James Gavin

An expansive look at the troubled life of legendary singer, songwriter, and producer George Michael--written by an acclaimed music biographer Christmas night of 2016 brought the jarring news that, in the morning hours, George Michael had died in bed of heart failure at the age of 53; his boyfriend had discovered the body. Suddenly he was all over the news after nearly three years of mostly silent reclusion. It's said that he spent those years hidden away in his British mansion, bloated, chronically depressed, musically inactive, and high. Michael was an extravagantly gifted, open-hearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic; he was a songwriter of craft and substance. Prior to his death, however, the press had shown no sympathy for this self-sabotaging superstar. He lived a life of ultimate privilege, yet seemed so tortured by everything he had coveted that he could not face life sober. Fans stayed loyal, but the press was unforgiving, almost exclusively citing reports about his DUIs, his jail sentence for having crashed into a storefront, and his European tour that was canceled due to a near-fatal bout with pneumonia. Michael's story follows an arc that many who have raw talent and find fame come to know: He was a troubled, chemically dependent artist who poured his struggles into music of deep psychological complexity, musical sophistication, and soul. His mystique looms large over the work and is, in turn, not easily forgotten. George Michael: A Life explores the tragically predictable story of an utterly unpredictable artist--how he found and then lost himself in the music.

A Life

George Michael

The Long Night of Chet Baker

Deep in a Dream

The definitive biography of George Michael, offering an expansive look at the troubled life of the legendary singer, songwriter, and pop superstar George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world. Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.

An intriguing portrait of Chet Baker describes the jazz legend's hardscrabble Oklahoma youth, his rise to success in the world of jazz, his long-time addiction to heroin, and his mysterious 1988 death falling from an Amsterdam hotel window. 25,000 first printing.

• Fully revised updated and expanded edition of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award winner that sold more than 10,000 copies • Cultural history plus celebrity anecdotes • Up-to-the-minute look at the current New York cabaret scene Intimate Nightsis the definitive history of cabaret as it evolved in New York City in the years after World War II. But that doesn’t mean it's dry and academic. Good heavens, no! Settle in for racy tales of nightlife, revealed in interviews with dozens of the people who lived it: Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Mabel Mercer, Bette Midler, and many more. Author James Gavin has tracked down rare, early stories about the legends who came out of New York nightclubs—and that means Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, Johnny Mathis, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce, among others. Part cultural history, part celebrity gossip,Intimate Nightsoffers an intimate look at the creatures of the nightclubs.

The Golden Age of New York Cabaret

Intimate Nights

Praised by the New York Times Book Review as “fascinating, suspenseful, careful, musically detailed, and insightful,” this is a long-overdue biography of recording artist and musical legend Peggy Lee. Miss Peggy Lee cast a spell when she sang. She epitomized cool, but her trademark song, “Fever”—covered by Beyoncé and Madonna—is the essence of sizzling sexual heat. Her jazz sense dazzled Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. She was the voice of swing, the voice of blues, and she provided four of the voices for Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, whose score she co-wrote. But who was the woman behind the Mona Lisa smile? With elegant writing and impeccable research, including interviews with hundreds who knew Lee, acclaimed music journalist James Gavin offers the most revealing look yet at an artist of infinite contradictions and layers. Lee was a North Dakota prairie girl who became a temptress of enduring mystique. She was a singer-songwriter before the term existed. Lee “had incredible confidence onstage,” observed the Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop; yet inner turmoil wracked her. She spun a romantic nirvana in her songs, but couldn’t sustain one in reality. As she passed middle age, Lee dwelled increasingly in a bizarre dreamland. She died in 2002 at the age of eighty-one, but the enchantment with Lee has only grown. “Raucously entertaining [and] full of evocative scenes, wry humor and exasperated sympathy” (Publishers Weekly), Is That All There Is? paints a masterful portrait of an artist who redefined popular singing.

The Strange Life of Peggy Lee

Is That All There Is?

The first serious biography of entertainment legend Lena Horne, the star who became one of the first African-American icons. Gavin has gotten closer than any other writer to the celebrity, who has lived in reclusion since 1998. Incorporating insights from

