Key Management Models

Book Description

Management models - love them or hate them, they're at the heart of management thinking and practice. They have two main purposes: to provide a framework for improving business performance; and to confuse the uninitiated with buzzwords and acronyms.

You've heard of balanced scorecards, CRM, just-in-time and SWOT? How about the Deming cycle, parenting advantage or socio-technical organizations? Even if you have, can you describe them clearly and do you know how you can use them in your business?

Key Management Models takes the reader through each of the essential management tools in a clear, structured and practical way. It provides comprehensive coverage of the main tools, and of the models developed by the Gods of management thinking: Belbin, Handy, Kotter and Mintzberg.

Customer Reviews:

A guide to what you should go deeper.......2007-09-06

The book "key management models" is an useful guide to 90% of the most read and applied administration philosophy. Is is both a good starting point to understand the context and a way to refresh your memory for the ones that have read it decades ago.
But one should not expect to learn it all from this book as it summarizes a 200 pages book in 3 pages.
Finally the last comments on the application of the philosophy are fair and, from my experience on some of the topics, very close to the day-to-day business reality.

Advanced Project Management: A Complete Guide to the Key Processes, Models and Techniques

Average customer rating:

Highly Recommended !
The best book I've read all year on Project Managment
Practical, helpful, excellent
Shallow and content free
Project management made simple

Advanced Project Management: A Complete Guide to the Key Processes, Models and Techniques
Alan D Orr
Manufacturer: Kogan Page
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Project Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0749440945

Book Description

*A practical title that guides the reader through the key skills required when managing large, and complex projects, including IT

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended !.......2005-03-14

Advanced projects are particularly demanding because of their complexity, novelty, scale, scope, cost and logistics. Author Alan D. Orr provides a detailed and useful guide to every step of advanced project management. He leaves nothing to chance or to the imagination. The charts and spreadsheets he recommends are clearly appropriate to the purpose, and his outline of project management questions, planning milestones, team building methods and tracking tools are clear and to the point. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone managing a complex project for the first time. We believe even a seasoned project manager would find it useful.

The best book I've read all year on Project Managment.......2004-10-23

I've been a project manger for over 7 years and have recently started to manage larger projects. These involve a level of politics and planning complexity that I've been a bit of a loss with. Reading this book has proved very worthwhile. It shows how to tackle the politics and the people issues something I'd struggled a bit with.

If anything I'd have liked the author to write more. They seemded to just have such good practical experience to impart:)

Practical, helpful, excellent.......2004-10-23

I'm relatively new to project management and I needed a book that was practical and human in it's approach. This book was it. It's enabled me to see beyond the charts and methods and relaise that running projects successfully is about people. The book covers team building, stakeholder management and the politics of driving through the work - just what I've been searching for.

In particular I found it really helped me realise that I need to go further in my thinking if I want my projects to succedd.

This was excellent I'd thourghly recommend it to anyone.

Shallow and content free.......2004-09-19

This book completely misses out on the important ideas. It goes in painful detail through whether to use glue, sticky tape, pins or post-it notes to stick paper to to a wall, but fails to explain how to think of what to write on the paper. Each chapter ventures towards an important topic, then misses it. Each example is unrealistic.

Where you might think that senior project managers would have to deal mainly with human issues rather than technical ones, this book has only half a page on getting to know the project team, and suggests that people will be sufficiently motivated by seeing someone in the canteen using project merchandise like a pen.

I didn't find anything 'advanced' here.

Project management made simple.......2004-06-25

I found that this book covered the topic of project management properly. It explained in a manner that was easy to understand how you should manage a project. It gave a real world impression of the work of a project manager. It also gave a good explanation of some of the more difficult aspects of managing big projects. This could become a standard for all project managers!

