Quincy Troupe – författare

Miles: The Autobiography, like the man himself, holds nothing back. He talks about his battles against drugs and racism, and discusses the many women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus and many others. The man who has given us the most exciting music of recent times has now given us a fascinating and compelling insight into his extraordinary life.‘An engrossing read . . . gives fascinating insights into the cult phenomenon’ Miles Copeland, Weekend Telegraph‘Magnificently truthful, action packed, raw and bleeding’ Miles Kington, Independent‘Passionate, opinionated, unfettered . . . What gives this book, and the man, their final weight and strength is that Davis’s driving, almost possessed pursuit of his art. The passion to create is all, and let the world go hang itself’ Herbert Kretzmer, Daily Mail

The rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street—the basis for the major motion picture starring Will Smith.At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city''s working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station.Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city''s invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.More than a memoir of Gardner''s financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family''s cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream."Gardner is honest and thorough as he solidly depicts growing up black and male in late twentieth-century urban America . . . a quality African-American/business memoir deserving a wider audience than its niche-market elements might suggest." —Publishers Weekly

If we were all brave enough to resurrect the voices lost from our humanity, what would they say? Award-winning poet Quincy Troupe, spokesman for the humanizing forces of poetry, music, and art, parts the Atlantic and rattles the ground built on slavery with Ghost Voices: A Poem in Prayer.we are crossing, / we are / crossing, / we are crossing in big salt water, // we are crossing, // crossing under a sky of no guilt / we have left home // though we know we will go back / someday, / see our people / as we knew them . . .Troupe re-creates the history of lost voices between the waters of Africa, Cuba, and the United States. His daring poetics drenched in new forms-notably the seven-elevens-clench transformative narratives spurred on by a relentless, rhythmic language that mimics the foaming waves of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. His personae speak quantum litanies within one epic, sermonic-gospel to articulate our most ancient ways of storytelling and survival.

The world is made of seductions. In Quincy Troupe's Seduction, the ""I"" becomes the ""Eye,"" serving as metaphor and witness in a narrative compilation from a master of poetic music. Elegies and dramatic odes look at the seduction of all things loved or hated, especially the man made of color. How did the killings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin seduce the public's eye and catch the fire of racism? How did Aretha Franklin seduce us with voice and twang? How does the art of Romare Bearden or Jack Whitten still tell our truths, fantasies, and oppressions?time is a bald eagle, a killer soaring high in the blue, / music to men dodging bullets in speeding cars, / knew death, hoped it'd never come . . .In this collection we are seduced by Troupe's opus. This is the poet's art laid bare. He is our ""Eye."" Visions of the transatlantic slave trade, portraits of American violence, pop culture, and historical voices are the lyrical relics in Troupe's masterful verse. One of American literature's most important rhythmical artists, Troupe has created a chronicle reaching through history for the collective ""I/Eye"" that is all of us.

Soon to be a major motion picture from the producers of Fences and The Hurricane"Brilliant, poetic, provocative, Quincy Troupe's Miles & Me reveals the man behind the dark glasses and legend."—Ishmael Reed Poet, activist, and journalist Quincy Troupe's candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an engrossing chronicle of the author's own artistic and personal growth. Miles & Me describes in intimate detail the sometimes harrowing processes of Davis's spectacular creativity and the joys and travails Davis's passionate and contradictory temperament posed to the two men's friendship. Miles & Me shows how Davis, both as an artist and as a black man, influenced Troupe and whole generations of Americans while forever changing the face of jazz. With a new introduction by film producer Rudy Langlais, an original photo essay of Miles and Quincy together by Jon Stevens, and a new Q&A with Quincy Troupe about how—and why—he came to write Miles & Me. 

An intimate story of Miles Davis, the man, the musician, and his friendship with the young journalist and poet Quincy Troupe--soon to be a major motion picture.Poet, activist and journalist Quincy Troupe''s candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an engrossing chronicle of the author''s own artistic and personal growth. Miles and Me describes in intimate detail the sometimes harrowing processes of Davis''s spectacular creativity and the joys and travails Davis''s passionate and contradictory temperament posed to the two men''s friendship. Miles and Me shows how Miles Davis, both as an artist and as a black man, influenced Troupe and whole generations of Americans while forever changing the face of jazz.     In 1985, Spin magazine hired Troupe to do an exclusive two-part interview with the by-then legendary jazz artist Davis. The hour-and-a-half scheduled interview stretched to ten hours. After it was published, Davis was so enamored of Troupe and the interview that he finally relented to a major publisher''s request that he write his autobiography under the condition that they could get Quincy Troupe to write it. Miles: The Autobiography became an instant bestseller and opened up the entire field of popular music autobiography. Years later, Quincy went back to his notes of his time with Miles that had been so important to them both, and produced this more intimate book, Miles and Me, told from his side of their friendship. Miles and Me takes us from St. Louis, where both men grew up, to New York, where both men lived, to Malibu where Miles also kept a home. Troupe also takes us through the entire catalogue of Davis''s recordings. Troupe calls his friend "irascible, contemptuous, brutally honest, ill-tempered when things didn''t go his way, complex, fair-minded, humble, kind, and a son-of-a-bitch." The author''s love and appreciation infuses Miles and Me with a rare quality of grace, and at the same time, throughout the book, Troupe''s observations of his friend are keen, sometimes hilariously funny, and truthful, as he knows Miles would want him to be.

Never before available, the unexpurgated last interview with James Baldwin“I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.” When, in the fall of 1987, the poet Quincy Troupe traveled to the south of France to interview James Baldwin, Baldwin’s brother David told him to ask Baldwin about everything—Baldwin was critically ill and David knew that this might be the writer’s last chance to speak at length about his life and work.The result is one of the most eloquent and revelatory interviews of Baldwin’s career, a conversation that ranges widely over such topics as his childhood in Harlem, his close friendship with Miles Davis, his relationship with writers like Toni Morrison and Richard Wright, his years in France, and his ever-incisive thoughts on the history of race relations and the African-American experience.Also collected here are significant interviews from other moments in Baldwin’s life, including an in-depth interview conducted by Studs Terkel shortly after the publication of Nobody Knows My Name. These interviews showcase, above all, Baldwin’s fearlessness and integrity as a writer, thinker, and individual, as well as the profound struggles he faced along the way.

The best and newest from one of American poetry’s coolest rhythm masters.Much like the vibrant, riveting reading performances for which he is so well-known, Quincy Troupe’s award-winning poetry is pure rhythm and deep bass beats that barely stay on the page. This magnificent new volume captures Troupe’s voice stronger than ever as he issues celebratory and pointed statements on jazz, sports, love, art, literature, American life, and the sublimity of it all.