Face the Music. A Memoir
Duchin Peter, Beard Patricia
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Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Doubleday
Publisher Place: New York
Publisher Year: 2021
Edition: First Edition
Description: 281 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.
Publishers Description: In this poignant memoir, the internationally celebrated bandleader reflects on family, illness, grief, and a bygone era of glamour, contemplating not just his career but the history of midcentury music and nightlifeand the enormously important role that the bandstand played in his life.The internationally-famous bandleader Peter Duchins six decades of performing have taken him to the most exclusive dance floors and concert halls in the world. He has played for presidents, kings, and queens, as well as for civil rights and cultural organizations. But in 2013, Duchin suffered a stroke that left him with limited use of his left hand, severely impacting his career.Days of recuperating from his strokeand later from a critical case of Covid-19inspired Duchin to reconsider his complicated past. His father, the legendary bandleader Eddy Duchin, died when Peter was twelve; his mother, Marjorie Oelrichs Duchin, died when he was just six days old. In the succeeding decades, Duchin would follow his father to become the epitome of mid-20th Century glamour. But it was only half a century later, in the aftermath of his sudden illnesses, that he began to see his mother and father not just as the parents he never had, but as the people he never got to know; and at the same time, to reconsider the milieu in which he has been both a symbol and a participant.More than a memoir, Face the Music offers a window into the era of debutantes and white-tie balls, when such events made national headlines. Duchin explores what glamour and society once meant, and what they mean now. With sincerity and humor, Face the Music offers a moving portrait of an extraordinary life, its disruptions, and revitalization.
ISBN: 9780385545877
(219999)