Business Forecasting Using Financial Models: How to Use the Key Techniques of Financial Modelling to Interpret Business Proposals (Financial Times M)

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Business Forecasting Using Financial Models: How to Use the Key Techniques of Financial Modelling to Interpret Business Proposals (Financial Times M)
Neil Hogg
Manufacturer: Financial Times Management
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0273605291

Diagnosis Documentation and Coding: The Key to Reimbursement and Capitation (Hfma Healthcare Financial Management Series)

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Diagnosis Documentation and Coding: The Key to Reimbursement and Capitation (Hfma Healthcare Financial Management Series)
Dennis M. Adams
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Hospital Administration | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Medical History & Records | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Practice Management & Reimbursement | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Emergency Medical Services | Allied Health Professions | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786310006

Book Description

Diagnosis: Documentation and Coding illustrates the importance of data capture and will teach you accurate techniques for doing so. You'll also learn the basics for combining data with in-office demographic information to give the provider a strong position to negotiate managed care contracts.

Diagnosis: Documentation and Coding will lead to the successful implementation of managed care by providing the basics of using diagnostic structuring for:

How to frame diagnosis and its basis for accurate da`ta capture

How to use software programs to generate accurate in-office data

How to minimize coding errors and ensure accurate data collection for CPT coding

How to improve your accounting department to prepare your office for accurate utilization prediction

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Black Enterprise, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2006. The length of the article is 552 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Balanced learning: the key to the Primrose School franchise model is an innovative approach.
Author: Aisha Jefferson
Publication: Black Enterprise (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 36 Issue: 12 Page: 58(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Clear trails: strategy mapping may be the key to improving organizational performance. (Business Strategies).: An article from: CMA Management

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Clear trails: strategy mapping may be the key to improving organizational performance. (Business Strategies).: An article from: CMA Management
Cam Scholey , and Howard Armitage
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from CMA Management, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1677 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Clear trails: strategy mapping may be the key to improving organizational performance. (Business Strategies).
Author: Cam Scholey
Publication: CMA Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 77 Issue: 2 Page: 15(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

A decision model for managing software development projects [An article from: Information & Management]

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A decision model for managing software development projects [An article from: Information & Management]
T.N. Nguyen
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR6N8Y

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Information & Management, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The paper first examines some issues that hinder the effective management of, and decision-making on, quality software development process and products delivery by practitioners. It then generates a decision model for managing software development projects. The model uses four concepts: mappability, accountability, interoperability and controllability in decision-making which is assumed to be based on a set of indicators that link task status of the development process and its quality assessment to the responsible authorities. The quality of the tasks, and hence, of the deliverables is measured using four attributes: completeness, correctness, consistency and compliance. A web-based example implementation is then discussed. We thus show that the model is flexible, extensible and scalable. Implementation challenges and implications are then discussed.

Keys to modeling the forging business.: An article from: Advanced Materials & Processes

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Keys to modeling the forging business.: An article from: Advanced Materials & Processes
Thomas Furman , and Ravi Shankar
Manufacturer: ASM International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Advanced Materials & Processes, published by ASM International on September 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1042 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Process modelling is useful for forging companies as with this tool part, process and tooling design cycles can be rapidly completed, thus, reducing development cycle time. To implement an effective modeling of the forging process, it is imperative that an accurate characterization of the materials, processes and tools is inputted, Furthermore, the modeling simulations should constantly be correlated with actual shop-floor results.

