Diahann Carroll with The Duke Ellington Orchestra. A Tribute to Ethel Waters.

Celebrating one of the most influential figures in jazz, this comprehensive biography incorporates the legendary Duke Ellington’s talents into engaging activities for children. Enlisting the musician’s gifts as a pianist, composer, and band leader, this interdisciplinary approach shows how to create a ragtime rhythm, make a washtub bass, write song lyrics, dance the Lindy Hop, and even design an album cover. Exploring Ellington’s life and career, this activity guide includes information on additional topics such as the Harlem Renaissance, the musical evolution of jazz, and how technology has changed over the years—from piano rolls and record albums to CDs, television, and portable music devices. A time line, glossary, selected bibliography, and extensive resources—including Ellington’s greatest recordings, related websites, and recommendations for further study—are also included.

Release Date: March 25, 2004

Duke Ellington, one of the most influential figures in American music, comes alive in this comprehensive biography with engaging activities. Ellington was an accomplished and influential jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and cultural diplomat. Activities include creating a ragtime rhythm, making a washtub bass, writing song lyrics, thinking like an arranger, and learning to dance the Lindy Hop. It explores Ellington’s life and career along with many topics related to African American history, including the Harlem Renaissance. Kids will learn about the musical evolution of jazz that coincided with Ellington’s long life from ragtime through the big band era on up to the 1970s. Kids learn how music technology has changed over the years from piano rolls to record albums through CDs, television, and portable music devices. The extensive resources include a time line, glossary, list of Ellington’s greatest recordings, related books, Web sites, and DVDs for further study.

A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician and composer who, along with his orchestra, created music that was beyond category

Release Date: December 27, 2000

Celebrating one of the most influential figures in jazz, this comprehensive biography incorporates the legendary Duke Ellington’s talents into engaging activities for children. Enlisting the musician’s gifts as a pianist, composer, and band leader, this interdisciplinary approach shows how to create a ragtime rhythm, make a washtub bass, write song lyrics, dance the Lindy Hop, and even design an album cover. Exploring Ellington’s life and career, this activity guide includes information on additional topics such as the Harlem Renaissance, the musical evolution of jazz, and how technology has changed over the years—from piano rolls and record albums to CDs, television, and portable music devices. A time line, glossary, selected bibliography, and extensive resources—including Ellington’s greatest recordings, related websites, and recommendations for further study—are also included.

It’s conventional wisdom that Hollywood has no use for a woman over forty. So it’s a good thing that Diahann Carroll -- whose winning, sometimes controversial career breached racial barriers -- is anything but conventional. Shonda Rimes, the producer of the hit show Grey’s Anatomy, created a role just for her and a recent, critically acclaimed show that’s touring the U.S., “The Life and Times of Diahann Carroll” was hailed by The New York Times as “historic.” And all this since she turned seventy! It’s been twenty years since she’s opened up about her life in Diahann Carroll and here she opens up with a candidness reserved for those who have seen or done it all. With wisdom that only aging gracefully can bestow, she talks frankly about her four marriages and other affairs, including her courtship with Sidney Poitier, racial politics in Hollywood and on Broadway, and the personal cost, particularly on her family of being a pioneer. Whether she’s recalling an audition for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Sunset Blvd, reflecting on her engagement to David Frost, or talking candidly about her brush with Breast Cancer, Carroll’s storied history, blunt views, and notorious wit, will be sure to entertain.

This beautifully written New York Times bestseller has become a new American classic.As a boy in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects, James McBride knew his mother was different. But when he asked about it, she'd simply say, "I'm light-skinned." Later he wondered if he was different too, and asked his mother if he was black or white. "You're a human being, " she snapped. "Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!" And when James asked what color God was, she said, "God is the color of water."As an adult, McBride finally persuaded his mother to tell her story--the story of a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem after encountering anti-Semitism in her small town. Upon marrying a black man, her family promptly disowned her, causing her to launch a second existence as (to quote her son) "a flying compilation of competing interests and conflicts, a black woman in white skin." The Color of Water is a poignant exploration of race, family, and identity, juxtaposing the author's experiences with his mother's stories.

Free Worldwide Delivery : Duke Ellington : Paperback : Hyperion : 9780786814206 : 0786814209 : 15 Feb 2007 : This swinging, vibrant picture book about jazz composer Edward Kennedy Ellington, better known as "Duke, " is a tribute to the legend that continues to live on and influence musicians everywhere.

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy, " a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire, " herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all-black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water, " Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self-realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.