Items related to Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Emmy-nominated Game of Thrones star Lena Headey reads the acclaimed memoir that inspired the film in which she stars. This special movie tie-in edition is now available from Encore for a great value!
One day we’re walking down the street, passing a newsstand, when I stop and pick up a magazine (maybe Life) with Thelonious Monk of the cover. I kiss it, and say, ‘Hi Monk.’ Dad, combusting with pride, picks me up, looks at me with those beautiful gray-green eyes, and says: ‘From now on, you’re not just my baby, you’re my ace-one-boon-white-coon.’ That, he would claim, was the day we forever connected, and became more to each other than everything.
So begins Amy Albany’s life with her father, the legendary though obscure jazz pianist Joe Albany. Joe played with the likes of Charles Mingus, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Dexter Gordon. In red-boothed, booze-drenched Hollywood nightspots, chances were you’d find Albany’s daughter tucked behind the bar, curled on someone’s fur coat, while her father played his set. Teddy bears were for other kids—Amy slept with a ‘78 of Louis Armstrong’s ‘Sugar Blues’, and later with a photograph of the man himself inscribed ‘To little Amy-Joe, always in love with you—Pops’.
Written with gritty honesty, Low Down is Amy Albany’s extended improvisation on growing up, wise beyond her years and hip to the unpredictable ways of Old Lady Life at all too early an age, Albany guides us through the dope and deviance of the late 1960s and early 1970s jazz scene in Hollywood’s underbelly and beyond. What emerges is a raw and poignant portrait of a young girl trying to survive amongst the outcasts and misfits who guided her life.
One day we’re walking down the street, passing a newsstand, when I stop and pick up a magazine (maybe Life) with Thelonious Monk of the cover. I kiss it, and say, ‘Hi Monk.’ Dad, combusting with pride, picks me up, looks at me with those beautiful gray-green eyes, and says: ‘From now on, you’re not just my baby, you’re my ace-one-boon-white-coon.’ That, he would claim, was the day we forever connected, and became more to each other than everything.
So begins Amy Albany’s life with her father, the legendary though obscure jazz pianist Joe Albany. Joe played with the likes of Charles Mingus, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Dexter Gordon. In red-boothed, booze-drenched Hollywood nightspots, chances were you’d find Albany’s daughter tucked behind the bar, curled on someone’s fur coat, while her father played his set. Teddy bears were for other kids—Amy slept with a ‘78 of Louis Armstrong’s ‘Sugar Blues’, and later with a photograph of the man himself inscribed ‘To little Amy-Joe, always in love with you—Pops’.
Written with gritty honesty, Low Down is Amy Albany’s extended improvisation on growing up, wise beyond her years and hip to the unpredictable ways of Old Lady Life at all too early an age, Albany guides us through the dope and deviance of the late 1960s and early 1970s jazz scene in Hollywood’s underbelly and beyond. What emerges is a raw and poignant portrait of a young girl trying to survive amongst the outcasts and misfits who guided her life.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
A.J. Albany is the daughter of legendary bebop pianist Joe Albany. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children, Charlie and Dylan.
Review:
"Her prose resembles the shimmering complexity of bop, with its feelings of tight yet improvisational dartings through memory. From the slag heap of the junkie lifestyle, she manages to spin literary gold."-Kirkus Reviews
"Harrowing...an authentic trip through Hollywood's lower depths." -Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"In Low Down...Hollywood shines, its run-down hotels and methadone clinics every bit as beautiful, on their own terms, as the grand jazz joints of Joe Albany's glory years." -Los Angeles Magazine
"Truly affecting...Albany's well-wrought memoir contains emotional and lyrical volumes." -Publishers Weekly
"In this beautiful memoir of jazz and junk, loyalty and abandonment, A. J. Albany writes with such straight-up charm and unsentimental lucidity that she makes her harrowing childhood seem as romantic and thrilling as she remembers it."-Francine Prose
"Her prose resembles the shimmering complexity of bop, with its feelings of tight yet improvisational dartings through memory." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Harrowing...an authentic trip through Hollywood's lower depths." (Carolyn See Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"....Hollywood shines, its run-down hotels and methadone clinics every bit as beautiful, on their own terms, as the grand jazz joints of Joe Albany's glory years." (Los Angeles Magazine)
"Truly affecting...Albany's well-wrought memoir contains emotional and lyrical volumes." (Publishers Weekly)
"Harrowing...an authentic trip through Hollywood's lower depths." -Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"In Low Down...Hollywood shines, its run-down hotels and methadone clinics every bit as beautiful, on their own terms, as the grand jazz joints of Joe Albany's glory years." -Los Angeles Magazine
"Truly affecting...Albany's well-wrought memoir contains emotional and lyrical volumes." -Publishers Weekly
"In this beautiful memoir of jazz and junk, loyalty and abandonment, A. J. Albany writes with such straight-up charm and unsentimental lucidity that she makes her harrowing childhood seem as romantic and thrilling as she remembers it."-Francine Prose
"Her prose resembles the shimmering complexity of bop, with its feelings of tight yet improvisational dartings through memory." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Harrowing...an authentic trip through Hollywood's lower depths." (Carolyn See Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"....Hollywood shines, its run-down hotels and methadone clinics every bit as beautiful, on their own terms, as the grand jazz joints of Joe Albany's glory years." (Los Angeles Magazine)
"Truly affecting...Albany's well-wrought memoir contains emotional and lyrical volumes." (Publishers Weekly)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 1442368683
- ISBN 13 9781442368682
- BindingAudio CD
- Rating
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Published by
Simon & Schuster Audio
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1442368683
ISBN 13: 9781442368682
Used
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Audio CD. Condition: Fine. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! May contain remainder marks. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # D_00000000000001604124
Buy Used
US$ 3.87
Convert currency
Stock Image
Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Published by
Simon & Schuster Audio
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1442368683
ISBN 13: 9781442368682
Used
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: Very Good. Item in very good condition and ready to ship - Guaranteed to play!!. Seller Inventory # 00035363826
Buy Used
US$ 7.81
Convert currency
Stock Image
Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Published by
Simon & Schuster Audio, UNITED STATES
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1442368683
ISBN 13: 9781442368682
Used
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description AudioCD. Condition: Very Good. 4 BRAND NEW AUDIO CDS. NEW IN THE SHRINK WRAP EDITION. Just a bit of shelf wear. Brand New Audio CDs inside. Enjoy this gift quality Audio CD performance worthwhile for your listening pleasure. Seller Inventory # 220181031691307
Buy Used
US$ 6.88
Convert currency
Stock Image
Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Published by
Simon & Schuster Audio
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1442368683
ISBN 13: 9781442368682
Used
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 32-1442368683-G
Buy Used
US$ 16.81
Convert currency