Hal Miller

The intimate and long-awaited memoir of guitar legend Carlos Santana.

In the late 1970s legendary pianist Bill Evans was at the peak of his career. He revolutionized the jazz trio (bass, piano, drums) by giving each part equal emphasis in what jazz historian Ted Gioia called a “telepathic level” of interplay. It was an ideal opportunity for a sideman, and after auditioning in 1978, Joe La Barbera was ecstatic when he was offered the drum chair, completing the trio with Evans and bassist Marc Johnson.In Times Remembered, La Barbera and co-author Charles Levin provide an intimate fly-on-the-wall peek into Evans’s life, critical recording sessions, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of life on the road. Joe regales the trio’s magical connection, a group that quickly gelled to play music on the deepest and purest level imaginable. He also watches his dream gig disappear, a casualty of Evans’s historical drug abuse when the pianist dies in a New York hospital emergency room in 1980. But La Barbera tells this story with love and respect, free of judgment, showing Evans’s humanity and uncanny ability to transcend physical weakness and deliver first-rate performances at nearly every show.

After 500 years, the Torah commentary of Don Isaac Abarbanel (Peirush Abarbanel) is now available in English. This volume covers the initial Creation of the Universe from nothingness, and constitutes one quarter of Abarbanel's commentary on the book of Genesis. Abarbanel, also pronounced Abravanel or Abrabanel, is known as a "seeker of truth". He is not beyond questioning the "established" Judaic thinkers, or anyone else, if he thinks they are wrong. He is not afraid to cite non-Jewish thinkers when he believes they are right. His words are sometimes controversial, but never uninteresting. He is extensively quoted by academics, biblical scholars, and other philosophers. Until now, he was not accessible to the lay English-speaker. His style, maintained here, was to cite a verse or set of verses, then ask probing questions, which he answers in detail. The questions and answers are cross-referenced by footnote here. He also extensively quoted a word or two from biblical sources, assuming the reader would know the full verse and context. Those are now cited by footnote here as well. This is a word-by-word translation, not a supercommentary. These are the words of Abarbanel, merely rendered into English.