Books by David Yaffe

An intimate new biography of Joni Mitchell, one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century

Joni Mitchell, født 1943, er den mest indflydelsesrige kvindelige singer-song writer, siden rockmusikkens begyndelse. Hun blev en stjerne allerede i folkemusiktiden i 1960’erne. Hun fyldte utroligt meget i den tidlige rock & flower power-tid i Californien, og senere i livet kom hun, som den stærke guitarspiller og komponist hun var, til at spille en stor rolle i fusionsjazzen, hvor hun indspillede plader med alle de store stjerner, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter og Herbie Hancock. Bogen er en fortælling om Joni Mittchells liv, fra hun fødes i Canada som Roberto Andersson, får børnelammelse, får sin første guitar og lærer sig selv at spille, tager til folkfestivaller, bliver gravid, skifter navn, bortadopterer sin datter og ender eller begynder i New York, hvor hun endelig bryder igennem, efter at Judy Collins indspiller hendes sang ”Both Sides, Now”, der når toppen af salgslisterne.

How have American writers written about jazz, and how has jazz influenced American literature? In Fascinating Rhythm, David Yaffe explores the relationship and interplay between jazz and literature, looking at jazz musicians and the themes literature has garnered from them by appropriating the style, tones, and innovations of jazz, and demonstrating that the poetics of jazz has both been assimilated into, and deeply affected, the development of twentieth-century American literature. Yaffe explores how Jewish novelists such as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, and Philip Roth engaged issues of racial, ethnic, and American authenticity by way of jazz; how Ralph Ellison's descriptions of Louis Armstrong led to a "e;neoconservative"e; movement in contemporary jazz; how poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and Frank O'Hara were variously inspired by the music; and how memoirs by Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis both reinforced and redeemed the red light origins of jazz. The book confronts the current jazz discourse and shows how poets and novelists can be placed in it--often with problematic results. Fascinating Rhythm stops to listen for the music, demonstrating how jazz continues to speak for the American writer.