BY GEORGE LIPSITZProfessor of black studies and sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara I knew something was wrong the second I answered the telephone and heard Tom Reed’s voice. Although it has been decades since Tom ruled the airwaves in Los Angeles as the city’s most popular disc jockey — as “The Master … More George Lipsitz: Why Johnny Otis’s death hits so hard.
BY PAUL METSASinger, songwriter, and seven-time Minnesota Music Award winner My love of books started when I was in kindergarten and would spend Saturday mornings listening to Miss Smart (a perfect name for our local librarian) read from them as we sat in a semicircle around her at the Virginia Public Library in Minnesota. I … More Paul Metsa: The long, mysterious road to Blue Guitar Highway
“Papa Jo exists on the level of folklore, myth and parable; the cracker-barrel philosopher; teller of tall tales; venerable keeper of our oral traditions.”—Chip Stern, “Papa Jo Jones.” Modern Drummer, January 1984 BY PAUL DEVLINFreelance writer (Slate, the Root, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others), doctoral student at Stony Brook University, and editor of … More 100 Years: The life and "times" of jazz luminary Papa Jo Jones
Fred Ho is a well-known artist, activist, musician, and scholar. He is the leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and Monkey Orchestra, and has been deeply involved in civil rights activism and women’s rights activism through avant-garde artistry. He was the first Asian American to receive the Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. … More Fred Ho: A radical, extremely creative, and (r)evolutionary figure
Google decided to be awesome today (and, well, always) and create an ode to jazz mastermind, bebop inventor, and founder of Afro-Cuban rhythm Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) on what would have been his 93rd birthday. About 1 3/4 years ago, UMP brought back into print Gillespie’s towering 550-page memoir, To Be, or Not … to Bop, … More Happy Birthday, Dizzy.
On April 8th, 2010 (six months ago today), former Sex Pistols manager and proclaimed inventor of punk Malcolm McLaren passed away at age 64 after a battle with cancer. The following material was posted to writer and interviewer Jon Savage‘s blog a few days after McLaren’s death. This material is reprinted with permission from the … More Remembering British punk icon and former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren
Today’s post is by Amy Herzog, associate professor of media studies at Queens College, City University of New York. She is author of Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Musical Moment in Film. ——- In a sequence from Christopher Nolan’s film Inception (2010), we are introduced to the mechanics of shared dreaming alongside … More Submersion Doesn’t Come Easily: How the musical score in "Inception" is a lesson in collective dreaming. (As well as an ode to Hitchcock’s "Vertigo.")
From Rod Carew’s memoir Carew to the 25th anniversary edition of Bill Holm’s The Music of Failure, our Spring Regional book sale truly has something for everyone. UMP is offering 30% off of 20 new titles with regional appeal — order soon to ensure yours will arrive in time for Father’s Day! Also included in … More Baseball. Beer. MN history. Folklore. Our spring book sale has something for everyone
On a recent rainy day in Oxford, Mississippi, Adam Gussow sat down to offer some insider info on his book Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Blues Memoir. Earlier this week, we posted the first video he made. Now you can watch as Gussow relives more of the music, the anecdotes and the memories of Gussow’s time … More One day in Oxford, Mississippi …
Adam Gussow, author of Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Blues Memoir, has created the first of a few planned video previews of his book. Here he reads a few passages from his book, splicing these with photos and, of course, the harmonica: As he puts it: “This is a story about a white kid from the … More Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Preview
