Holding the Note

Remarkable, not just for the essays' expertise and vividness, but for the aeons he spends talking to his subjects and those around them * Observer *
This collection of articles by David Remnick can stand as literature. ... He treats the reader as an informed, intelligent equal * The New York Times *
Always up close and personal, always tenacious and informed by deep background, and always vivid and veracious * The Times *
[A] standout collection of pieces . . . What’s most remarkable is [Remnick's] ability to give due at once to the artists’ larger-than-life musical legacies and their all too human fallibilities * Publishers Weekly *
Written over the past three decades, these are keenly observed, deeply felt, and judiciously detailed encounters of genuine communion mixing interviews, biography, and analysis, all lyrically and radiantly composed . . . There is acuity here, bemusement, tenderness, and gratitude -- Donna Seaman * Booklist *
Remnick, the intellectually nimble editor of the New Yorker, has lately been focusing closely on world politics, but he finds time to profile a number of artists who, having enjoyed early success, ‘were all grappling, in music and in their own lives, with their diminishing gifts and mortality.’. . . There’s dish here . . . and plenty of astute observation . . . A perceptive pleasure for literate music lovers * Kirkus Reviews *