Citation Details
Title: Keys to modeling the forging business.
Author: Thomas Furman
Publication: Advanced Materials & Processes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1998
Publisher: ASM International
Volume: v154 Issue: n3 Page: p45(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Work provides "daily meaning as well as daily bread," according to Studs Terkel. Yet work is not always a place where one feels satisfied. In order to attract and retain qualified employees in the up-coming tight labor market, companies will have to recognize that people are their most important asset. Using original research, this book describes what employees want and need from their working environment to maximize their satisfaction and their performance. It assists the reader to deal with employees as unique individuals whose personal needs for self-actualization can be integrated with organizational performance needs. The book begins with a summary of the conventional wisdom on job satisfaction and performance and a description of what constitutes "good work." Bruce and Blackburn introduce their readers to the workplace complexities created by cultural diversity, mature workers, and women employees. They explain the effect of culture on behavior and why the traditional means to foster job satisfaction and performance are necessary but insufficient for managing diversity. They give advice on how to meet the challenges presented by changing environmental and technological trends. They teach how to manage when family demands on both men and women spill over onto the organization, and they describe the emerging conviction that, for many, those in a work setting are family for one another. They provide specific instructions for conducting and utilizing training programs. In the belief that "people accept what they help to create," they explain the utility of participation at different organizational levels and some different approaches to participative planning and decision making, including Total Quality Management. They report on interviews with employees from a cross-section of jobs in different organizations to assist the reader to understand how employees perceive the reality of work; and they provide appendices containing training outlines, guidelines for preventing and addressing sexual harassment complaints, and forms to utilize in organizing a participative planning process. Breir book is an important resource for managers, executives, consultants, and students who seek to understand how the changing nature of the workforce is affecting job satisfaction and performance; and who want to act on behalf of their organization and their employees. It is useful for managers in the private sector, as well as those who work for government and not-for-profit organizations.

Average customer rating:

nothing remotely useful here

how to grow marijuana

I would like to review growing weed!

Ancient and modern methods of growing extraordinary marijuana
Adam Gottlieb
Manufacturer: Kistone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Similar Items:

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

Grow Great Marijuana: An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World's Finest Cannabis

Primo Plant: Growing Marijuana Outdoors

Marijuana Success Indoors: Garden Tours and Tips (Best of the Crop)

Marijuana Hydroponics: High-Tech Water Culture

ASIN: B00072XMV0

Customer Reviews:

nothing remotely useful here.......2001-11-14

gottlieb obviously has never grown anything, and has just collected a lot of lore and anectdotes here. if you are really interested in growing, don't waste your money on this book.

how to grow marijuana.......2000-09-13

i just wanna know how to dry marijuana when it's grown???

I would like to review growing weed!.......1999-06-05

show me step by step how to grow

Amazon.com

Nancy Lord writes like an angel about the hard, often lonely, and always rewarding work of fishing along an agate-strewn Alaskan inlet, where she and her partner do what she calls the "sustaining work" of landing evasive salmon far less efficiently than do the neighborhood grizzly bears. That sustaining work grows ever more difficult, she writes, as it becomes more unusual for individual fishers to market their goods in the Lower 48, the province of large-scale food distributors and of the "pale imitation that packages well." Reading this lovely book may well make you hungry--and not a little envious of Lord, who seems to have found a little corner of paradise in the backwoods of the far north.

Book Description

Nancy Lord celebrates a great good place-Cook Inlet, Alaska, where she and her partner have made a life together for more than twenty years

"Nancy Lord is a twenty-first century Thoreau, only with more common sense and estrogen."
-Tom Bodett

With poetic cadence and magical tone, Lord writes of her life from June to August, days filled with the mending of nets, the muscle-wrenching labor of the catch, the exquisite pleasure of an improvised hot-tub, and the often subtle beauty of the inlet's flora and fauna.

Woven throughout Lord's adventures is the deeper history of the region's stories and legends of the native Denaina people; anecdotes about past and current residents; and descriptions of their neighbors, both human and animal.

Customer Reviews:

Travel to Alaska for under $30. Read this book........1997-08-20

I'm an admitted sucker for nature writing and natural history, but am often disappointed in what I find out there. Not so with Fishcamp. This is that one-in-a-thousand book that I've longed for since first reading Walden twenty years ago. Ms. Lord writes beautifully of her day-to-day life fishing with her partner on Cook Inlet. And the stories and legends of the Dena'ina people, as well as the lives of the fishermen who have come before, will not be easily forgotten. This is not sentimental philosophizing about summers in Alaska. It is clear, respectful, and humble writing that will, I hope, be read for years to come

Average customer rating:

FISHCAMP, Life on an Alaskan Shore
Nancy Lord
Manufacturer: Island Press Washington 1997
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R4YDFC

Average customer rating:

Superb!!

joaquin jaramillo

A great book for any golf fan..

