Title: Dream lucky
First published: 2008
Description: The time: 1936-1938. The mood: Hopeful. It wasn't wartime, not yet. The music: The incomparable Count Basie and Benny Goodman, among others. The setting: Living rooms across America and, most of all, New York City.Dream Lucky covers politics, race, religion, arts, and sports, but the central focus is the period's soundtrack—specifically big band jazz—and the big-hearted piano player William "Count" Basie. His ascent is the narrative thread of the book—how he made it and what made his music different from the rest. But many other stories weave in and out: Amelia Earhart pursues her dream of flying "around the world at its waistline." Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., stages a boycott on 125th Street. And Mae West shocks radio listeners as a naked Eve tempting the snake.Critic Nat Hentoff praises the "precise originality" with which Roxane Orgill writes about music. In Dream Lucky, she magically lets readers hear the past.
Subjects: Big bands, Biography, Criticism, History, History and criticism, Music, Nonfiction, Popular culture, Popular music, Radio, Social aspects, Social aspects of Radio, Social life and customs, United States, Roosevelt, franklin d. (franklin delano), 1882-1945, Basie, count, 1906-1984, Popular culture, united states, Popular music, history and criticism, United states, history, 1933-1945, United states, biography, United states, social life and customs
Places: United States
People: Count Basie (1904-1984), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
Time periods: 1918-1945, 1933-1945, 20th century
LC classification: E806 .O74 2008