ROBERT TILLING / OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY: A TRIBUTE TO THE REVEREND GARY DAVIS 1896-1972 / 書籍

盲目のブルースマン/牧師BLIND GARY DAVISの全てが詰まった伝記本が登場!

全ページ白黒ではありますが多くの写真を掲載、年代記やディスクガイド、詳細なレコーディング記録に加え、彼からブルースとギターを学んだDAVE VAN RONKやPETE SEEGER等数多くのミュージシャンが語ったGARY DAVISについてのコメントも掲載。イギリス人ジャーナリストがまとめた素晴らしい伝記です!

■目次
PREFACE by Paul Oliver
INTRODUCTION by Robert Tilling
PART ONE: Chronology
PART TWO: Musicians, Friends, Students and Admirers
PART THREE: Selected Concert Reviews with Quotations by Rev. Davis
PART FOUR: Selected Record, Compact Disc, Video, Book and DVD Reviews
PART FIVE: Selected Obituaries
PART SIX: Discography and Appendix
PART SEVEN: Selected Bibliography

British journalist and writer Robert Tilling lovingly compiled this touching tribute to the great American guitar genius Reverend Gary Davis. His enthusiasm for the Reverend's powerful music started after seeing him on his first UK concert tour in 1964. Reverend Gary Davis, "Blind Gary Davis," born April 30, 1896 was an African American blues and gospel singer and guitarist. His fingerpicking style was extremely influential; his students in New York City in the 1960s included Stefan Grossman, Roy Bookbinder, Woody Mann, and Ernie Hawkins. He was born in South Carolina and became blind soon after birth. He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multivoice style, playing not only ragtime and blues tunes, but traditional and original tunes in four part harmony. His ordination as a Baptist minister inhibited his blues playing (blues being the Devil's music) and his preference was clearly for inspirational gospel. He migrated to New York City in the 1940s and by the 1960s he had become known as the Harlem Street Singer, and the person to see if you wanted to learn how to play guitar. He achieved serious recognition during the folk revival of the 1960s, with an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary of his original, "Samson & Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way." His musical influence extends throughout modern American music from the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan to Keb Mo and Olabelle. Chapters in this revised and updated edition include a detailed Chronology, Discography, Concert and Record Reviews, quotations, contributions from musicians and admirers as well as over 100 photographs. *This book contains no music, it is a biography.

About the Author
Robert Tilling was born 1944, in Bristol, England and first became interested in blues and jazz as a teenager and his enthusiasm for Reverend Davis started during the early sixties. For the past thirty nine years he has regularly contributed to various blues and folk magazines in both Britain and the United States. He has lectured at universities, colleges, guitar teaching camps, and at blues festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 1968 he has been living in Jersey, Channel Islands, and is married with two daughters. Robert Tilling is also a member of The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, London, and has held over thirty five solo exhibitions of his paintings, prints and drawings. He was appointed M.B.E. during 2006.

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