One Magical Sunday

Great Book!!!

One Magical Sunday: (But Winning Isn't Everything)
Phil Mickelson , and Donald T. Phillips
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
Golf | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Golf | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Endurance: Winning Life's Majors the Phil Mickelson Way

Caddy for Life : The Bruce Edwards Story

My Life in and out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me

Embedded Balls : Adventures On and Off the Tour with Golf's Premier Storyteller

A Good Walk Spoiled : Days and Nights on the PGA Tour

ASIN: 0446578576

Book Description

Phil Mickelson has millions of fans and has always placed near the top of every golf tournament. But it wasnt until last year that he reached the pinnacle of perfection, winning the 2004 Masters and his first career Majors title. It is a moment ingrained in the hearts and minds of millions, a moment of epic triumph and destiny fulfilled that will be remembered for the ages. But for Phil Mickelson, winning the 2004 Masters was merely another step in an odyssey that began many years ago. Born into a sporting family, with a putter drawn on his birth announcement, Phil knew early on that golf would always be his passion. His parents embraced and nurtured that dream, but they taught him that winning isnt everything. In One Magical Sunday, Phil Mickelson takes us on a magical journey inside a life few have seen up close, but a life whose lessons can be cherished forever. As we travel hole-by-hole through that triumphant Sunday at the Masters, Phil looks back at the influences that made him the man he is today: his mom and dad, who mentored him on the balance between family and golf; his wife, Amy, who has given him so much happiness and fulfillment; and their three children, who remain their top priority. With personal insights from Phils family and never-before-seen photos of his most treasured moments, One Magical Sunday is a book not only for Phils millions of fans, but for everyone who finds inspiration in reading about a champion on and off the course.

Customer Reviews:

Superb!!.......2007-10-13

Excellent book. I am not a golfer, but admire Phil Mickelson because it has always seemed to me that he has his priorities straight. His wife and his children are uppermost in his list of what life means to him. Must confess that I merely skimmed the details of the hole to hole play in the Masters tournament being described since I had purchased the book to read about his personal life. However, my husband, who IS a golfer, very much enjoyed the "play by play" in addition to more information on the personal side of Phil. This is an athlete children can look up to and admire without parents fearing an ugly, hidden side. That simply doesn't exist in this athlete. I have always enjoyed watching him play; now I will enjoy those tournaments even more.

joaquin jaramillo.......2007-08-15

i find this book very good , iam a golf player and i think that every golf player will enjoyed to read this book , phil mickelson biography is very interesting for a golfer , phil teach : thinks can do when you work hard .

A great book for any golf fan.........2007-05-08

This was a very personal book that brought you very close to the life of Phil Mickelson. When he describes his final round at the 04' Masters you feel like you were there with him every step of the way.

One Magical Sunday.......2007-01-13

It was so good I got a audio copy for my husband.

Great Book!!!.......2005-09-21

If you are a golf fan, this is a must read. My wife read it too and she doesn't even like golf but she loved it too. Great insights into Phil's personal life, family, and values. Definitely worth the read.

Book Description

"How many times have you said, 'I'd like to help a child, but I don't know what to do? I don't have the time, I don't have anything to offer, I can't afford it.' I promise you, by the time you finish reading this book, all of these questions will be answered."
—from the Foreword by Tom Joyner, of The Tom Joyner Morning Show

What could be more powerful and satisfying than changing the life of a child?

With more than 10,000 members in eighty-two chapters in the United States, the Virgin Islands, and Africa, the 100 Black Men of America is one of the most highly recognized non-profit organizations in the African American community. Now, for the first time, the "100" shares the successful blueprint of its Miracles of Mentoring program, from which more than 100,000 kids of all colors have benefited.

In this engaging and heartfelt work, the 100 Black Men of America shows you exactly what you can do to invest in America's future by mentoring a child.

