Double Bass DB forum "what books are you reading" thread

[Mike Goodbar]

I hang-doggedly admit that I do much of my "reading" through my ears via IPod these days. Kills two birds on long drives and while exercising. Not the same as settling in with a book, but better than nothing.

 

[klyph]

"I Claudius" and "Claudius the God" by Robert Graves.
It's ALL fact, but written very entertainingly, as a novel, and TOTALLY unbelieveable! Details the lives of Tiberius, Caligula, et al. Certainly the greatest historical fiction I've read (and I've read a bit) and great novels in ANY genre.

The Autobiography of Pops Foster- a great, light read, this has just been reprinted after 30 years of being oop

I highly recommend Paul Bowles- his short stories or novels. Disturbing, thought provoking stuff.

"Dream Boogie" Guralnick's bio of Sam Cooke- alittle long and detailed, but the Little Richard anecdotes (among others) are well worth it.

+1 on the Mark Haddon and Kenny Werner books

 

[zeytoun]

I hang-doggedly admit that I do much of my "reading" through my ears via IPod these days. Kills two birds on long drives and while exercising. Not the same as settling in with a book, but better than nothing.

Hey, don't knock it. There were a few times that I used to follow along in the book with a book on tape, and it would keep my mind focused on the page, and slow me down. The result was I picked up on a lot of things I would have missed in my normal, speedy pace.

Now that I'm married, the wife and I read to each other, to the same effect.

 

[fdeck]

I just started "Consciousness Explained" by Dennett. Don't ask what possessed me.

 

[ryco]

I just started "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Levitin.

My wife got it as a gift last year and I've been waitin' for her to read it.
Today I got tired of waiting...

 

[John Goldsby]

ryco -- This Is Your Brain On Music is a great book . . . you'll dig it. I also recently read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, where he talks about excellent performers from all walks of life and how they got to be excellent (pro hockey players, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mozart, the Beatles, etc).

In Gladwell's book, he presents a well-documented theory that if you do anything for 10,000 hours (like practice the bass) over time, you can be exceptional at that task. Add that to the factors of "being at the right place at the right time" and a bit of good luck, and you have exceptional performers. Gladwell takes some of his background points from the Levitin book.

I had the good fortune of attending a Malcolm Gladwell reading here in Cologne a couple of months ago, and I asked him why he picked the Beatles and Mozart as his musical examples—and not John Coltrane, for example. I think the question took him somewhat by surprise, but he answered that he was trying to pick extremely well-known and well-documented subjects—and he came up with the Beatles and Mozart. Period. To me, Coltrane (or a heavy practicer like him) would have been easier to document with the 10,000 hour concept—but if you read the book, you'll see why he picked Mozart and the Beatles.

I would be remiss, of course, if I did not shamelessly promote Robin Meloy Goldsby's books here (she's my wife):
Piano Girl is a funny, touching memoir about her life as a pianist playing in bars and hotels around the world. Robin's stories are like many we all know (but maybe not—you'll be surprised), and it contains her Married to the Bass chapter that has made the rounds on the internet.

Robin's new novel (her 2nd book), Rhythm, is a coming of age story about a female funk drummer. It is a great read for musicians and has a lot of action and surprise twists.

Great thread -- thanks for all of the reading suggestions. I am once again, backed up with books I want to read.

 

[Don Higdon]

ryco -- This Is Your Brain On Music is a great book . . . you'll dig it. I also recently read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, where he talks about excellent performers from all walks of life and how they got to be excellent (pro hockey players, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mozart, the Beatles, etc).

I think you'll enjoy Gladwell's Blink even more. It's so well presented, you'll move through it rapidly, Its revelations about how our minds work can be stunning by the way he connects them to events we think we understood, but maybe didn't.

 

[John Goldsby]

I liked Blink as well, but I thought Outliers applied more to me as a musician . . .

 

[Don Higdon]

As a fellow Michael Moore student, I have to acknowledge that I'm less of a musician now, and more of an AT teacher.

 

[John Goldsby]

We Michael Moore students have to stick together!

 

[Paul Warburton]

Is Oliver Sacks' book: "Musicophelia....Tales of Music and the brain".
Mr. Sacks is the award winning author of AWAKENINGS (which inspired the Oscar nominated film). He is a physician and Professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University.
The book deals with how music affects the lives of people like us, all the way to people who have mental issues because of music. It includes parkinson patients, to John Doe. People who are "hypermusical".......Don't want to spoil it.
Our recent threads on "earworms", why, how and for what reason they happen is all addressed in this great book.
Damn nice.

 

[John Goldsby]

The Oliver Sacks book is also great.

 

[John Goldsby]

Musicophilia . . . is the one I've read, Paul. Great writing. I'll have to check out Awakenings sometime.

My wife tells me that I first have to read Body & Soul by Frank Conroy. It is a novel about a piano player. She says that is the best book about music that she has ever read. Conroy, the author, is a jazz piano player. Also sitting on my nightstand is The Soloist by Steve Lopez, which is the NYT bestseller about the classical bass student from Julliard who through personal problems and emotional illnesses ended up living on the streets of L.A..

Mmmm too many books here.

 

[Mark Perna]

I've read the Conroy book and I have to agree, it is astonishing. What's more amazing is that, to my knowledge, Conroy isn't a musician yet he gets SO many details right that you'd swear he had to be one. I read it at least 15 years ago. I think I have to dig that one out again and give it another read.

I ordered your wife's books. While at Amazon, I found out that she was born in Pittsburgh and at least part of the novel takes place in Sewickley which is right up the road from where I live. Small world.

mark

 

[John Goldsby]

Thanks, Mark. There is a lot of Pittsburgh in both of Robin's books.

 

[Mark Perna]

I look forward to reading them. I just started Jim Lehrer's new book, "Oh Johnny". I should be done with it by the time Amazon leaves Robin's books on my doorstep.

mark

 

[Marcus Johnson]

John, definitely check out "Body And Soul". It's really well done. I'd forgotten about it; now I'm going to give it another go.

 

[John Goldsby]

I've read the Conroy book and I have to agree, it is astonishing. What's more amazing is that, to my knowledge, Conroy isn't a musician yet he gets SO many details right that you'd swear he had to be one. I read it at least 15 years ago. I think I have to dig that one out again and give it another read.

Hi Mark, I asked Robin about Frank Conroy again and she said he is/was a very good jazz pianist—she went to hear him play solo piano in bars on Nantucket in the late '70s. That's going to be my next book, I think. (Thanks Marcus, too!)

 

[Mark Perna]

Thanks, John. That explains it. It's a great book.

 

[nickbass]

Some great reading suggestions here, thanks everyone! Following John Goldsby, I must also shamelessly promote my own novel Idristan, which begins and ends in the jazz faculty of a Royal Music College in England, is dark, funny, poetic and philosophical, and available on Amazon!
nick weldon