The Life of Lena Horne

Stormy Weather

Airborne Warfare: New Edition

Foundations of Professional Coaching With HKPropel Access is the essential guide to developing coaching skills and creating influential coaching relationships. Offering foundational concepts and underlying principles of coaching, this text will help all types of coaches cultivate a growth environment that encourages lasting change and maximizes each client's potential in their personal and professional lives. Grounded in the International Coaching Federation's eight core competencies, the text covers the theoretical basis of professional coaching models and the application of those models in modern coaching. Whether readers are looking for effective methods for client motivation, exercise adherence, or performance improvement, they will enrich their coaching skills in these ways: Understanding the journey of behavior change with key models on the change process Employing inclusive frameworks for working with clients to set and pursue goals and overcome challenges Adhering to ethical protocols, such as how to appropriately respond to clients' identity, environment, values, and beliefs Cultivating trust and safety in the coaching relationship with respect to power and relationship dynamics Establishing presence as a coach and developing a coach's voice Communicating effectively, with active listening and appropriate areas of inquiry Throughout the text, personal stories offer insights into meaningful coaching engagements, providing context for the concepts and their application to a wide variety of coaching professions, including personal trainers, fitness instructors, health and lifestyle wellness coaches, and sport coaches. Additionally, downloadable resources, delivered through HKPropel, include practical tools--such as forms and checklists--for a successful coaching practice. Foundations of Professional Coaching provides a pathway to excellence in coaching practice, with practical guidance on how to develop partnerships and address the physical and mental needs of clients to enact effective change. Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.

Foundations of Professional Coaching

From his emergence in the 1950s as an uncannily beautiful young Oklahoman who became the prince of "cool" jazz seemingly overnight to his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously untapped sources, this first major biography of one of the most romanticized icons in jazz gives a thrilling account of the trumpeter's dark journey. Author James Gavin delves deeply into Baker's tormented childhood, the origins of his melancholic trumpet playing, and even reveals the long-unsolved riddle of Baker's demise. Baker's otherworldly personal aura struck a note of menace and mystery that catapulted him to fame in the staid 1950s but as time wore on, his romance with drugs became highly publicized. Gavin narrates the harrowing spiral of dependency down which Baker tumbled and illustrates how those who dared to get close were dragged down with him. This is the portrait of a musician whose singular artistry and mystique has never lost the power to enchant and seduce.

At long last, the first serious biography of entertainment legend Lena Horne -- the celebrated star of film, stage, and music who became one of the first African-American icons. At the 2001 Academy Awards, Halle Berry thanked Lena Horne for paving the way for her to become the first black recipient of a Best Actress Oscar. Though limited, mostly to guest singing appearances in splashy Hollywood musicals, "the beautiful Lena Horne," as she was often called, became a pioneering star for African Americans in the 1940s and fifties. Now James Gavin, author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, draws on a wealth of unmined material and hundreds of interviews -- one of them with Horne herself -- to give us the defining portrait of an American icon. Gavin has gotten closer than any other writer to the celebrity who has lived in reclusion since 1998. Incorporating insights from the likes of Ruby Dee, Tony Bennett, Diahann Carroll, Arthur Laurents, and several of Horne's fellow chorines from Harlem's Cotton Club, Stormy Weather offers a fascinating portrait of a complex, even tragic Horne -- a stunning talent who inspired such giants of showbiz as Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt, and Aretha Franklin, but whose frustrations with racism, and with tumultuous, root-less childhood, left wounds too deep to heal. The woman who emerged was as angry as she was luminous. From the Cotton Club's glory days and the back lots of Hollywood's biggest studios to the glitzy but bigoted hotels of Las Vegas's heyday, this behind-the-scenes look at an American icon is as much a story of the limits of the American dream as it is a masterful, ground-breaking biography.