In a style that is friendly and instructive, National President Thomas W. Dortch, Jr., outlines the how-to's of mentoring. Whether you're on the front line working one-to-one with a mentee, or are a part of a collaborativegroup mentoring effort, The Miracles of Mentoring will teach you: the ten tickets of mentoring; how to figure out if mentoring is for you; the five stages of the mentoring relationship; how to create a mentoring partnership in your community or workplace.

Also included are inspirational stories from the members of the "100" and their nationwide outreach—the thousands of African American men who give of themselves, "real men giving real time"—and from the young people whose lives have been enriched. A comprehensive resource section of mentoring organizations and programs closes the book.

As Thomas W. Dortch, Jr., President of the "100," says in the Introduction: "When you give of your time, experience and wisdom to a young person, you're sowing the seeds of pride, confidence and accomplishment."

Customer Reviews:

Real mentoring.......2001-01-23

The approach is sort of untraditional but refreshing. This is the first book that I've read that gave more than just quick 'fixes'. It comes alive with real world examples of long term commitments to the community at large.

This man is living proof that no one is toooooo busy or toooo important to mentor. We can all learn from this dynamo.

Book Description

Django Reinhardt was arguably the greatest guitarist who ever lived, an important influence on Les Paul, Charlie Christian, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. Yet there is no major biography of Reinhardt. Now, in Django, Michael Dregni offers a definitive portrait of this great guitarist. Handsome, charismatic, childlike, and unpredictable, Reinhardt was a character out of a picaresque novel. Born in a gypsy caravan at a crossroads in Belgium, he was almost killed in a freak fire that burned half of his body and left his left hand twisted into a claw. But with this maimed left hand flying over the frets and his right hand plucking at dizzying speed, Django became Europe's most famous jazz musician, commanding exorbitant fees--and spending the money as fast as he made it. Dregni not only chronicles this remarkably colorful life--including a fascinating account of gypsy culture--but he also sheds much light on Django's musicianship. He examines his long musical partnership with violinist Stephane Grappelli--the one suave and smooth, the other sharper and more dissonant--and he traces the evolution of their novel string jazz ensemble, Quintette du Hot Club de France. Indeed, the author spotlights Django's amazing musical diversity, describing his swing-styled Nouveau Quintette, his big band Django's Music, and his later bebop ensemble, as well as his many compositions, including symphonic pieces influenced by Ravel and Debussy and his unfinished organ mass inspired by Bach. And along the way, the author offers vivid snapshots of the jazz scene in Paris--colorful portraits of Josephine Baker, Bricktop, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and countless others--and of Django's vagabond wanderings around France, Europe, and the United States, where he toured with Duke Ellington. Capturing the extraordinary life and times of one of the great musicians of the twentieth century, Django is a must-read portrait of a true original.

Customer Reviews:

caveat.......2007-06-03

this biography fills in the gaps between facts so thoroughly with conjecture and fictionalizing that one no longer can quite tell what the known facts are. there's a lot of interesting stuff in this book, but I found the author's approach maddening.

there are so many events depicted with breathless 'you are there' cinematic detail that are based on events that are almost certainly undocumented. Or if they're based on something, no indication is given of what sort of source is being relied on. People's presumed emotions and inner thoughts are described to an improbable and even ridiculous extent. Eventually a pall of suspicion clouds the entire book.

Listen, Read and Listen.......2006-08-17

I read this book on a recent vacation and was kicking myself for not bringing Django Reinhardt CD's with me to listen to while I read. I have been an admirer of Django's music for some time but was unaware of just how much influence his music had on artists of his time. There are three reasons why I liked this book. One, to understand Django's personality the author tells us a little of the history and culture of the gypsies. Two, the backdrop of Django's life story is the Paris music scene during the 1920s, through the Nazi occupation of WWII, and the birth of bebop in the late 40s and early 50s. And three, the amazing life story of what may be the greatest guitarist ever born. All three of these aspect of the book are brought together to create an outstanding biography of Django Reinhardt. But be warned that reading about this incredible talent may cause an insatiable desire to listen to his music.

