Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About Music

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we head back in time to discuss a true classic of jazz and jazz journalism. The fascinating life and legacy of the great jazz artist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, with John Kruth, the author of this first and most complete biography, Bright Moments: The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk (2000). Bright Moments is the story of a truly neglected genius who ecli...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the fascinating life of a true NYC music original, Brian Cullman, author of How to Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music & Times. New Yorker Brian Cullman is a true rock ‘n roll Zelig. Like the character from the Woody Allen film of the same name, Cullman has built friendships with a remarkable array of figures central to the past six dec...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we turn our attention to one of the great prog bands of all time, the Dutch Masters, Focus. Our guest is Peet Johnson. He is the author of "Hocus Pocus - The Strife & Times of Rock's Dutch Masters," a comprehensive, 300+ page book documenting the history of the legendary Dutch progressive rock band. Best remembered for their proto-guitar shred and yo...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the life and music of Alice Coltrane with Andy Beta, author of Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane. Beta’s book is the first full biography of this remarkable, groundbreaking artist, and is an elegant, deeply researched corrective to the historical—and critical—record. It elevates Alice Coltrane to her proper place,...

In this episode, we discuss the history and appeal of concept albums with Bill Kopp, author of What's the Big Idea: 30 Great Concept Albums (HoZac Books). Music has always been a vehicle for telling stories – of love and heartbreak, of history and fantasy, and much more. Sometimes the stories can be related in a tuneful single lasting under three minutes. In other cases, beginning in the late ‘60s...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the life and music of Ric Ocasek, the driving force of one of New Wave’s most successful bands, the hitmaking machine, The Cars, with Peter Aaron, the author of the first in-depth biography of the musician. The sounds of new wave pop music and the early days of MTV were defined by the work of a handful of iconic musicians, and few stood taller...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the long history and profound influence of a single song, “Hey Joe,” a tune that binds nearly every strand of 20th-century American popular music. “Hey Joe” was written sometime in the early 1960s by a man named Billy Roberts, an obscure singer and guitarist from South Carolina who moved to New York City, drawn by the burgeoning folk music sce...

In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss Bob Dylan's New York, a guidebook and history of New York's key role throughout Dylan's lengthy career. It places Dylan's early career within the storied history of Greenwich Village, a hotbed of artistic innovation. A contemporary of Dylan's, musician/author/educator Dick Weissman walked the same streets, played music in the same venues, and...

The Beatles produced five films during their time together: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. Some were cinematic successes, and some were not, but―along with subsequent reissues, bonus material, and Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary companion to Let It Be―they comprise an endlessly fascinating document of key phases in the group’s...

For the latest edition of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Richie Unterberger, author of more than a dozen of the great books on rock ' n ' roll history. His latest work was as a contributor to a great book of essays on underappreciated record producer Tom Wilson, Everybody’s Head Is Open To Sound . Wilson was a black Harvard graduate who produced the debut recordings of jazz greats Sun Ra a...

For the latest edition of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Brooke Wentz, author of Transfigured New York , a fantastic book of interviews with leading figures in the experimental music scene in NYC from 1980-1990 including composers like Arthur Russell, Glenn Branca, John Cage, La Monte Young and leading jazz musicians like John Zorn, Vernon Reid and Jean-Paul Bourelly. Brooke also discusses...

Guests: Steven Lewis, author of Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band Richard Manuel was a fearless original. Sweetly soulful as a vocalist and endearingly creative as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he was a vital part of some of rock ’n’ roll’s pivotal moments, including Bob Dylan’s controversial move to electric music, Woodstock 1969, and the legen...

In this month's episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Walter Kolosky, author of the new book Mahavishnu Memories. Kolosky's latest is his third book, charting the career of the remarkable jazz fusion guitarist, John McLaughlin. This book chronicles all the live concerts of the original iteration of McLaughlin's mighty Mahavishnu Orchestra. For more info, see the following interview con...

John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. “Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does.” She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, a curiosity, and, often, a villain—an inscrutable seductress, a manipulating con artist, and a caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is...

Six decades after they stormed the British and American charts in 1964, The Zombies are possibly more popular than ever. Their biggest hits, ‘She’s Not There’, ‘Tell Her No’ and ‘Time of the Season’ have been played more than 14 million times on U.S. radio alone. Praised by critics, discovered by a new generation of fans, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Zombies returned in th...

Guests: Joe Boyd, Record Producer & Author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe Boyd is a legend in music. He was the soundman when Dylan went electric at Newport, the founder of the legendary UFO club in London, and the producer of seminal works by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., and many more. In the 1980s, Boyd pioneered global music through his label Hann...

Guests: Dan Ropek, Author of Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic’s Chris Wood Traffic was the most enigmatic British band of their day. Formed in early 1967 by Chris Wood, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason, they rejected the bright lights of London in favor of a run-down, supposedly haunted cottage in the country - a place to live communally and write music. With Chris especially intent on...

New York’s Greenwich Village is a compact sanctuary that has attracted a legion of visionaries and non-conformists who had an outsized influence on 20th-century culture – on alternative lifestyles, progressive politics, and the arts, especially music. Within the maze of coffeehouses, nightclubs, and watering holes on its narrow streets, the legends-to-be of folk, jazz, and rock coalesced into tigh...

Guests: Don Stevenson, drummer/songwriter of Moby Grape & Cam Cobb, author of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence . He was one of the Holy Trinity of critically revered and maybe unjustly labeled “acid casualties” of late ‘60s/early ‘70s music. Along with Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and the 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson, Skip Spence was a star-crossed figure idolized for his...

Guest: Aidan Levy, Author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins. In his new book, Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins, author Aidan Levy has created a work nearly as sprawling and monumental as the seven decades of sounds crafted by a man widely considered “jazz’s greatest living improviser.” Levy devoted seven years to capturing Rollins – the musician, the...

Guest: Richard Koloda, Author of Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler A lawyer by trade and a jazz musicologist by passion, Richard Koloda has spent over two decades creating the most authoritative look at the life and music of free jazz pioneer Albert Ayler. His book follows Albert's life from his childhood and apprenticeship in Cleveland to his glory days in France an...

Earth to Moon is the new critically acclaimed memoir of Moon Zappa, the eldest child of legendary rocker Frank Zappa and his wife, Gail. The book presents the often-disturbing realities of growing up in the shadow of her self-absorbed, workaholic dad (a man she idolized above all others) and her bossy mother, who vented at her eldest child due, to her father’s philandering ways. The book chronicle...

Only You Know and I Know is not only the name of one of his biggest hits but also the title of rocker Dave Mason’s new autobiography. It’s a freewheeling testament, providing that Dave was one of the most Zelig of rocker. He came to fame as a co-founder of the group Traffic and the writer of their biggest and most cover hit, “Feelin’ Alright.” He’s also contributed to defining tracks by pals like...

Hosted by Sal Cataldi Guest: Sid Smith, Author of In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation over 50 Years Sid Smith is a British journalist best known for In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation over Fifty Year , the definitive history of Robert Fripp and his band, King Crimson, the primary architects of progressive rock. Smith has penned hundreds of features and reviews on rock and jazz f...

Hosted by Sal Cataldi. Guest: Joel Selvin From 1972 – 2009, Selvin was the very influential rock music columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle . He is also the author of more than a dozen of the best books on rock music and culture. His works have covered artists like Sly Stone, The Grateful Dead, Ricky Nelson, and Sammy Hagar and events like the Summer of Love, the birth of the Peppermint Twist...