Ben Sidran – författare

Black Music,whether it be jazz, blues, r&b, gospel, or soul,has always expressed, consciously or not, its African "oral" heritage, reflecting the conditions of a minority culture in the midst of a white majority. Black Talk is one of those rare books since LeRoi Jones's Blues People to examine the social function of black music in the diaspora it sounds the depths of experience and maps the history of a culture from the jazz age to the revolutionary outbursts of the 1960s. Ben Sidran finds radical challenges to the Western, white literary tradition in such varied music as Buddy Bolden's loud and hoarse cornet style, the call and response between brass and reeds in a swing band, the emotionalism of gospel, the primitivism of Ornette Coleman, and the cool ethic of bebop. "The musician is the document," says Sidran. "He is the information himself. The impact of stored information is transmitted not through records or archives, but through the human response to life."

Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Hendricks, Max Roach, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, and Jack DeJohnette,these are just a few of the jazz musicians whose conversations with Ben Sidran are recorded in this volume. In stimulating, personal, and informative discussions, they not only reveal their personalities, but also detail aspects of the performance, technique, business, history, and emotions of jazz. Newly expanded with previously unpublished dialogues with David Murray, Dr. John, and Mose Allison, Talking Jazz is undoubtedly the best oral history of recent and contemporary jazz.

Cool Cat Blues is the story of singer/pianist Georgie Fame. Born Clive Powell, in Leigh, Lancashire, he rose from being a troubled kid to the very top of the British pop charts. Through conversations and correspondence with Fame, as well as diligent research, Ben Sidran traces Fame’s story from his long days touring the back roads of England with up-and-coming British acts, along with visiting American musicians, to his early 1960s residency at London’s Flamingo Club, where he began specializing in playing organ. This venue was a legendary melting pot of blues and jazz, and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, the band that grew out of their work there, went on to chart success as the decade progressed, with three UK No. 1 chart hits.In the years that followed, Fame combined his solo career with collaborations with other artists, including Alan Price and Van Morrison. He was a founder member of ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, but also worked across the stylistic spectrum with musicians as varied as Count Basie, Muddy Waters and Joan Armatrading.The book also follows his personal life in the usually hidden world of British high society. The final chapters bring the story of a man who, all his life, has followed his head, heart and ears into the 21st century, with headline appearances at Ronnie Scott’s Club and Glastonbury, as well as recordings and concerts with the band he leads with his sons Tristan and James Powell.