Folks - Sher Music Co. now has four new books that have been released in the past month. Many thanks to the authors and each of the members of the Sher Music team for 'beyond the call of duty' efforts to get these books ready for publication! A little 'behind the scenes' description of their publication follows:
1) "Decoding Afro-Cuban Jazz: The Music of Chucho Valdes" by Chucho and Rebeca Mauleon. My esteemed colleague Rebeca Mauleon approached me and asked if I would like to publish her 'magnum opus.' I said, 'Sure,' but was not really prepared for what a masterpiece she had created. To my informed eye, it is the most definitive treatise on both Latin Jazz and the origins of Afro-Cuban music in general that has ever been written. If you are a lover of Latin music, don't miss it!
2) "New Orleans Trumpet: A Down-Home Conservatory Method" by Jim Thornton. I gave Jim's manuscript to Doug Morton, the excellent trumpet player in my band, to review and he gave it back to me saying it was the most enjoyable trumpet method book he'd ever read. And, in fact, after reading through it myself I was in total agreement. Jim is such a personable guy and the story of how he became a trad jazz trumpet player by moving to New Orleans and totally immersing himself in the music and the lifestyle of the Big Easy is completely engaging (even for a non-trumpeter). Along the way he explains some crucial music theory concepts and technical information that will benefit anyone reading the book, I'm sure. Another unique Sher Music publication!
3) "Jazz Scores and Analysis, Vol.1" by Richard Lawn. Rick sent me his manuscript and the sheer magnitude of this 'labor of love' bowled me over. In 433 pages Rick presents the fully annotated scores for six masterpieces of contemporary large ensemble jazz writing, one each by Vince Mendoza, Bob Mintzer, Jim McNeely, John Hollenbeck, Darcy James Argue and John Fedchock. He then dissects each one and shows the inner workings of the piece by explaining numerous characteristic passages and showing how the piece is constructed overall. It also includes interviews, a discography of each composer and more. Every arranging student or professional needs to have this in their library and I am super-proud to be the publisher of this landmark work.
4) "Jazz Songs for the Student Violinist" by Joanne Keefe and Kevin M. Mitchell. An old acquaintance of mine, Kevin approached me with the idea for this project saying that his kids had grown up in the Suzuki method but that there was nothing resembling jazz in any of their recitals. So he decided to create that additional repertoire himself, and this book is the result. We hope it will create many life-long lovers of jazz by exposing them to our unique art form at an early age. We are honored to have pianist Larry Dunlap and violinist Jeremy Cohen perform the audio for each piece, available on our website.
You can see details on all of these books at the top of our home page at www.shermusic.com. More coming later this year so stay tuned and keep swinging! - Chuck Sher
