Jack Chambers - Böcker

A vibrant and evocative graphic novel exploring the events of the pivotal Normandy Landings from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground.6 June, 1944: a vast armada stands off the coast of Normandy; in the pre-dawn gloom gliders carrying British airborne troops approach their target. The first shots are about to be fired in ‘the Great Crusade’ to free Europe from Nazi occupation and thousands of troops will fight their way ashore in the teeth of deadly machine-gun and artillery fire from the German defenders. D-Day is about to begin.The Normandy landings are brought alive in this electrifying graphic novel that tells the story of that Longest Day through the eyes of the men who were there. Discover an epic struggle as the Allies sought to overwhelm the German defenders by land, sea and air, who in turn battled desperately to drive the invasion back into the sea.Covering the full range of events from the earliest airborne assault through the struggle on the beaches and the desperate effort to establish a bridgehead inland, D-Day blends an authentic historical narrative with master illustration to reveal the full story of the day that changed the course of World War II.

In this insightful new volume, Jack Chambers explores Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington’s music thematically, collating motifs, memes, and predilections that caught Ellington's attention and inspired his restless muse. In presenting Ellington’s work in this manner, Chambers situates the music in the context in which it was created—historical, political, musical, biographic, and personal. Chambers offers a novel kind of access to the man and the music.Ellington’s music presents a daunting task for listeners because of its sheer volume. The numbers defy credulity. Ellington wrote more than two thousand compositions in numerous genres, including pop songs, big band swing, revues, hymns, tone poems, soundtracks, suites, ballets, concertos, and symphonies. Where to start? The themes in this book offer natural entry points. They provide the context in which the music came into being, with enough biography to satisfy music lovers, even those who come to the book knowing very little about Ellington’s life. Each chapter features its own playlist as a guide to the music discussed, and, in some cases, fuller listings in case readers might want to pursue a topic further. In the early chapters, Chambers covers topics that occupied Ellington through much of his career, and in later chapters he covers more specific themes, some of them from Ellington's last decades, which are less well studied. The music, Ellington said, is his "continuing autobiography," and it reveals the man behind it.