{"id":18856,"date":"2020-06-19T05:30:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T09:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18856"},"modified":"2020-10-08T12:26:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T16:26:10","slug":"book-review-the-ballad-of-tommy-lipuma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/19\/book-review-the-ballad-of-tommy-lipuma\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Author: Ben Sidran<\/em>
\n274pp<\/em>
\nNardis Books<\/em><\/p>\n

One might think that an insider tale such as the biography of a record producer wouldn\u2019t have wide appeal. That thinking goes that unless that producer is one of the most famous \u2013 say, Phil Spector or just maybe Sir George Martin \u2013 the story would be too centered around the technical details of how an album is made.<\/p>\n

I had a similar concern when I received an advance review copy of The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma<\/i> by Ben Sidran. Not sure what to make of it, I opened to a random page and read a bit. The page upon which I landed was a brief tale about LiPuma and an associate going to Vegas on a whim, dropping windowpane LSD and witnessing a woman in a strapless gown riding a fish and playing “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” on a harp. No, really.<\/p>\n

I knew then and there that I would be reading the whole thing.<\/p>\n

That vignette was no outlier; Sidran\u2019s book does not disappoint. The author \u2013 who\u2019s also an acclaimed jazz pianist<\/a> \u2013 is a masterful storyteller. And it helps that he has great material from which to draw. LiPuma’s life is a kind of Horatio Alger tale: his Italian roots, his youth in Cleveland, his bucking of convention to follow his own path. Yes, you\u2019ve read biographies with a similar arc. But few are as lively and entertaining as this.<\/p>\n

LiPuma\u2019s sparkling wit shines through the entire book; Sidran quotes him extensively. And not to ruin anything with a spoiler, but LiPuma passed away in 2017, so it\u2019s fair to assume that Sidran drew quotes from his many years of friendship with his subject.<\/p>\n

The book does get a bit into LiPuma\u2019s philosophy of production, but \u2013 this time I won\u2019t spoil anything \u2013 the description (and LiPuma\u2019s method itself) lends itself to understanding and appreciation by anyone, music insider or not.<\/p>\n

The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma<\/i> is a funny book, but it\u2019s also warm-hearted, the product of an author who knew and clearly valued the friendship of the subject. It\u2019s also admirable in its candor and forthrightness. And it\u2019s so<\/em> well-written, so full of memorable passages, that I lost count how many times I interrupted my dear wife \u2013 busy reading a book as well \u2013 to quote extensively from Sidran\u2019s pages. As an indicator of just how much I enjoyed the book, I cannot think of a higher kind of praise.<\/p>\n

The woman with the harp is merely one of a seemingly endless parade of characters that features in The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma<\/i>. But at its core, the book is about Sidran’s OOPS!<\/del> LiPuma\u2019s skill at working with difficult people, and at navigating his way through daunting circumstances with style, class and \u2013 most of all \u2013 wit. Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Ben Sidran 274pp Nardis Books One might think that an insider tale such as the biography of a record producer wouldn\u2019t have wide appeal. That thinking goes that unless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3668,49,65],"tags":[3601,4204],"class_list":["post-18856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-music-business","category-new-release","category-review","tag-ben-sidran","tag-tommy-lipuma","cat-10-id","cat-3668-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18856"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19838,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18856\/revisions\/19838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}