Awards

• Commended for Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award: Best Research in Recorded Jazz 2013
• Commended for Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award: Best Research in Recorded Jazz 2013.
• Winner of Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence: Certificate of Merit, Research in Recorded Jazz Music 2013

Overview

Jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden once referred to Ruby Braff as the “Ivy League's Louis Armstrong.” That legacy of great trumpet performance and recording is brought to readers in Thomas Hustad’s Born to Play: The Ruby Braff Discography and Directory of Performances. Braff’s uncompromising standards, musical taste, and creative imagination informed his consummate artistry in creating music beautifully played. He achieved swiftly what few musicians accomplish in a lifetime by developing a unique and immediately recognizable style. For a reminder of that we need but play any of the more than 150 released recordings on which he appears. These records span a total of 54 years, from 1949 to 2002, a feat almost unmatched in jazz recording. This was five years longer than even Louis Armstrong. Although prepared in discographical style, capturing information about both commercial recordings and previously undocumented performances, Born to Play serves as a biography of the artist, detailing the path he paved as a performer and featuring personal recollections of his musical career with commentary from other figures. Images over the course of his half century of playing fill out this comprehensive survey of Braff's performing and recording career. This bio-discography of the man who jazz drumming legend Buddy Rich declared “one of my favorite trumpeters” and singing giant Tony Bennett described as “my great friend who now holds the reigning position of the best cornet player in the world” is sure to be of interest to jazz fans and scholars alike.

Full Product Details

9780810882645

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Reviews

A fascinating document, invaluable not only for those who regarded Ruby as one of the marvels of jazz - it is also a chronicle of one man's fierce determination to create beauty in a world that sometimes seemed oblivious to it. Many large-scale works of scholarship are thorough but cold, and the reader feels the chill. Others have adulation intrude on the purpose of the work. Tom Hustad's book is an ideal mixture of scholarship, diligence, and warm affection: its qualities in an admirable balance. I think the only way this book could have been improved would have been for Ruby to continue on past 2002 and the book to follow him. Jazz Lives

A fascinating document, invaluable not only for those who regarded Ruby as one of the marvels of jazz - it is also a chronicle of one man's fierce determination to create beauty in a world that sometimes seemed oblivious to it. Many large-scale works of scholarship are thorough but cold, and the reader feels the chill. Others have adulation intrude on the purpose of the work. Tom Hustad's book is an ideal mixture of scholarship, diligence, and warm affection: its qualities in an admirable balance. I think the only way this book could have been improved would have been for Ruby to continue on past 2002 and the book to follow him. Jazz Lives Hustad's dedication to documenting the life and music of Ruby Braff has earned him a special place in the writing of jazz history. Yes, he gives us the facts, lots of them, but it is the picture that we find in Hustad's commentary of this complex and uniquely talented man of principle whom he could truly call a friend that makes this volume special. Anyone with a taste for good music cannot help but be affected by the musical genius of Ruby Braff, and Hustad has gone a long way to making us understand that this was a man who had a lot of natural talent, but it was the inner forces that drove him to the top of his field. Jersey Jazz

Author Information

Thomas P. Hustad is retired university professor. He was instrumental in the development of the world's leading association of new products professionals. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World and received numerous teaching awards.

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