James Gavin – författare

“Gavin’s engrossing biography of the singer takes the measure of a gifted, tragic, and infuriating man.” —New York Times Book ReviewGeorge Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world. Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.

From his emergence in the 1950s - when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeared in the West Coast and became, seemingly overnight, the prince of 'cool' jazz - until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. At once sexy and forbidding, the so-called 'James Dean of Jazz' struck a note of menace in the staid fifties. In this first major biography, the story of Baker's demise is finally revealed. So is the truth behind his tormented childhood. Behind Baker's icy façade lay something ominous, unspoken. The mystery drove both sexes crazy. But his only real romance, apart from music, was with drugs. Gavin brilliantly recreates the life of a man whose journey from golden promise to eventual destruction mirrored America's fall from post-war innocence - but whose music has never lost the power to enchant and seduce us.

Stormy Weather is a biography of Lena Horne, one Hollywood's stars, and one of the first Tony and Grammy winning stars, who opened doors for black female entertainers such as Eartha Kitt, Sarah Vaughn, Diahann Carroll, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Ross, to name a few. She was glamorous, seductive, and dignified. But under her well-crafted look of elegance and grace, lay a tidal wave of rage. By the 90s, as a defence mechanism, she had shut nearly everyone out of her life. James Gavin tells the story of Lena: the legend and the mystery. He has amassed an incredible collection of source material including: 60 hours of recorded conversations with the singer dating back to the early 50s. 40 hours of TV specials, guest appearances and other rare footage spanning her career. He has interviewed among many others: Johnny Mathis, Bobby Short, Abbey Lincoln, Ruby Dee, Carmen Delavallade, Geoffrey Holder, and Ms Horne herself.

At long last, the first serious biography of entertainment legend Lena Horne -- the celebrated star of film, stage, and music who became one of the first African-American icons. At the 2001 Academy Awards, Halle Berry thanked Lena Horne for paving the way for her to become the first black recipient of a Best Actress Oscar. Though limited, mostly to guest singing appearances in splashy Hollywood musicals, "the beautiful Lena Horne," as she was often called, became a pioneering star for African Americans in the 1940s and fifties. Now James Gavin, author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, draws on a wealth of unmined material and hundreds of interviews -- one of them with Horne herself -- to give us the defining portrait of an American icon. Gavin has gotten closer than any other writer to the celebrity who has lived in reclusion since 1998. Incorporating insights from the likes of Ruby Dee, Tony Bennett, Diahann Carroll, Arthur Laurents, and several of Horne''s fellow chorines from Harlem''s Cotton Club, Stormy Weather offers a fascinating portrait of a complex, even tragic Horne -- a stunning talent who inspired such giants of showbiz as Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt, and Aretha Franklin, but whose frustrations with racism, and with tumultuous, root-less childhood, left wounds too deep to heal. The woman who emerged was as angry as she was luminous. From the Cotton Club''s glory days and the back lots of Hollywood''s biggest studios to the glitzy but bigoted hotels of Las Vegas''s heyday, this behind-the-scenes look at an American icon is as much a story of the limits of the American dream as it is a masterful, ground-breaking biography.

"She made you think that she knew who you were, that she was singing only to you..." Miss Peggy Lee cast a spell when she sang. She purred so intimately in nightclubs that couples clasped hands and huddled closer. She hypnotized, even on television. Lee epitomized cool, but her trademark song, "Fever"-covered by Beyoncé and Madonna-is the essence of sizzling sexual heat. Her jazz sense dazzled Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. She was the voice of swing, the voice of blues, and she provided four of the voices for Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, whose score she co-wrote. But who was the woman behind the Mona Lisa smile? With elegant writing and impeccable research, including interviews with hundreds who knew Lee, acclaimed music journalist James Gavin offers the most revealing look yet at an artist of infinite contradictions and layers. Lee was a North Dakota prairie girl who became a temptress of enduring mystique. She was a singer-songwriter before the term existed. Lee "had incredible confidence onstage," observed the Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop; yet inner turmoil wracked her. She spun a romantic nirvana in her songs, but couldn't sustain one in reality. As she passed middle age, Lee dwelled increasingly in a bizarre dreamland. She died in 2002 at the age of eighty-one, but Lee's fascination has only grown since. This masterful account of Peggy Lee's strange and enchanting life is a long overdue portrait of an artist who redefined popular singing.

Praised by the New York Times Book Review as “fascinating, suspenseful, careful, musically detailed, and insightful,” this is a long-overdue biography of recording artist and musical legend Peggy Lee.Miss Peggy Lee cast a spell when she sang. She epitomized cool, but her trademark song, “Fever”—covered by Beyoncé and Madonna—is the essence of sizzling sexual heat. Her jazz sense dazzled Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. She was the voice of swing, the voice of blues, and she provided four of the voices for Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, whose score she co-wrote. But who was the woman behind the Mona Lisa smile? With elegant writing and impeccable research, including interviews with hundreds who knew Lee, acclaimed music journalist James Gavin offers the most revealing look yet at an artist of infinite contradictions and layers. Lee was a North Dakota prairie girl who became a temptress of enduring mystique. She was a singer-songwriter before the term existed. Lee “had incredible confidence onstage,” observed the Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop; yet inner turmoil wracked her. She spun a romantic nirvana in her songs, but couldn’t sustain one in reality. As she passed middle age, Lee dwelled increasingly in a bizarre dreamland. She died in 2002 at the age of eighty-one, but the enchantment with Lee has only grown. “Raucously entertaining [and] full of evocative scenes, wry humor and exasperated sympathy” (Publishers Weekly), Is That All There Is? paints a masterful portrait of an artist who redefined popular singing.