La gran biografía de Chet Baker, el legendario trompetista y cantante de jazz. Desde 1950, cuando un atractivo joven de Oklahoma apareció en la Costa Oeste como nuevo príncipe del cool jazz, hasta su violenta muerte en Amsterdam relacionada con las drogas, la vida de Chet Baker lo convirtió en un mito. En esta biografía, que incluye cientos de entrevistas y fuentes inéditas, James Gavin hace un recorrido por la vida del trompetista. La historia de Chet Baker es desmenuzada desde su atormentada y traumática infancia: Gavin explora el nacimiento de esa melancólica forma de tocar la trompeta, su voz frágil, y el aura que lo llevó a la fama. Sexy, angelical, rebelde y querido, Chet Baker se convirtió en el James Dean del jazz. Su misteriosa figura volvió locos a mujeres y hombres. Sin embargo, su verdadero amor, además de la música, fue la droga. La crítica ha dicho... «Arrebatadora y fascinante. Trae de regreso la persona de Baker entre los vivos. El corazón de este libro late muchísimo más fuerte que la inmensa mayoría de las biografías de músicos.» The Boston Globe «Una biografía extraordinaria y monumental.» La Stampa «Una formidable muestra de arte biográfico. No hay una sola página en este libro que no sea adictiva, que no esté viva, que no le exija al lector una reacción, ya sea de horror o admiración.» Greil Marcus, Salon «Un retrato casi insoportablemente realista. James Gavin nos ha puesto al personaje tan cerca como la vida misma.» David Hajdu, New York Times Book Review «Una biografía divulgativa imprescindible.» Tony Gieske, Hollywood Reporter «El retrato más redondo y lúcido del trompetista que ha sido escrito jamás. Esta es la biografía definitiva de Baker.» Christopher Porter, JazzTimes «Completísima, una biografía de lectura compulsiva.» Jack Batten, Toronto Star «Un relato espeluznante. Debería atraer a toda persona interesada en una historia perfectamente narrada.» Greg Delaney, Independent «Una comedia negra repleta de desenfreno, escrita con un ritmo y visión a los que ni siquiera el purista del jazz más esencialista le encontraría un defecto.» Kenneth Wright, Sunday Herald «Un libro nacido del amor artístico y la honestidad intelectual, escrito con la fluidez y el dramatismo de una novela.» Paolo Russo, La Repubblica «Una brillante y oscura biografía de la leyenda blanca del jazz. Baker es un misterio al que James Gavin se asomó atento a las contradicciones.» Diego Fischerman, Página/12 En los blogs... «Esta biografía está repleta de momentos de jeringas, narcóticos y sangre. Temblores, sudores y dinero cambiando de manos en busca de una nueva dosis. Recetas robadas o falsificadas, intentos honestos y fracasados de rehabilitación, y figuras patéticas de admiradores o amigos que tras una sincera admiración fueron capaces de suponer para él una nueva excusa para su reenganche.» Francismo Martínez, Blog Fantasymundo

La larga noche de Chet Baker

Deep in a dream

Madeleine Mcbrearty

Lifestyles have changed dramatically over the past quarter century, and along with these changes come exciting opportunities for health, wellness, and fitness professionals, including new career paths in the professional domain of health and wellness coaching. Centered on an evidence-based process for guiding change, Lifestyle Wellness Coaching, Second Edition, offers a systematic approach to helping clients achieve enduring changes in their personal health and wellness behaviors through a supportive and forward-moving coaching relationship. Formerly titled Lifestyle Fitness Coaching, the second edition of Lifestyle Wellness Coaching has been thoroughly revised and updated to keep pace with the rapidly evolving field of lifestyle coaching. The text offers powerful methodologies for those who want to embrace lifestyle coaching as their primary profession as well as for those who intend to integrate a coaching approach into their work with clients. The text is complemented by discussions, case studies, reflective opportunities, and practical aids and engages readers through multiple approaches to learning: • Dynamic coaching dialogues bring abstract concepts to life. • Typical exchanges between coaches and clients are illustrated. • The International Coach Federation’s 11 core competencies are thoroughly examined to prepare readers for certification in the profession of coaching. • Sidebars provide practical guidance for enhanced understanding and prompt readers to personally experience the content. Lifestyle Wellness Coaching, Second Edition, uses realistic coaching conversations to address issues such as the timing and types of questions to ask, how to provide feedback effectively, and how to facilitate robust action planning. Readers are presented with a broad overview of the field and detailed analysis of core ingredients to promote effective coaching relationships. The text includes essential structures for coaching conversations and practical considerations to help readers adapt materials to their unique career interests. Lifestyle Wellness Coaching introduces readers to models that clearly identify clients’ progress through the stages of change. First, the text explores the popular transtheoretical model (TTM) of health-related behavior change and its delineation of six stages of clients’ readiness to change. Discussion of TTM includes strategies appropriate to clients in various stages of readiness to change. Lifestyle Wellness Coaching also presents the learning-through-change model (LCM), revealing the deep layers beneath each phase of client movement toward change. Following considerations of the stages and phases of change, readers are offered a critical map for coaching clients toward goal achievement. The authors’ unique flow model of coaching illustrates how professional coaches help clients navigate the sometimes turbulent events in attempting to change habitual patterns of behavior. Lifestyle Wellness Coaching, Second Edition, details how professionals engage in well-designed communication strategies to motivate, guide, inform, and support clients’ processes toward personal change with a holistic approach. The text frames the boundaries of care and advice appropriate to coaching relationships. Some of the issues explored include the centrality of a trusting relationship, creating goals that are aligned with coaching processes, unblocking clients’ energy and discovering resources for change, and generating forward movement through the skillful use of the International Coach Federation’s 11 core competencies. Whether you want to apply certain aspects of a coaching approach with your clients or move toward adding a professional coach certification to your résumé, Lifestyle Wellness Coaching, Second Edition, will serve you well. The text presents the necessary skills for professional development and offers an evidence-based methodology for supporting and advancing clients in change processes related to health, wellness, and fitness agendas.

James Gavin

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