And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey - Hardcover

Terkel, Studs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1595580034 ISBN 13: 9781595580030

Publisher: New Press, The, 2005

Synopsis

A half-century of previously unpublished interviews with legendary musicians, in a brand-new book from America's foremost oral historian

"I'm one of these people that thinks that everybody has certain gifts, you know, when they're born...I used to play the guitar when I was ten, you know. So I figured maybe my thing is playing the guitar, maybe that's my little gift."—Bob Dylan, interviewed in 1963, from And They All Sang

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian Studs Terkel hosted a legendary daily radio program on WFMT in Chicago, presenting listeners with his inimitable take on a wide range of music from classical opera to jazz, blues, gospel, folk, and rock. His latest work of oral history shows us this completely different side of Studs Terkel—that of a brilliant and far-ranging musicologist.

And They All Sang features over forty conversations with some of the greatest musical luminaries of the past century: rock icons Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, influential folk singer Pete Seeger, jazz geniuses Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, composers Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, classical musicians Andres Segovia and Ravi Shankar, legendary opera divas Rosa Raisa and Edith Mason, and gospel giants Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson.

Transcending genres and generations, Studs Terkel goes behind the music and doesn't miss a beat.

Musicians featured include: Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, Keith Jarrett, Alan Lomax, Catherine Malfitano, Jean Ritchie, Pete Seeger, Ravi Shankar, Richard Tucker.

About this title

About the Author:

Studs Terkel is the author of eleven books of oral history, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Good War." A member of the Academy of Arts and Letters, he was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this enjoyable, informative collection of 40 interviews, Pulitzer-winning oral historian Terkel recalls his venerable radio program, The Wax Museum, which premiered shortly after the end of WWII in 1945, profiling composers, entertainers and impresarios of nearly every type of music. In a stirring introduction, Terkel explains his love affair with music, which began when he was a boy and culminated with this daily radio show, where Terkel used a diverse playlist to spark dynamic chats with opera divas Edith Mason and Rosa Raisa, rockers Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, world musicians Ravi Shankar and Andres Segovia, jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, folk singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and others. Insightful and daring, Terkel always asks the right questions, whether culturally or musically. Most scintillating are the occasions when Terkel provokes his subjects to weigh in on controversial topics (as when composer Leonard Bernstein comments, "What would American music or culture be like if there were no black people here?"). Although perhaps not as strong as some of Terkel's weightier works (e.g., The Good War: An Oral History of World War II), this volume is nevertheless effective oral history, demonstrating an expert journalist's ability to let his subjects speak. (Sept. 1)
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About this edition

• Publisher: New Press, The
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1595580034
• ISBN 13: 9781595580030
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352