No Beethoven: An Autobiography & Chronicle of Weather Report

Description

No Beethoven chronicles the life and times of drummer Peter Erskine, with the legendary band Weather Report being the nexus to this first-hand account. Erskine was once in the middle of the up to date American jazz music scene as it underwent its most dynamic change. Peter Erskine is a musician of his times with incredibly wealthy stories to tell in this autobiography. Including never-before published photographs.

No Beethoven includes chapters dedicated to Weather Report and the musicians Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, and Wayne Shorter, plus the bands Steps Ahead, Steely Dan, and artists such as Elvin Jones, Joni Mitchell, Freddie Hubbard, Diana Krall, Steve Gadd, producer Manfred Eicher, composers John Williams, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, et al. The book provides a revealing take a look at the creative process involved in performing music on-stage and in the recording studio, in addition to a at the back of-the-scenes take a look at how the musical instrument industry operates.

This is a book for all musicians and fans of music. As famed drummer and Rush founder Neil Peart writes: No Beethoven is likely one of the best musical autobiographies I have read. Peter’s story is absorbing and compelling, full of well-drawn characters and incidents both humorous and serious. It flows with the same ease and naturalness as his drumming, and under that good-humored gloss, it conveys the same profundity of experience and ideas. This book will have to be read not only by each and every drummer, but by each and every musician. Even amateurs of music performance will find it entertaining and worthwhile.