The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music

by Dunstan Prial

Book Overview

The son of a Vanderbilt heiress, John Hammond listened to jazz records with his parents' servants, went to Harlem as a teenager and became a regular in clubs where very few white faces ever appeared.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374113041
• ISBN13: 9780374113049
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 347 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.7" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The Producer, John Hammond

THE PRODUCER delivers a gripping story about Paul Hammond's memorable role in shaping 20th Century music. Born into fortune, his gift to hear music is obvious when at four or five years old he asks, "Mother, how can you take me to a church where the first soprano was singing off-key?" Always a champion for the underdog, Hammond's drive for civil rights is as important as his talent discoveries. Told with vivid finesse, the book is both informative and entertaining. With a wonderful blend of anecdote, history and quotes from protégés, Dunstan Prial's lucid portrayal is a pleasure to read.

Excellent portrait of a giant

This is a well written and informative book about a giant in the music business who is probably little known outside of that industry, but if you were to mention the names of the artists he has either discovered or nurtured to superstardom, you would understand why he rates such a well researched and detailed biography. Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn are just a few of the well known artists who owe much of their fame to John Hammond. The story of how Springsteen came to the attention of John Hammond is fascinating, made all the more entertaining by the fact the the author managed to obtain an interview with the artist himself. In fact, he managed to interview nearly everyone connected to the Hammond legacy (if still living) except for the elusive Bob Dylan. I knew all about Hammond's career at Columbia Records, but there was much that I didn't know, for instance I never knew about his wealthy and privileged background, which makes his story that more interesting seeing that he did all of this for love of the music and not for money. I also never realized his commitment to civil rights and how he broke new ground in the music world with his dream of integrating popular music, which up until his efforts had remained a segregated affair. By uniting Benny Goodman with Teddy Wilson, and later Lionel Hampton and Charlie Christian, he broke the color barrier which not only prevented blacks from gaining an equal footing with whites in the entertainment field, but also punished white musicians who dared to record with black musicians, let alone perform live. Even though he was a top staff producer at Columbia (and other labels), his expertise was not really as a producer so much as a facilitator, and as such he was often at odds with his bosses at Columbia and often taken off of projects and replaced with other producers, which is the case with Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, both of whose early sessions were produced by Hammond before being replaced. His greatest talent, of course, was his ability to spot raw talent when others could not. Both Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan were ridiculed by the label execs long before they realized the iconic nature of those artists - but John Hammond knew instinctively that they were once in a lifetime talents unlike any others. He saw the same qualities in Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughn, not to mention Aretha Franklin and George Benson. In the case of the latter two, their careers at Columbia can be considered failures, but they gained superstardom when they moved on to other labels, so Hammond's faith in them was certainly not misplaced. Highly recommended.

interesting and well written

My only negative comment is perhaps some repetitiveness in some of the comments in the book. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like biographies in general. This is a must read for people interested in the music business. Mr. Hammond was an interesting character and a man who stood up for what he believed in. He loved jazz, and fought for racial equality. It is amazing how many different artists he was instrumental in promoting over the years.

A distant but still interesting account of John Hammond

John Hammond was a key figure in American popular music, bring diverse talents such as Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, to widespread audiences. He also helped promote entire categories of music, including jazz, blues, and folk, contributing significantly to the popular revivals of these fields. Duston Prial's biography is insightful, based on careful research in libraries and through interviews. The book is well written, and it will be an important document in maintaining Hammond's well deserved reputation as a cultural icon. Hammond, however, appears as a somewhat distant character in Prial's account. One never really gets a sense of John Hammond's inner, subjective sense. Prial at times seems more concerned with pointing out where Hammond errored in his own autobiography -- "John Hammond on Record" (written with Irving Townsend and published in 1977) -- such as in the case of the reported causes of singer Bessie Smith's death. Prial fails to consider that Hammond actually may have believed (or internalized after so many retellings) the accounts that attributed her death to racist treatment following a car accident. Instead, Prial tells us, "The whole episode was an unseemly case of Hammond's not allowing the facts to get in the way of his good story." In some cases it in the book it is not clear why Prial favors one version of events over another. The classic example is his account of Bob Dylan's trying to get out of his Columbia records contract. Readers interested in this incident should compare the richly insightful if brief account given by Hammond in his autobiography with Prial's retelling. These quibbles aside, Prial's book makes for enjoyable reading.

John Hammond: Behind the Music

> John Hammond's discovery and signing of superstars like Bob Dylan, Bruce <br />> Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughn assure that most rock fans are familiar <br />> with the image of the tall man, impeccably dressed with a wide grin. <br />> <br />> In "The Producer", an enlightening and gripping page turner, you learn that <br />> Hammond played a leading role changing and developing American music. In <br />> this book you watch the musical landscape of the 20th century move quickly <br />> and dramatically. Remarkably, Hammond, a man whose instincts, generosity and <br />> enthusiasm are without parallel in the music industry was there for nearly <br />> all of it. The author's ability to move the action as well as exercise his <br />> generous and in-depth knowledge of jazz, folk blues and rock in an <br />> entertaining and informative manner is only one part of the "The Producer's" <br />> achievements. <br />> <br />> As importantly, we learn that Hammond's innate stubbornness and privileged <br />> upbringing gave him an unfaltering conviction that great music would succeed <br />> in transcending racism and a segregated society. His involvement with the <br />> burgeoning civil rights movement is written with great detail and <br />> illustrates how Hammond would put his money, energies and reputation into <br />> anything he believed strongly in. <br />> <br />> Above all, like all good books about music or musicians, "The Producer" <br />> sends you back to discover or rediscover great American music that was <br />> Hammond's proudest achievement.