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1929 - by Frederick W Turner (Paperback)
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Highlights
- By 1929, the brief, brilliant career of Bix Beiderbecke--self-taught cornetist, pianist, and composer--had already become legend.
- About the Author: Frederick Turner is the author or editor of several books, including Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer and The Kid and Me: A Novel.
- 390 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Historical
Description
About the Book
By 1929, the brief, brilliant career of Bix Beiderbecke--self-taught cornetist, pianist, and composer--had already become legend. From the summer of '26 at Hudson Lake, Indiana, when his genius blazed forth with a strange, doomed incandescence, Bix's career tragically reflected the chaotic impulses of a country suddenly awash in wealth, power, and a profound cynicism. Shy, elusive, inarticulate, Bix was beloved by both the raccoon-coated campus crowd and the men who nightly played alongside him. He is still celebrated in a yearly festival in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa.And that is where the novel begins, Davenport and the Bix Fest. Then it travels back in time to focus on the highlights of a meteoric career: a Capone-controlled nightclub in 1926; the grueling cross-country tours with Paul Whiteman's Symphonic Jazz orchestra; the disastrous Whiteman trip to California to make the first all-color talkie musical; the stock market crash of 1929 that finds Bix in an asylum, victim of the era's signature product, bootleg gin; and finally, Bix's dying efforts to combine his piano compositions into a suite that would be the pinnacle of his life's work and his evocation of his time and place.Colored by some of the age's most popular characters--Maurice Ravel, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Clara Bow-- 1929 brilliantly illuminates a period in history, personified in the gifted, compelling, and melancholy figure of Bix Beiderbecke.Book Synopsis
By 1929, the brief, brilliant career of Bix Beiderbecke--self-taught cornetist, pianist, and composer--had already become legend. From the summer of '26 at Hudson Lake, Indiana, when his genius blazed forth with a strange, doomed incandescence, Bix's career tragically reflected the chaotic impulses of a country suddenly awash in wealth, power, and a profound cynicism. Shy, elusive, inarticulate, Bix was beloved by both the raccoon-coated campus crowd and the men who nightly played alongside him. He is still celebrated in a yearly festival in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa.And that is where the novel begins, Davenport and the Bix Fest. Then it travels back in time to focus on the highlights of a meteoric career: a Capone-controlled nightclub in 1926; the grueling cross-country tours with Paul Whiteman's Symphonic Jazz orchestra; the disastrous Whiteman trip to California to make the first all-color talkie musical; the stock market crash of 1929 that finds Bix in an asylum, victim of the era's signature product, bootleg gin; and finally, Bix's dying efforts to combine his piano compositions into a suite that would be the pinnacle of his life's work and his evocation of his time and place.Colored by some of the age's most popular characters--Maurice Ravel, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Clara Bow-- 1929 brilliantly illuminates a period in history, personified in the gifted, compelling, and melancholy figure of Bix Beiderbecke.Review Quotes
"Frederick Turner's 1929 would be one of the most remarkable novels published in any year of our time. I found the book a stunning performance of grand dimension. The writing is beautifully controlled and elegant, giving ever greater tension to the often lurid and violent contents. Historically, I can think of no finer portrait of an American artist and his times."
About the Author
Frederick Turner is the author or editor of several books, including Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer and The Kid and Me: A Novel. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Dimensions (Overall): 8.02 Inches (H) x 5.32 Inches (W) x 1.07 Inches (D)
Weight: .93 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 390
Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres
Sub-Genre: Historical
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Theme: General
Format: Paperback
Author: Frederick W Turner
Language: English
Street Date: April 21, 2004
TCIN: 1007906672
UPC: 9781582433097
Item Number (DPCI): 247-10-1332
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 1.07 inches length x 5.32 inches width x 8.02 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.93 pounds
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