Opening Bars: Beginning An Autobiography
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: repr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Before jazz found its voice in Britain, one man was there helping it speak — and Opening Bars is his captivating account of those formative years. Spike Hughes, the celebrated British jazz bassist, composer, and critic, chronicles the early chapters of his life against the vibrant backdrop of 1920s and 1930s London and New York, charting his rise from a musically gifted youth to a pivotal figure in the British dance band era. With the candour and wit of a true raconteur, he recounts his encounters with jazz legends, his work leading his own orchestra, and his groundbreaking recordings that helped bring authentic American jazz to British ears. Written with the elegance and sharp intelligence that characterised Hughes's music criticism, this memoir illuminates a thrilling era in popular music history — one of smoky dance halls, transatlantic ambitions, and the electrifying clash of artistic cultures. Hughes's prose is unhurried yet vivid, capturing both the intimacy of personal memory and the sweep of a cultural revolution in the making. Opening Bars stands as an essential document for anyone fascinated by the origins of British jazz, leaving the reader hungry for the next movement in this remarkable life's score.
Author: Spike Hughes
Format: Hardback
Published: 1946, Pilot Press Ltd
Genre: Biography
Edition: repr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Before jazz found its voice in Britain, one man was there helping it speak — and Opening Bars is his captivating account of those formative years. Spike Hughes, the celebrated British jazz bassist, composer, and critic, chronicles the early chapters of his life against the vibrant backdrop of 1920s and 1930s London and New York, charting his rise from a musically gifted youth to a pivotal figure in the British dance band era. With the candour and wit of a true raconteur, he recounts his encounters with jazz legends, his work leading his own orchestra, and his groundbreaking recordings that helped bring authentic American jazz to British ears. Written with the elegance and sharp intelligence that characterised Hughes's music criticism, this memoir illuminates a thrilling era in popular music history — one of smoky dance halls, transatlantic ambitions, and the electrifying clash of artistic cultures. Hughes's prose is unhurried yet vivid, capturing both the intimacy of personal memory and the sweep of a cultural revolution in the making. Opening Bars stands as an essential document for anyone fascinated by the origins of British jazz, leaving the reader hungry for the next movement in this remarkable life's score.