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James Perone - Biography

A native of Columbus, Ohio, James Perone received his B.M. degree in music education from Capital University in 1980. He subsequently pursued graduate studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he received his M.F.A. in clarinet performance in 1982, his M.A. in music theory in 1984, and Ph.D. in music theory in 1988.

As a clarinetist and saxophonist, Dr. Perone has been a member of the Oxford Trio, East Buffalo Media Association, the Sax Company, S.E.M. Ensemble, the Buffalo New Music Ensemble, and the Madera Wind Quartet. He appears frequently in recital and has performed as a soloist with numerous educational and community groups, and with professional ensembles such as the Ars Nova Chamber Musicians, Tuscarawas Philharmonic, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dr. Perone has had music-related articles published in Interface: The Journal of New Music Research (The Netherlands), The Journal of the Science and Practice of Music (South Korea), Music Theory: Explorations and Applications, The Flutist Quarterly, The American Organist, and ClariNetwork. Three of his essays are included in the St. James Press book Contemporary Composers and his revision and expansion of Ruth Watanabe's article on Howard Hanson appears in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In addition, he has had articles published in several experimental poetry journals and has presented papers at the Florida State University Music Theory Society Conference, the Northeast Chapter Meeting of The College Music Society, the West Coast Conference on Music Theory and Analysis, and at the 37th, 39th, and 40th Annual Meetings of The College Music Society. He has also presented several pre-concert lectures for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and appeared on WKBW-TV's program "A.M. Buffalo." Dr. Perone's book, Howard Hanson: A Bio-Bibliography, was published by Greenwood Press in 1993. He has also written three bibliographic books on music theory-related subjects for Greenwood, which also published his Elvis Costello: A Bio-Bibliography , Carole King: A Bio-Bibliography and Louis Moreau Gottschalk: A Bio-Bibliography. His reference book on singer/songwriter Paul Simon was published by Greenwood in January 2000 and was selected as a finalist for both Best History and Best Discography in the category "Best Research in General Popular Music" by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, 2001. Dr. Perone's most recent books are Music of the Counterculture Era and his soon-to-be-released Woodstock: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair.

Active in professional organizations and in the community, Dr. Perone has been program chair, treasurer, and president of the Great Lakes Chapter of The College Music Society. He has also served as president of the Alliance Kiwanis Club. He was the 2003-04 Lt. Governor of Division 17 of the Ohio District of Kiwanis International.

 

Synopsis

Since his professional debut in 1962, Stevie Wonder has recorded sixty-four singles that have made the top 100 in the U.S., including ten that reached number one. Wonder was one of the first Motown artists to have complete control over the writing, arranging, and recording of his songs, and achieved that stature before he was 20 years old. He has won 17 Grammy awards, was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and earned the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. And, equally importantly, his work as a producer, arranger, and instrumentalist on other artists' recordings has put him in the highest rank of musical collaborators. Through a combination of biography and critical analysis, James Perone's groundbreaking new work will reveal the many ways in which Stevie Wonder's body of work has emerged, developed, reflected its time, and influenced myriad other artists. After revealing the social, cultural, and political context of Stevie Wonder's work, this book provides detailed analysis of his compositions and recordings, with a focus on both his well-known songs and those known only to his hardcore fans. This volume also contains discussions of cover versions of Stevie Wonder's compositions, a discography of his recordings, a song title index, an annotated bibliography, and a general index.