Books about Dancehalls from Amazon.com

Approaching her dreaded thirtieth birthday, Marina Palmer suddenly found herself adrift in anxiety A successful but bored advertising executive -- on the therapist's couch thrice weekly and with no lasting love in her life -- she longed for true passion and adventure. Then, on a whimsical vacation to South America, at a steamy two A.M.milonga, she found what she was looking for: tango! From her very first close-up glimpse of Argentina's signature dance she fell head over heels. She left everything behind -- her fast-track career, her desperate search for "the One" -- to pursue her new obsession in Buenos Aires, seeking a dancing partner, storybook love, and the tango lessons that might ultimately help her to earn a place on the professional circuit.

In Kiss & Tango, Marina Palmer chronicles in no-holds-barred diary-style confessions her exhilarating misadventures on the Argentine dance floor . . . and beyond. An inspiring, outrageous, and unforgettable true story bursting with passion, adventure, romance, heartbreak, and steamy sex, it is the ideal book for anyone who secretly dreams of taking that one sweet, impossible gamble of a lifetime.

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Price: $4.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Wherever they've found fiddlers and dance floors, Texans have been tickled into motion. And for a century and a half they've been kicking up dust in dance halls across the state. Writing about the eighteen she knows best, Gail Folkins celebrates how these halls still bring people together and foster joy.
Folkins etches portraits of proprietors who give space for music and dancing, of musicians who furnish the soundtrack for dramas and comedies that play out across hardwood or concrete floors, and of people who come to dance, listen, or simply share the experience with friends and neighbors. Paired with Marcus Weekley's photographs, some whirling and some dreamy, they capture beat and motion, even the scent of sawdust on the floor. Drawn in, we witness daytime preparations for evenings to come, and the quiet that returns after the dancers go home and the musicians have packed up for the night.
Moving from Twin Sisters near New Braunfels to legendary Luckenbach, we meet the third generation in a family of makers of music and keepers of dance halls. And then there are the descendants of Czech Catholic settlers coming to dance under the giant letters KJT (Katolika Jednota Texaska). At Coupland Dance Hall, we sense ghostly apparitions of pioneer women in long skirts. Very much in the twenty-first century, we share a dance floor with tourists and university types among the kitschy accoutrements at Austin s Broken Spoke.

8 x 11. 132 duotone photos..
Price: $17.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This definitive study of the 1980s Jamaican Dancehall scene features hundreds of exclusive photographs and an accompanying text that capture a vibrant, globally influential and yet rarely documented culture that has been mixing music, fashion and lifestyle with aplomb since its inception. With unprecedented access to the incredibly exciting music scene during this period, Beth Lesser's photographs and text are a unique way into a previously hidden culture.
Dancehall is at the center of Jamaican musical and cultural life. From its roots in Kingston in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1980s, Dancehall has conquered the globe, spreading to the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Europe and beyond.
Dancehall is a culture that encompasses music, fashion, drugs, guns, art, community, technology and more. Many of today's global music and fashion styles can be traced back to Dancehall culture and indeed continue to be influenced by it today.
Born in the 1950s out of the neighborhood jams of Kingston, Dancehall grew to its height in the 1980s before a massive influx of drugs and guns made the scene too dangerous for many.
This jam-packed visual history and text tells the story from its roots to its heights from that rarest vantage of the true, respected insider. In the early 1980s, as Jamaica was in the throes of political and gang violence, Beth Lesser ventured where few others dared, and this book is a never-before-seen record of the exciting, dangerous and vibrant world of Dancehall.
Writer and photographer Beth Lesser lived in Jamaica in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her previous book, King Jammy's (2002), a profile of the innovative Dancehall producer King Jammy, was described by Peter Dalton, co-author of The Rough Guide to Reggae, as "the one essential book on reggae." She currently lives in Toronto..
Price: $26.37 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Jamaican dancehall has long been one of the most vital and influential cultural and artistic forces within contemporary global music. Wake the Town and Tell the People presents, for the first time, a lively, nuanced, and comprehensive view of this musical and cultural phenomenon: its growth and historical role within Jamaican society, its economy of star making, its technology of production, its performative practices, and its capacity to channel political beliefs through popular culture in ways that are urgent, tangible, and lasting.
Norman C. Stolzoff brings a fan’s enthusiasm to his broad perspective on dancehall, providing extensive interviews, original photographs, and anthropological analysis from eighteen months of fieldwork in Kingston. Stolzoff argues that this enormously popular musical genre expresses deep conflicts within Jamaican society, not only along lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, and religion but also between different factions struggling to gain control of the island nation’s political culture. Dancehall culture thus remains a key arena where the future of this volatile nation is shaped. As his argument unfolds, Stolzoff traces the history of Jamaican music from its roots in the late eighteenth century to 1945, from the addition of sound systems and technology during the mid-forties to early sixties, and finally through the post-independence years from the early sixties to the present.
Wake the Town and Tell the People offers a general introduction for those interested in dancehall music and culture. For the fan or musicologist, it will serve as a comprehensive reference book.

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Price: $12.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $24.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

On June 4, 1982, the body of a young woman surfaced from 300 feet of water in Lake Placid, New York. Because of the depth and intense cold of the water, the body, which was determined by medical examiners to have been submerged for over twenty years, was remarkably well-preserved. At the time, the authorities were unable to establish the identity of the woman but concluded that her death had been violent..
Price: $8.33 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The worldwide interest in automatic organs is larger now than ever before. From delicate and musically sublime little organs contained in musical clocks of the type Mozart and Haydn composed music for, through to enormous and loud dancehall and street organs, the genre exists to please everybody and to suit all tastes. This comprehensive, yet delightful and easy-to-read, reference unlocks the mysteries of mechanical versions of the King of Instruments and its smaller counterparts. 79 color and 538 black and white photos display examples from 18 chapters and six Appendices that specify how automatic pipe organs work, Italian water garden organs, barrel organs, orchestrions, and street and showground organs, as well as automatic organs of the 21st century and more. The list of makers, distributors, and inventors the world over has never been available before. Now musicians, instrument collectors, owners, museums, and grateful audiences can explore the how, where, and why of these charming entertainers. The valuation and price guide includes a thoughtful discussion of the market and its variables..
Price: $83.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Reggae music is more than just steel drum bands on white sand beaches. Its history is rich with culture and evolution, helping to tell the story of Jamaica's past. Due to its depth and extensive coverage, this book the most complete and up to date encyclopedia about reggae, mento, ska, rocksteady, and dancehall music on the market today. Ideal for reggae lovers and college students studying music, this encyclopedia is comprehensive for high school students and non-music students as well. From Bob Marley to Wayne Wonder, this easy to use encyclopedia contains over 700 entries. Indices in both the front and back of this book make navigating through entries extremely user-friendly. Entries cover singers and songwriters, producers, record labels, and different styles of music that evolved from reggae. Subjects include: BLA and M Records BLBoom Shaka BLJimmy Cliff BLClement "Coxsone" Dodd BLJudge Dread BLToots Hibbert BLBob Marley BLRastafarianism BLShaggy BLSka Moskowitz truly captures the history and evolution of Jamaican music in this extensive, illuminating encyclopedia, while all the while making it accessible to both high school and college students..
Price: $46.16 [Notify me when price goes down.]