Art

Art Books covered a variety of topics including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, decorative arts, antiquorum, ceramics, porcelain, photography, netsuke, sculpture, fashions, architectural and ornament drawings.
From ancient times to the present day a large collection of 558 volumes.

The Art of Noise‘s 1987 album In No Sense? Nonsense! is reissued as a two-CD deluxe edition in November 2018. Gary Lagan had left after In Visible Silence leaving Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik to continue as a duo. Dudley recalls, “At that time, we were meeting new people, doing adverts and films and things. There was lots of new input. These adverts generated other new tracks. They would evolve and we’d agree they were good ideas. And we’d ask each other what would happen if we did this, this and this? So that kept everything evolving.” The reissue features newly-remastered audio including bonus seven-inch and 12-inch mixes including collaborations with Paul McCartney (the Art of Noise ‘Spies Like Us’ remix) and Duane Eddy (‘Spies’). Additionally, there are 22 unreleased recordings from the sessions, taken from the original master tapes.

Art Tatum (1909-1956) is one of the most important jazz pianists of all time, a role model even for Generation Y players like Christian Sands, born in 1989. Along with Earl Hines, Tatum was the style-setting pianist and a link between the early pioneers of jazz, such as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, and the bebop greats of modern jazz, all of whom were inspired by Tatum's modern sense of harmony. Charlie Parker is said to have worked as a dish washer in a club for weeks only to get closer to and more familiar with Tatum's playing…

For a few years, I got to travel with these bands—they included me—a dream come true. I’ve tried to take you on a trip with me and Art and the bands while reliving all of it a little—in writing it, in pictures I took, scenes and conversations I recall. And in the music Art asked me to record. About which I feel absolutely safe in saying it: That’s it. That’s jazz.

Verve's Ultimate Art Tatum may not live up to its billing, but the budget-priced collection is nevertheless a terrific introductory sampler. Hank Jones selected the 16 tracks on the compilation and he also wrote the liner notes. He did an excellent job balancing acknowledged classics with choices that illustrate Tatum's range. Some listeners will undoubtedly find a favorite or two missing, but these 16 tracks - including "Tenderly," "I Cover the Waterfront," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Yesterdays," "Willow Weep for Me," "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)," "Sweet Lorraine," "There Will Never Be Another You," and "Too Marvelous for Words" - capture the essence of Tatum's Verve recordings, which is enough to make this a worthwhile sampler.

For a while back in the early ’80s Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, Gary Langan and J.J. Jeczalik were just another group of musicians messing around with ideas in the studio. When journalist and copywriter Paul Morley (working with their record company ZTT at the time) presented an eight page manifesto defining the band and their guiding principles, The Art of Noise was born. Morley became a critical part of the The Art of Noise, contributing ideas, song titles and taking control the band’s image and the presentation of the records. Considering themselves an art-meets-pop project, a ‘hit’ record was not really on the agenda, but that is what happened in May 1984 when Close (to the Edit) hit the UK top ten…