Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins
by Bruce Jenkins
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bruce JenkinsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11
ISBN: 1583941266
Number of pages: 341
Publisher: Frog Books
Book Reviews of Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins
Book Review: A GREAT Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a major fan of sports writers, except for those who step outside the limits of their field. Paul Gallico and Ring Lardner, for example. I now place Bruce Jenkins in that level with his incisive, sympathetic, remarkably objective, thoroughly researched, and generously credited biography of father Gordon. The senior Jenkins is not as familiar today as he was during his fantastically varied and fruitful career, and that's a shame. It perhaps speaks to the general condition of the music business
today. Bruce's biography covers it all, and Gordon touched most of the bases in good popular music, contributing a great amount to the treasury. He started as a dixieland combo player, and worked his way up to stellar status as an arranger/composer, frequently contributing lyrics as well as music (and fine, deceptively simple lyrics they are, too!--songs like"Goodbye"). His first major impact on records was "Manhattan Tower", a 1945 experiment in an previously untouched area, a musicalromance/documentary that was basically a love tribute to New York City, and one that paved the way for the countless things in that flavor that have followed. It was probably the first "concept" album, instead of the usual four 78rpm shellacs in a cardboard binder. He wrote the arrangements for the period's singers, and his work with Frank Sinatra reflects his (and the singer's!) best work. Other singers he backgrounded include Peggy Lee, Nat Cole, and the Andrews Sisters. He
also found and introduced the Weavers, which brought folkish music and their inheritors (by the numberless score!) into the arena of giant pop music disc sales. He arranged a Harry Nillson album that the artist proclaimed the best he had ever done. Gordon Jenkins had a broad palette, and I don't think the term "genius" is inappropriate. The book ("Goodbye:
In Search of Gordon Jenkins") truly covers all the bases, and the younger Jenkins doesn't short those folk whose opinion of his father vary widely from his. Most the familiar names are allowed their say, and I was impressed by the author's credit to the contributing sources. He lauds frequently and damns seldom, and presents as impressive and impressing biography as I've seen. Of particular interest to members of this assemblage is his recounting of the very close, very personal relationship
between Gordon and Frank Sinatra, including a long, detailed, personal, and revealing interview that Bruce had with Mr Sinatra. I've heard that the singer was not that easy a person to interview, or even to get an interview with. I knew, on a much slighter level, many of the people Bruce interviewed or wrote of, and they all ring true--folk like Billy May and Nelson Riddle. All the members of the Sinatra chain will have to read
this one; there's a tremendous amount of learning in there, presented in a most palatable manner. Bruce Jenkins may not be a song writer, but he is
one helluva writer.
Fred Grimes
Summary of Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins
Goodbye combines biography with a son's discovery of his father. Gordon Jenkins, one of America's most significant musical figures throughout his 50-year career, collaborated with many of the major talents in postwar pop and jazz. Modest by nature, he rarely spoke of his accomplishments, and there was much to discover when, on account of his father's death in 1984, Bruce Jenkins began his research. Paralleling the story of Gordon Jenkins's personal life is a veritable history of popular music, featuring luminaries from Irving Berlin to Billie Holiday. This richly anecdotal biography relates a wealth of heretofore untold stories of his encounters with icons like Sinatra, who was uncharacteristically awestruck by him, and Judy Garland, whom only Jenkins could convince to go onstage when she was crippled with anxiety. A concluding chapter documents Jenkins's slow, difficult death from ALS, leaving readers with an unforgettable image of a legend dying with dignity and unexpected good humor.Music Books
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