The Commandments of the Half-Time Shuffle is the first book dedicated exclusively to learning about and playing the half-time shuffle. Complete with historical analysis and overviews of the lineage of the style, the book will equip drummers with all of the necessary tools needed to conquer one of the most beloved, yet mystifying, grooves in drumming history. The book features photos, album cover art, motivational quotes, recommended listening, as well as transcriptions of the most definitive half-time shuffle grooves. Gain insight and wisdom from Zoro, one of the legendary masters of R&B drumming, and master the language of the triplet---the foundation of all shuffles. The Commandments of the Half-Time Shuffle is highly innovative, informative, inspirational, and is sure to be a classic!

A beautiful and transformative memoir, Maria’s Scarf is the incredible story of a mother’s love, a family’s unbreakable bond, and a starry-eyed boy who never lost sight of his dreams. As the fatherless biracial child of a Mexican immigrant, Danny Donnelly was never expected to amount to much. Before the age of nine, his single mother had moved her seven children more than thirty times—from the impoverished streets of South Central Los Angeles to rural Oregon and everywhere in between. Sometimes there was no home to go to, so they slept in their ’62 Chevy; sometimes dinner was a slice of bread; sometimes they showered in a nearby park. Desperate yet ever hopeful, they clung to the only thing they had—each other. Through it all, Danny longed for his father’s love and approval, ultimately channeling his pain and transforming himself into Zoro, one of the world’s greatest drummers. Eloquent, hilarious, and remarkably tender, Maria’s Scarf: A Memoir of a Mother’s Love, a Son’s Perseverance, and Dreaming Big, tells the story of a family fighting for survival against almost insurmountable odds. Through laughter, tears, and many misadventures, Zoro touches the heart of every reader—young or old, citizen or immigrant—and speaks to the dreamer in all of us, emboldening everyone to live fantazmical lives. An Educator’s Guide is available: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/www.blackstoneaudio.com/Maria%27s_Scarf_Educator%27s_Guide.pdf

The Commandments of R&B Drumming is a historical and in-depth study of R&B drumming, from soul to funk to hip-hop, written by world-renowned session & live drummer Zoro (Lenny Kravitz, Bobby Brown, Sean Lennon). Topics include practice tips, developing the funky bass drum and hi-hat, creating and playing with loops, and what are considered the Ten Commandments of Soul, Funk, and Hip-Hop (the top ten recordings from each era). This book not only pays homage to the R&B drummers of the past, but gives the reader a fortune of invaluable information both in history and playing. This newly revised 10th anniversary edition features updated information and loads of new photos and album artwork throughout. It includes a play-along recording featuring various styles of R&B, and also includes an R&B history tree. 160 pages covering every imaginable angle, nook, and cranny of R&B for only $25.99! The book was voted the #1 educational drum book in the world by Modern Drummer magazine's Readers Poll and also deemed a must-have for the soulful drummer," by Traps Magazine. "Zoro's book is a milestone achievement and the most comprehensive book on the subject of R&B drumming I have ever seen." -Vinnie Colaiuta "I consider Zoro's book an essential investment!" -Dennis Chambers"

The drum kit is ubiquitous in global popular music and culture, and modern kit drumming profoundly defined the sound of twentieth-century popular music. The Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit highlights emerging scholarship on the drum kit, drummers and key debates related to the instrument and its players. Interdisciplinary in scope, this volume draws on research from across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences to showcase the drum kit, a relatively recent historical phenomenon, as a site worthy of analysis, critique, and reflection. Providing readers with an array of perspectives on the social, material, and performative dimensions of the instrument, this book will be a valuable resource for students, drum kit studies scholars, and all those who want a deeper understanding of the drum kit, drummers, and drumming.

The Big Gig is much more than just an intriguing and comprehensive insider's guide to breaking into the music industry as an independent musician. Compelling and thought-provoking, it is an excellent resource for leadership training, networking techniques, and personal development. The Big Gig is the first book that describes the inner workings of the highly competitive music industry as seen through the eyes of a world-renowned and highly successful musician. The Big Gig provides a template for success by covering the vocational, personal, and spiritual aspects of a musician's life. The Big Gig is much more than educational. It is inspirational, motivational, and life-changing. "Whether you aspire to tour with a rock band, play jazz in nightclubs, work in the studios, or perform with a symphony orchestra, there is information in this book that will help prepare you to make a living as a musician." - Rick Mattingly, Percussive Notes "What a fabulous resource Zoro has compiled here! . . . This is a great book that is going to help many young musicians and drummers (amongst others) achieve their dreams with integrity. Five Stars!" - DRUMscene Magazine "A great book which genuinely can help people, not just drummers."- mikedolbear.com "Bottom Line: I highly recommend this book and I only wish that I had it when I started out in the music business! Whether you are a musician who specializes in drums or any instrument, you need this book. Without it, you'll waste years of your life figuring out all of the things that Z has already neatly laid out for you."- Tigerbill.com

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

From world-renowned mental trainer Erik Bertrand Larssen, whose clients include Olympic athletes and Fortune 500 CEOs, Hell Week is a military-inspired yet accessible guide to making the critical changes necessary for long-term professional and personal success and overall lifestyle improvements. Norway native Erik Bertrand Larssen is many things: a veteran paratrooper who served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Afghanistan; a successful entrepreneur; and a critically acclaimed performance consultant. He has helped catapult the success of countless high-achievers, including Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, and Statoil ASA executives and Olympic medalist Martin Johnsrud Sundby and top golfer Suzann Pettersen. His life-altering and revered method improves performance by getting people to push themselves past the brink of self-imposed limitations. Central to his technique is the commitment to live and experience just one week as your best self. It’s this week, Larssen says, that will be the catalyst to making the most of the rest of your life. Offering accessible tools and pragmatic, inspirational advice including how to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, Larssen’s game-changing Hell Week shows you how to apply his principles to everyday life, leading to lasting improvement, personal and professional success, and most importantly, a new way of living to a higher standard. Hell Week will resonate with and inspire you to be the best you can be and make everlasting positive changes in all aspects of your life.

A photographic look into the world of vinyl record collectors—including Questlove—in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. Compelling photographic essays from photographer Eilon Paz are paired with in-depth and insightful interviews to illustrate what motivates these collectors to keep digging for more records. The reader gets an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions, including Gilles Peterson and King Britt, as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. Driven by his love for vinyl records, Paz takes us on a five-year journey unearthing the very soul of the vinyl community.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.