From his emergence in the 1950s as an uncannily beautiful young Oklahoman who became the prince of “cool” jazz seemingly overnight to his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously untapped sources, this first major biography of one of the most romanticized icons in jazz gives a thrilling account of the trumpeter’s dark journey. Author James Gavin delves deeply into Baker’s tormented childhood, the origins of his melancholic trumpet playing, and even reveals the long-unsolved riddle of Baker’s demise. Baker’s otherworldly personal aura struck a note of menace and mystery that catapulted him to fame in the staid 1950s but as time wore on, his romance with drugs became highly publicized. Gavin narrates the harrowing spiral of dependency down which Baker tumbled and illustrates how those who dared to get close were dragged down with him. This is the portrait of a musician whose singular artistry and mystique has never lost the power to enchant and seduce.

This first major biography of the most romanticized icon in jazz thrillingly recounts his wild ride. From his emergence in the 1950s--when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeard on the West Coast to become, seemingly overnight, the prince of "cool" jazz--until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Here, drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously untapped sources, James Gavin gives a hair-raising account of the trumpeter''s dark journey.

Foundations of Professional Coaching With HKPropel Access is the essential guide to developing coaching skills and creating influential coaching relationships. Offering foundational concepts and underlying principles of coaching, this text will help all types of coaches cultivate a growth environment that encourages lasting change and maximizes each client’s potential in their personal and professional lives.Grounded in the International Coaching Federation's eight core competencies, the text covers the theoretical basis of professional coaching models and the application of those models in modern coaching. Readers will enrich their coaching skills as they learn to embody the coaching mindset:Understanding the journey of behavior change with key models on the change processEmploying inclusive frameworks for working with clients to set and pursue goals and overcome challengesAdhering to ethical protocols, such as how to appropriately respond to clients' identity, environment, values, and beliefsCultivating trust and safety in the coaching relationship with respect to power and relationship dynamicsEstablishing presence as a coach and developing a coach’s voiceCommunicating effectively, with active listening and appropriate areas of inquiryThroughout the text, personal stories offer insights into meaningful coaching engagements, providing context for the concepts and their application to a wide variety of coaching interests, including those related to health and lifestyle wellness, professional and career concerns, and leadership development. Additionally, downloadable resources, delivered through HKPropel, include practical tools-such as forms and checklists-for a successful coaching practice.Foundations of Professional Coaching provides a pathway to excellence in coaching practice, with practical guidance on how to partner with clients in overcoming obstacles and developing goal-directed strategies leading to sustainable change.Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.

How did Anita O’Day—the legendary jazz singer who, along with Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz, led the so-called “cool school” of modern jazz—define cool?“That means doing everything that you like to do and getting away with it, you dig?”Her traits included a frosted tone with a dash of vinegar; a blithe, airy rhythmic sense that could make almost any band swing; an ultra-hip bebop vocabulary; and a wisecracking insouciance, as though all this were just a lark. O’Day emerged in 1941 as a big-band singer whose tough look and take-charge style established her as a musically savvy leader of men, not a begowned accessory. Thereafter, while creating a historic body of recordings on Verve Records, O’Day became “one of the boys” in another regard: She spent much of the ‘50s and ‘60s hooked on heroin. Finally clean by the ‘70s, she had a stunning renaissance, touring the world each year and releasing dozens of albums; even the TV program 60 Minutes profiled her in 1980.Her memoir, High Times Hard Times, while vividly written (it was optioned more than once for films that didn’t happen), cuts off in 1980, and contains almost no reflections on why she sang the way she did. Author James Gavin, whose biography subjects include Chet Baker, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and George Michael, now turns his attention to O’Day’s mad roller-coaster life, a nonstop procession of thrills, laughs, outrageous stories, and unforgettable music-making. Gavin, a Grammy nominee and a two-time winner of ASCAP’s Deems Taylor-Virgil Thomson Award for excellence in musical journalism, draws upon a wealth of unpublished material, including interviews with many of the people who knew her best making this a definitive portrait of one of the great characters and innovators in jazz history.

George Michael var en extremt begåvad sångare, låtskrivare och artist. Hans musik har fyllt dansgolven sedan mitten av åttiotalet, och hitlåtar som "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Last Christmas" och "Careless Whisper" har gjort honom odödlig. George Michael: Ett liv är en fängslande berättelse om en stjärna vars musikaliska gärning fortsätter att lysa klart långt efter den tragiska bortgången. James Gavin, som skri­vit flera hyllade musikbiografier, följer George Michaels förvandling från den blyge Georgios Panayiotou till artisten som erövrade världen med Wham!. Biografin över George Michaels liv berättar målande och uttömmande om solokarriären, skandalerna och livskampen. Ingående analyser av den kreativa processen bakom album, turnéer och musik­videor, och hundratals inter­vjuer med vänner och kollegor gör George Michael: Ett liv till en rik skildring av en sann soullegend. "Ett gripande porträtt av George Michaels brinnande ambition, fantastiska talang och mörka hemligheter." Doug Herzog, MTV "Ett backstage-pass till en glittrande värld fylld av mörker och svek." Bob Spitz, författare "Hjärtslitande om en poplegend som inte kunde älska sig själv men som fick en hel värld att må bra." Danny Fields, Ramones manager James Gavin, bosatt i New York, är skribent och författare. Han har skrivit ett flertal bio­grafier över artister och medverkat med artiklar och reportage i bland andra New York Times, Time Out New York och Vanity Fair. Idén till en biografi över George Michaels liv föddes när han lyssnade till succéalbumet Older och frågade sig hur någon med ett så kaotiskt liv kunde skapa något så vackert.