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George’s Year In Books

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George Grella Jr.

Goodreads Author

Born

in Lawrence, Kansas, The United States

Website

http:\\thebigcityblog.com

Twitter

gtra1n

Genre

Music, History, Nonfiction

Influences

Francis Davis, Murray Kempton, Michael Steinberg, Hunter Thompson, Cha ...more

Member Since

January 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/gtra1n

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George Grella, Jr. is a composer, critic, and independent scholar. He has played jazz, classical, and improvised music from CBGB to Carnegie Hall, and makes acoustic and electronic music in the Western classical tradition. He has lived in Rochester, San Francisco, and Brooklyn, and has written about music and culture for almost thirty years. He is Music Editor at The Brooklyn Rail, publishes the Big City blog, and freelances, internationally, for numerous music publications.

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George Grella Jr.’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 336 ratings · 59 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	Bitches Brew 3.91 avg rating — 331 ratings — published 2015 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Miles Davis' Bitches Brew by George Grella Jr. (Goodreads Author), uncredited (Narrator) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Minimalist Music (Genre: A 33 1/3 Series) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Minimalist Music: Genre: A 33 1/3 Series 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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George Grella Jr.'s Blog

Modern Miles

(An excerpt from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew)

Bitches Brew is a great work of abstract music inside the sounds, beats, and riffs of commercial music, and one of the most unique documents of the recorded era. The effect the album had on jazz and rock was shattering, disruptive in ways that make an abject mockery of the contemporary vainglorious use of that word by people who only wish to make money. B

George is Currently Reading

George Jr. is currently reading

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

by Mark Bowden

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Dec 20, 2025 12:13AM

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The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

by James D. Hornfischer

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Dec 01, 2025 10:47PM

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The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays

by Lionel Trilling

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Dec 01, 2025 06:46PM

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George Jr. is currently reading Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 20, 2025 12:14AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 01, 2025 10:47PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays by Lionel Trilling	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 01, 2025 06:46PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent by Lionel Trilling. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent by Lionel Trilling <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading The Liberal Imagination (New York Review Books Classics) by Lionel Trilling	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 30, 2025 10:47PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 28, 2025 11:22PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Ferryman by Justin Cronin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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George Jr. is currently reading The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 23, 2025 11:07PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
George Jr. is currently reading Mysticism by Simon Critchley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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George Jr. is currently reading I Paint What I Want to See (Penguin Modern Classics) by Philip Guston	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 12, 2025 10:46PM · like
George Jr. is currently reading A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 10, 2025 10:37PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by George Grella Jr. (?)

“But fans, including critics, of particular movements of artists, tend to want what they love to stay the same, the regression is not to the mean but to an Edenic past that never actually existed. This”
― George Grella Jr., Bitches Brew

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George’s Quotes

“The idea of the future is central in the ideology and energy of the twentieth century, and in many ways it is mixed with the idea of utopia. Notwithstanding the horrors of the century, the utopian imagination never stopped giving new breath to the hope of a progressive future, until the high point of ’68, when the modern promise was supposedly on the brink of fulfilment.”
― Franco "Bifo" Berardi, After the Future

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George Grella Jr.’s Followers (16)

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