"Oh ma mere! Ce n'est pas possible!".......2006-05-19

This utterance comes halfway through Michael Dregni's book, and it's one of maybe 50 direct quotes by Django Reinhardt drizzled over 280 pages. Self-conscious about his lack of education, Reinhardt didn't like talking to "gadjé." He is known to have written three letters in his life, and the most extended quote is bogus: an "interview" concocted by an impresario to defame a rival.

It has to be quite a challenge for a biographer to work with so little material. And yet Dregni does an excellent job. While by necessity he has to rely on external testimony and events to make his portrayal, his focus is always on Reinhardt and the extraordinary contradictions of the man: one night dining with royalty, the next night stealing a chicken on a country road; living in a luxury hotel one week, a caravan the next; over-generosity alternating with infuriating pettiness; turning one gig into an all-night jam session, not bothering to show up for the next. You think you know Bohemian? This is Bohemian.

Of course, Django was only verbally reticent. Musically, he is one of the most articulate, expressive players ever. So it's the musical parts of this book that really shine. Partly because of the nationalism of his promoters who wanted to push a French jazz musician, but mostly because of his magical talent (and in spite of a tendency to sleep later than recording session schedules), Reinhardt's output was vast and varied. As I imagine is true for many, I knew the Quintette/Grapelli recordings to the exclusion of almost everything else. So I especially appreciated the discussions of his later career: the weird fact that during the Occupation, when jazz was officially verboten, he achieved his greatest popularity, and his enthusiasm for bebop, which I've always thought he anticipated with his angular, superfast playing.

In the endnotes are many mentions of "interview with author, 2001/2/3..." Aside from the documentary research, Dregni deserves special gratitude for contacting people who knew Reinhardt and who will probably not be around much longer. His efforts have doubtless uncovered facts that, because of the large part of Reinhardt's life that exists only in the oral tradition, would certainly have been lost without them.

Django Reinhardt, one of the more remarkable and mysterious characters of his time, deserves a first-rate biography. This is it.

If your'e into Django.......2005-12-02

then your going to eat up this book. The writing is a little silly and cliched but there is a LOT of info on Django as well as the history of jazz in Europe. The book rolls along nicely and builds up to a climax 2/3s in just before Django's american tour with Ellington. Then the book becomes an extremely dull onslaught of facts rather than a biographical story. I just wanted it to end. then he did this. then he did this. then he did this. and then he did this. Hello... Did the writer just get bored with the material? Alot of research though so we'll have to give him credit for this. and there isn't a whole lot of writing about Django out there so it will have to suffice.

Phenomenal!.......2005-12-01

This is possibly one of the finest music biographies I've ever read (and I've read stacks). Instead of taking the tack of Django-worshipping, Dregni carefully and thoughtfully lays out all of the historical context around Django's life and music. This is a rarity among music biographies, which generally sum up historical context in literally just a few lines ("The Depression was over and times were tough, but the jukes were still swingin'"). Dregni does a fabulous job, and makes it interesting to boot.

He also doesn't cut Django too much slack, although he doesn't villainize him either. Genius is generally accompanied by a bit of madness, and always with a bit of narcissism, and Django had all of this, which doesn't make him a bad person, just a bit of a mad genius. Dregni did well expressing this.

All in all, Django had a phenomenal life and his body of work is practically unmatched in any genre, as far as quality and prolificness. Dregni simply gave us a historical context and a background behind the man who made it.

This book is recommended to jazz fans (whether gypsy jazz is your thing or not), musette fans, guitar players, Francophiles, those interested in gypsy culture, those interested in WWI and WWII, those interested in Paris in the '30s and '40s, history buffs, and so on.

Michael Dregni, Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend.(Book Review): An article from: French Politics, Culture and Society

Average customer rating:

Michael Dregni, Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend.(Book Review): An article from: French Politics, Culture and Society
Jeffrey H. Jackson
Manufacturer: Berghahn Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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