The Great American Songbook: 201 Favorites You Ought to Know (& Love)
By Steven Suskin and John Pizzarelli
()
About this ebook
In an age of ubiquitous music and countless new songs releasing every minute, the Great American Songbook endures. After all, the Songbook—that sprawling canon of popular songs, standards, and show tunes from roughly the 1920s through the 1950s—is a foundational text of American pop music. Rare indeed is the song that doesn’t in some way draw on this magnificent corpus, and rare is the person who hasn’t heard at least a few of its most enduring melodies.
Nonetheless, the Songbook is broader and deeper than most listeners can imagine, and on the margins, the question of whether this or that song should be included is the source of regular arguments among scholars and buffs alike. Attempting to plumb its depths can be a daunting prospect.
Enter Steven Suskin, who has been writing about music since the days that Rodgers, Arlen, and Berlin still roamed the streets of Manhattan. In this carefully curated and cheerfully opinionated guidebook, Suskin surveys 201 of the most significant selections from the Songbook, ranging from celebrated masterpieces to forgotten gems. Year by year, he puts songwriters and their contributions in their context, and explains what makes each song such a distinctive treat—whether felicitous melody, colorful harmony, compositional originality, or merely the sheer, irreducible joy of listening to it. Old and new favorites await all readers of this painstakingly compiled, enthusiastically written catalog.
Related to The Great American Songbook
Related ebooks
Jazz Piano Fundamentals – Book 1: Months 1-6: Listening Guides, and Practice Plans for the First Six Months of Study Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsteach yourself...Jazz Piano Comping Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jazz Piano Fundamentals (Book 2): Exercises, Explanations, Listening Guides and Practice Plans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComplete Piano Rags Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Arpin: Keyboard Virtuoso Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFranz Schubert - The Man And His Circle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Techniques of Jazz and Contemporary Piano Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lyrics (Songbook): Complete Lyrics for Over 1000 Songs from Broadway to Rock Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pianist's Dictionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5J. S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C Major; WTC II and Harmonic Solutions with Patterns of Mental-Bass Progressions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix Crooners: Song Title Series, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJazz Piano Ad-Lib Phrases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scott Joplin: The King of Ragtime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play It Like You Mean It! Supercharge Your Playing and Let Your Piano Work for You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRagtime Gems: Original Sheet Music for 25 Ragtime Classics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/533 Great Songs 33 Great Songwriters: A Musycks Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bowie's Piano Man: The Life of Mike Garson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPiano Walking Bass: From blues to jazz Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rock Piano Practice Session Volume 1 In All 12 Keys Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey All Played Ragtime - The True Story of an American Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Ultimate Jazz Riffs for Piano/Keyboards: 100 Ultimate Jazz Riffs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr Pizza and All That Jazz Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBilly and The Joels - The American rock star and his German family story (eBook): Foreword by Billy Joel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear for Piano/Keyboards: Gospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Music For You
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 5th Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Music Theory For Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Easyway to Play Piano: A Beginner's Best Piano Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Music Theory For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Songwriting For Dummies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/588 Piano Classics for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Guitar A Beginner's Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory (Music Instruction): A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Songwriting Book: All You Need to Create and Market Hit Songs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guitar Theory For Dummies: Book + Online Video & Audio Instruction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Jazz Piano: book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Your Fretboard: The Essential Memorization Guide for Guitar (Book + Online Bonus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Piano For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bass Guitar For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & The Dark Heart Of The Hippie Dream Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Circle of Fifths: Visual Tools for Musicians, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Meaning of Mariah Carey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Singing For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure: Tools and Techniques for Writing Better Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piano Chords Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Songwriting : Apply Proven Methods, Ideas and Exercises to Kickstart or Upgrade Your Songwriting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming a Great Sight-Reader–or Not! Learn From My Quest for Piano Sight-Reading Nirvana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Great American Songbook
0 ratings0 reviews