For immediate release

To download photographs and more information, visit the pressroom at:

www.suchsweetthunder.com

November 6, 2003

Such Sweet Thunder: Views on Black American Music

(Book Release)

The Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts is proud to announce the debut of its publication division with the national release this fall of Such Sweet Thunder: Views on Black American Music, a new book of essays, panel discussion transcripts and photography by some of the most respected authors of African American music. Such Sweet Thunder is a unique collection of primary source materials edited by Mark Baszak, and featuring the photography of Edward Cohen, representing firsthand accounts of the music (jazz, blues, and gospel) and performers given tribute at annual Black Musicians Conferences and Festivals at the University of Massachusetts from 1989 - 1999.

Such Sweet Thunder features photography of Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Doc Cheatham, Dorothy Donegan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Christian McBride, Bobby McFerrin, Odetta, Max Roach, Richard Smallwood, Dakota Staton, Sarah Vaughan, Marlena Shaw, and Marion Williams among many others who performed at the University of Massachusetts.

Contributing authors include: Dexter Allgood, Teodross Avery, Mark Baszak, Jean Bach, Playthell Benjamin, Milton Biggham, Patti Bown, Horace Clarence Boyer, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Phyl Garland, Leonard Goines, Leslie Gourse, Daphne Duval Harrison, Jon Hendricks, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Paul Kahn, Bill Lowe, Peter Manuel, Portia Maultsby, Amina Claudine Myers, Vernon Reid, Hildred Roach, Glenn Siegel, Billy Taylor, Frederick C. Tillis, Jeff Todd Titon, Steven Tracy, Peter Watrous, and Marvin Winans.

If you ever wondered what it might be like to share musical ideas and play blues with Eric Clapton, grow up in the same neighborhood as Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, or discuss race matters on the phone with Miles Davis – Such Sweet Thunder authors Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Marvin Winans, and Jean Bach fill in the details. Discover from Marvin Winans what is was like to hear Grammy-winning gospel group Take 6 perform in his living room before they became famous, read what Teodross Avery has to say about his collaboration with rapper Black Thought of The Roots, and go behind-the-scenes with Billy Taylor as he talks about working with all the bebop greats in 1940s era Manhattan when modern jazz was just being formulated. These are just a few of the artist-authors who tell their stories in Such Sweet Thunder: Views on Black American Music.

To purchase copies of the book with a credit card over the phone, call 413.545.3530, or on the web, by visiting www.suchsweetthunder.com. The book is also on sale at major booksellers nationwide and at the following local booksellers: The University Store (Amherst), Atticus Bookstore (Amherst), Odyssey Bookstore (South Hadley), Broadside Books (Northampton), World Eye Bookstore (Greenfield), and at Barnes & Noble (Hadley and Holyoke).

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