Embouchure, by Kevin McNeilly

Embouchure

by Kevin McNeilly

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$2 CAD or more

1.	Embouchure 01:04	buy track
2.	Buddy 02:08	buy track
3.	Freddie 01:33	buy track
4.	King 01:10	buy track
5.	Nick 01:19	buy track
6.	Dipper: Louis Take One 01:14	buy track
7.	Tommy 01:23	buy track
8.	Unknown 02:17	buy track
9.	Hot Lips 00:56	buy track
10.	Papa 01:14	buy track
11.	Sam 01:47	buy track
12.	Bix 01:49	buy track
13.	Natty 01:08	buy track
14.	Bunny 01:11	buy track
15.	Bubber 01:46	buy track
16.	Heebie Jeebies: Louis Take Two 01:23	buy track
17.	Wingy 02:03	buy track
18.	George 01:10	buy track
19.	Posey 01:08	buy track
20.	Jonah 01:26	buy track
21.	Valaida, or maybe spelt Valada 01:53	buy track
22.	Jabbo 01:07	buy track
23.	The One Red 01:07	buy track
24.	Johnny 00:59	buy track
25.	High on Satch: Louis Take Three 01:39	buy track
26.	Meoux 01:00	buy track
27.	Rex 02:25	buy track
28.	Erskine 01:52	buy track
29.	The Other Red 01:36	buy track
30.	Bunk 01:17	buy track
31.	Buck 01:52	buy track
32.	Cootie 01:36	buy track
33.	Harry 01:53	buy track
34.	Sweets 00:55	buy track
35.	Muggsy 00:57	buy track
36.	Kid Thomas, Kid Sheik, Sidney 00:48	buy track
37.	Little Jazz 01:00	buy track
38.	Cat 00:54	buy track
39.	Spit Key: Calling the Roll 03:30	buy track
40.	Cornet and Crown 02:16	buy track

about

Kevin McNeilly’s debut poetry collection, Embouchure, compiles the intertwined lineages of trumpet players who came to prominence in the States during the “pre-bop” era, loosely defined as the period between 1890 and 1939. This series of vignettes betrays a broad and detailed knowledge of the players’ lives and work, yet reads like a collection of conversational anecdotes shared between the musicians and those around them. Rather than focusing on the solid facts of their lives, McNeilly brings to life the characters they inhabited and stories that surrounded them, all in a vibrant, slangy dialect that adeptly reproduces the feel of the period.

Within the course of Embouchure’s thirty-seven portraits, Buddy, Satch, Bix, Jabbo, Cootie, Cat and the rest are resurrected in their smoky, brassy, sepia-toned glory as figures deeply steeped in their own mythos. Despite embracing the fictional aspects of their lives, however, McNeilly styles these remarkable men and women with pure love and admiration, not only for their shared history and contribution to the evolution of jazz, but also for the pure, loud, messy beauty of the music itself. In this stunning and highly readable debut, McNeilly boasts finely honed poetic chops, proving that heart remains the first and finest ingredient in any truly virtuosic solo.

The book can be purchased from the publisher, Nightwood Editions, at www.nightwoodeditions.com/title/Embouchure.

credits

released August 25, 2014

Kevin McNeilly: voice, text, sound recording and editing.
Cover art by Geoff Mitchell

license

about

Kevin McNeilly Vancouver, British Columbia

Kevin McNeilly writes and speaks, and he's also an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia. He blogs at Frank Styles: frankstyles.blogspot .ca