Written By Mrs Bach: The Amazing Discovery That Shocked the Music World by Martin Jarvis

$4.99 AUD

$24.99 (80% off)

Category: Music

The majestic Bach Cello Suites are among the world's best loved pieces of music - but which Barch wrote them? Australian musical sleuth Martin Jarvis explosively claims the suites were composed by Bach's beloved second wife Anna Magdelena.

Shine Like It Does: The Life of Michael Hutchence by Toby Creswell

$19.99 AUD

$32.99 (39% off)

Category: Music

The real story of a complex man whose star is still shining two decades after his death. Michael Hutchence was a superstar, an internationally respected musician and a great bloke. There will never be another one to replace him. Born into an eccentric and difficult marriage, Hutch grew up in different c ountries before settling into suburban Sydney. He made friends with Andrew Farriss who provided a surrogate family. Andrew's musicality and Michael's charisma was from the start till the end the basis of INXS.For five years INXS were single-minded in their pursuit of being the biggest band in the world. When that was achieved Michael felt the need to move away from a strictly pop life and he pushed himself into more challenging areas. That brought him into conflict with the band his band of brothers.There was also the complication of being a sex god. Michael always led a very hedonistic life a lot of drugs and sex. While promiscuous Michael had a great fear of separation and also a great fear of causing hurt the ends of his relationships were inevitable and messy. ...Show more

The Legendary Rat Pack

$9.99 AUD

$24.95 (59% off)

Category: Music

Michael - My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS by Tina Hutchence; Jen Jewel Brown

$22.99 AUD

Category: Music

INXS singer/songwriter Michael Hutchence was the celebrated frontman of a band that was the biggest in the world. Michael's big sister, Tina, adored him from the start. From a 12-year-old holding him in her arms as a newborn, to being his teenage nanny, Tina remained Michael's trusted confidant until hi s sudden death. Tina's intimate and detailed telling of her brother's story--from faltering teenager with a lisp to raging rock star--blazes with love and adventure, and includes the acquired brain injury that changed everything for Michael; the risky schemes that saw him named in the Paradise Papers expose of 2017; his secret philanthropy in support of East Timor; and his bliss at the birth of his only child, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. This personal and heartfelt biography reveals the incredible, rollercoaster life of an enduring superstar and shares the private moments of an adored brother, son, and father. ...Show more

Duke Ellington - An American Composer and Icon by Mercedes Ellington

$59.99 AUD

$110.00 (45% off)

Category: Music

Duke Ellington was the undisputed father of the American songbook. A prolific writer and consummate performer, Ellington was the author of such standards as Solitude, Prelude to a Kiss, and It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing). With a career that spanned five decades, he is one of the defi ning composers of the Jazz Age. With unprecedented access to the Ellington family archives, this long overdue book illuminates the life and work of an icon of twentieth-century music from his humble beginnings to his long-lasting success. Every stage of Ellington's career is brought to life, from sepia photographs of his early days in Washington, DC, to colorful playbills from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, his triumphant tours of Europe in the 1930s, and his pioneering explosion of form and genre in the 1940s and beyond. Alongside more than two hundred stunning images, contributions from peers such as Dave Brubeck, Cornel West, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett shed light on Ellington's musical legacy, while the voice of his granddaughter Mercedes reveals the character behind the charisma, and the man behind the piano. ...Show more

Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet - from the Rule of the Tsars to the Age of Putin by Simon Morrison

$9.99 AUD

$34.99 (71% off)

Category: Music | Reading Level: near fine

On a freezing night in January 2013, an assailant hurled acid in the face of the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Sergei Filin. The crime, organized by a lead soloist, dragged one of Russia's most illustrious institutions into scandal. Under Vladimir Putin, the Bolshoi Theatre has been called on to preserve Russia's lengthy artistic legacy and to mirror its neo-imperial ambitions. As renowned musicologist Simon Morrison shows in his tour-de-force account, the attack, and its torrid aftermath, underscored the importance of the Bolshoi to the art of ballet, to Russia, and to the world. With exclusive access to state archives and private sources, Morrison sweeps us through the history of the ballet, tracing the political ties that bind the institution to the varying Russian regimes, and detailing the birth of some of the best-loved ballets in the repertoire. From its disreputable beginnings in 1776, the Bolshoi became a point of pride for the tsarist empire after the defeat of Napoleon in 1812.After the revolution, Moscow was transformed into a global capital; meetings of the Communist Party were hosted at the Bolshoi, and the Soviet Union was signed into existence on its stage. Recently, a £450 million restoration has returned the Bolshoi to its former glory, even as prized talent has departed. The Theatre has been bombed, rigged with explosives and reinforced with cement. Its dancers have suffered unimaginable physical torment to climb the ranks. But, as Morrison reveals, the Bolshoi has transcended its own fraught history, surviving 250 years of artistic and political upheaval to define not only Russian culture but also ballet itself. ...Show more

Walk This Way - Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever by Geoff Edgers

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

Washington Post staff writer Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive into the story behind "Walk This Way," Aerosmith and Run-DMC's legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.   The early 1980s were an exciting time for music. Hair metal bands were selling out stadiums, while clubs and house parties in New York City has spawned a new genre of music. At the time, though, hip hop's reach was limited, an artform largely ignored by mainstream radio deejays and the rock-obsessed MTV network.   But in 1986, the music world was irrevocably changed when Run-DMC covered Aerosmith's hit "Walk This Way" in the first rock-hip hop collaboration. Other had tried melding styles. This was different, as a pair of iconic arena rockers and the young kings of hip hop shared a studio and started a revolution. The result: Something totally new and instantly popular. Most importantly, "Walk This Way" would be the first rap song to be played on mainstream rock radio.   In Walk This Way, Geoff Edgers sets the scene for this unlikely union of rockers and MCs, a mashup that both revived Aerosmith and catapulted hip hop into the mainstream. He tracks the paths of the main artists--Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Joseph "Run" Simmons, and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels--along with other major players on the scene across their lives and careers, illustrating the long road to the revolutionary marriage of rock and hip hop. Deeply researched and written in cinematic style, this music history is a must-read for fans of hip hop, rock, and everything in between. ...Show more

Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings by Joni Mitchell

$49.99 AUD

Category: Music | Reading Level: Biography

A gorgeous compendium of Joni Mitchell's handwritten lyrics and drawings, originally handcrafted as a gift for a select group of friends in 1971 and now available to the public for the first time   In 1971, as her album Blue topped charts around the world, Joni Mitchell crafted one hundred copies of Mor ning Glory on the Vine as a holiday gift for her closest friends. For this stunningly beautiful book, Joni hand-wrote an exquisite selection of her own lyrics and poems and illustrated them with more than thirty of her original pictures. Handcrafted, signed, and numbered in Los Angeles, the existing copies of this labor of love have rarely been seen in the past half-century.    Now, during Joni's seventy-fifth birthday year, Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings will be widely available for the first time. In this faithfully reproduced edition, Joni's best-loved lyrics and poems spill across the pages in her own elegant script. The lively, full-color drawings depict a superb array of landscapes, still lifes, portraits of friends, self-portraits, innovative abstractions, and more. All the artwork from the original book is included, along with several additional pictures that Joni drew of her friends from the same period. Finally, the refreshed volume features an original introduction written by Joni. Morning Glory on the Vine is a gorgeous and intimate keepsake and an invitation to explore anew the dazzling, visionary world of Joni Mitchell. ...Show more