Before Seattle Rocked
Kurt E. Armbruster
Seattle is a music town with rich, deep roots that have influenced the culture and identity of its civic life for decades. In a society that appreciates music but is ambivalent toward the profession of making it, the importance and contribution of Seattle's musicians have been routinely overlooked in historical accounts of the city. Kurt Armbruster fills that gap in this far-reaching and entertaining panorama of Seattle music from the 1890s to the 1960s, "before Seattle rocked."
For this once-remote city, music forged links as real as those created by railroads and steamships. Classical music embodied the middle-class aspirations for gentility and cosmopolitan stature; jazz and blues gave Seattle's small African American community a vehicle for affirmation and economic advancement; ethnic music helped immigrants adjust to a new home; songs and drumming kept the memories of the Duwamish alive in a changing world. Before Seattle Rocked is enlivened by personal anecdotes and memories from many of Seattle's most beloved musicians and is enriched by historic photos of the changing music scene.
Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyo22tC6PkQ&feature=channel_video_title
Before Seattle Rocked was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.
Product Details
About Kurt E. Armbruster
Reviews for Before Seattle Rocked
Sarah Dougher
Oregon Historical Quarterly
"Armbruster's research is deep and wide and his writing style, graceful, clear, and vastly entertaining, so carries the reader along that one doesn't want to put the book down."
W. Royal Stokes
Jazzhouse Diaries
"Armbruster spins an informative narrative thread. . . . Before Seattle Rocked recalls how this connective tissue [music] binds all of the city's inhabitants and reconstructs the musical skeletons overlooked or under cooked by previous local history books."
Steve Griggs
Examiner
"Covers most imaginable music-related subjects in our community's past, from Bach through the Wang Doodle Orchestra and beyond."
Paul Dorpat
Pacific Northwest Magazine
"Finally, for those who prefer to trace local music history even further back, Seattle historian and musician Kurt E. Armbruster offers this extensively researched and compelling book."
Brangien Davis
Seattle Magazine
"This is a lively tour of Seattle's musical heritage which opens a new window on local history."
Mike Dillon
City Living
"[Seattle's] culture and nightlight were dependent upon live musicians, from saloons at the turn of the century, to taverns in the 1920s, to symphony halls in the '40s and '50s. Throughout Seattle's history, music was truly woven into the city's cultural fabric."
Andrew Gospe
The Daily
"It's amazing how much musical history Kurt E. Armbruster has uncovered . . . He clearly talked to everyone . . . and as lucid and lively as his own prose is, he's often upstaged by interviewees who are born raconteurs."
Michael Upchurch
The Seattle Times
"The book details a vibrant local scene featuring every kind of music, reflecting both the people of the time and the places they came from."
Josh Kerns
My Northwest Blog
"Armbruster’s book effectively analyzes Seattle’s professional music scene and provides a solid overview of the city’s classical, jazz, and blues cultures. The author’s attention to subsets of Seattle music previously underrepresented in the scholarly literature provides a refreshing deception of a rich pre-rock musical culture."
Alexandria Waltz
Pacific Northwest Quarterly