Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster

Frank Buchmann-Moller

ISBN 10: 0472033603 / ISBN 13: 9780472033607

Published by The University of Michigan Press, 2008

About this Item

One of the 'big three' of swing tenors - along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young - Ben Webster was one of the best known and most popular saxophonists from the 1930s through the 1970s. Early in his career, Webster worked with many of the greatest orchestras of the time. This book presents the story of Webster's brilliant and troubled career. Series: Jazz Perspectives. Num Pages: 400 pages, 31 b&w photographs. BIC Classification: AVGJ; AVH; BGF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 227 x 145 x 24. Weight in Grams: 544. . 2008. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780472033607

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster
• Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472033603
• ISBN 13: 9780472033607
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

For a half century, Ben Webster, one of the "big three" of swing tenors-along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young-was one of the best-known and most popular saxophonists.

Early in his career, Webster worked with many of the greatest orchestras of the time, including those led by Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Andy Kirk, Bennie Moten, and Teddy Wilson. In 1940 Webster became Duke Ellington's first major tenor soloist, and during the next three years he played on many famous recordings, including "Cotton Tail."

Someone to Watch Over Me tells, for the first time, the complete story of Ben Webster's brilliant and troubled career. For this comprehensive study of Webster, author Frank Büchmann-Møller interviewed more than fifty people in the United States and Europe, and he includes numerous translated excerpts from European periodicals and newspapers, none previously available in English. In addition, the author studies every known Webster recording and film, including many private recordings from Webster's home collection not available to the public.

Exhaustively researched, this is a much needed and long overdue study of the life and music of one of jazz's most important artists.

About the Author

Frank Büchmann-Møller is head of the jazz archive at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark. He is the author of You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester Young and You Got to Be Original, Man! The Music of Lester Young.