representative of the definitions he has set out? And while there will always be disagreements over more obscure groups, surely there has always been a consensus that Pink Floyd has always been one of the leading prog rock bands (if not *the* band). Instead, Martin would rather devote pages of analysis to the prog elements in the music of the Beach Boys and the Dave Matthews Band. And to underscore his own political correctness, Martin chides his fave band Caravan for being "sexist," in that they write songs about wanting to have sex with women.

The book has a large amount of academic footnotes (more philosophy), but no photos.

An interesting study.......2000-02-23

It's too bad there isn't enough bandwidth on this site to debate the reviewer directly below me, because I definetely disagree with him. Martin's book is an great attempt to come to terms with a branch of music that may have it's pretentions but can also be exciting and involving...and often is. I don't buy all of his efforts to analyze this music in Marxist terms, but that's the charm. He sets you thinking about the subject, whether you agree or disagree with him, and that's what a good critic should do. What's more, if you like this sort of music, you come away fromn this book with a few more names of performers to search for.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 1998. The length of the article is 2344 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Listening to the Future: The Time of Progressive Rock, 1968-1978. (book reviews)
Author: John Covach
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1998
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v55 Issue: n1 Page: p77(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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XSLT is a powerful language for transforming XML documents into something else. That something else can be an HTML document, another XML document, a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file, a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) file, Java code, or a number of other things. You write an XSLT stylesheet to define the rules for transforming an XML document, and the XSLT processor does the work. As useful as XSLT is, its peculiar characteristics make it a difficult language in which to get started. In fact, newcomers are often a little dazed on first contact. Learning XSLT offers a hands-on introduction to help them get up to speed with XSLT quickly. The book will help web developers and designers understand this powerful but often mystifying template-driven and functional-styled language, getting them over the many differences between XSLT and the more conventional programming languages. Learning XSLT moves smoothly from the simple to complex, illustrating all aspects of XSLT 1.0 through step-by-step examples that you'll practice as you work through the book. Thorough in its coverage of the language, the book makes few assumptions about what you may already know. You'll learn about XSLT's template-based syntax, how XSLT templates work with each other, and gain an understanding of XSLT variables. Learning XSLT also explains how the XML Path Language (XPath) is used by XSLT and provides a glimpse of what the future holds for XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0. The ability to transform one XML vocabulary to another is fundamental to exploiting the power of XML. Learning XSLT is a carefully paced, example-rich introduction to XSLT that will have you understanding and using XSLT on your own in no time.

Customer Reviews:

Index is incomplete.......2007-07-23

Mr. Fitzgerald specifically stated that he didn't intend for this book to be a comprehensive reference manual. But you would think that the index would provide a decent cross-reference of topics. Try looking up xsl:value-of, or xsl:for-each. You won't find them no matter what topic you search under. Usually OReilly does a great job explaining technical topics, but as with most XSLT books I've read, the examples are trite and provide minimal insite. I have to say I'm disappointed.

Trivia or Tutorial In Nature?.......2007-04-08

Imagine you just bought a new car and stuck the keys in the ignition. Do you worry about every little minute detail of what's under the hood? Or do you just plant your foot down on the accelerator and drive?

Learning XSLT is one of those books that has a strange "hiccup" feel to it. Reading this book is like putting your foot down on the accelerator, only to have a chicken cross in front of you to slam on the brakes and then accelerate again. Only then, having another chicken cross and yet again slam on the brakes. Tutorials are meant to be smooth, uninterrupted reading. Learning XSLT is an abrupt stop and go journey that resulted in it being tossed into the far back shelf of my personal library.

For example, a really annoying feature in the book's layout are the icons and box comments. Frequently, they interrupt the flow causing switching of mental gears. Often too wordy, too detailed, and downright puzzling to why they even exist in the first place, they are anal and annoying. Surely the intricacies of QCNames, Code Points, Unicode, xml:lang attribute in every minute detail should have been removed out of this book.

As an example of how poorly this book reads, I point to page 9. The section is "Using apply-templates". Two pages later of long winded overanalysis (and yet another interruption with a large box comment regarding Unicode), we end up with a trivial six line example using apply-templates. Boldfaced and detached away from the original point of discussion. By this time, the reader is flipping pages to go back to recall what the entire section was about. That is the general feel of this book - a lack of cohesiveness.

After reading the first three chapters, I wondered where this book was heading. It read in scatter brained pieces and often too detailed for my liking - overly informative to be of any practical use. If you like getting bogged down in trivia minutiae, this is your book.

The examples were poor and unfufilling; rarely showing a big picture example in a larger, useful, practical context. Most of the people who pick up this book will want to transform XML into XHTML - which this book fails to address in a dedicated chapter.

Templates, the most important feature from a coding structure and development standpoint, is held off until Chapter 10. This should have been moved to earlier chapters, followed by discussion of axes, functions, XPATH, etc.

Learning XSLT does not to a very good job of organizing content for understanding and instruction. It definitely failed to hold my attention. Out of all the O'Reilly books I have, this one was not very useful and needs a total rewrite!

Not so good for me.......2007-04-01

I bought this book after using the O'Reilly book "Web Design In A Nutshell". In general, I find the O'Reilly books to be pretty good. This book looked pretty good in the bookstore, too. After working with it, however, I found it difficult to get through and difficult to learn from. I used online sources to learn XSLT and used this book as a reference. When I learned something online and went back to this book, I was able to see what the author of this book was trying to explain. (I am not a web page beginner. I have worked in software development for a number of years. I have worked with HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.)

Terrible book.......2006-07-31

That such a poor quality book should come from O'Reilly is baffling. The book is very poorly organized, not covering templates--the basis of XSLT--until chapter 10! The author's examples are convoluted and unrevealing, and mostly seem to prove the point that his understanding of XSLT is far greater than yours. I got through the first three chapters and then gave up for a Sams book, which is much better.

A good introductory book on XSLT.......2006-05-21

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