David Ritz

"Questa e una storia blues. Il blues e una musica semplice, e io sono un uomo semplice... Il blues e un mistero, e i misteri non sono mai semplici come sembrano." Uomo solitario e amante della privacy, il cantante e chitarrista B.B. King si racconta: prestando maggiore attenzione ai ricordi del cuore che ai nudi fatti; seguendo i propri sentimenti ovunque lo conducano. Accompagna il lettore dalle piantagioni di cotone del Mississippi attraverso la Memphis degli anni quaranta fino al successo internazionale, narrando la sua storia peculiare, parlando di razzismo e lotta per i diritti civili ma anche di donne e sesso, e soprattutto di musica.

Drawing from interviews conducted before Marvin Gaye's death, acclaimed music writer David Ritz has created a full-scale portrait of the brilliant but tormented artist. With a cast of characters that includes Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder, this intimate biography is a definitive and enduring look at the man who embodied the very essence of the word soul. Here is the story of perhaps the finest soul singer of the rock era--Etta James. One of the great women of American music, equally at home singing blues and jazz, Etta regales us with tales of her chaotic childhood, the stars she has known, and her troubled trip to stardom in this mesmerizing autobiography.

Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he invented, almost single-handedly, what became known as soul. And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could and couldn't do.As the "Chicago Sun-Times" put it, "Brother Ray" is "candid, explicit, sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always warm, touching and deeply human-just like his music."

One of the great women of American music, equally at home singing blues and jazz, Etta regales us with tales of her chaotic childhood, the stars she has known, and her troubled trip to stardom in thi

Que Global Rhythm Press es una de las actuales editoriales de referencia en el tema musical no debería sorprender a nadie, como tampoco que si alguien ha sacar la mercado la autobiografía de Ray Charles sean ellos quienes lo hagan. Tras Johnny Cash y Bob Dylan, le toca el turno a un músico que, sobrepasando las barreras del jazz y el blues, consiguió un estilo propio que definiría el soul. En esta autobiografía a modo de conversación con David Ritz, Ray Charles muestra no sólo su faceta de estrella consagrada como mito a temprana edad, sino también sus problemas con las mujeres, las drogas o el imperante racismo de una época que le tocó vivir, sin duda un lado muy oscuro. Brother Ray es, posiblemente, la biografía definitiva de uno de los grandes genios de la música del siglo XX. Ya se ha convertido en un libro imprescindible para toda biblioteca musical.

En este recorrido por su vida, Lang Lang relata su gran pasión por la música desde muy temprana edad, la relación con sus padres, su determinación por ser concertista de piano y la profunda competitividad inculcada por la cultura china. A los nueve años, se traslada con su padre a Beijing para estudiar en el conservatorio. Después de años de intensas horas de estudio, Lang Lang se presenta a numerosos concursos internacionales que gana. Gracias a ello se traslada a Estados Unidos donde estudia en el Instituto Curtis de Filadelfia. Este es el viaje por el crecimiento personal y el desarrollo de un niño prodigio, un músico con un talento excepcional.

Advierte, con la mayor de las solemnidades, la Reina del Soul—a propósito de la monumental biografía escrita por David Ritz—: «No malgaste su dinero en la lectura de esta biografía desautorizada». Si