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Rating: 
Summary: A good deal of Content here.
Review: ... I am in agreement that Mr Kazdin is a bit bitter of the working relationship cutoff between himself and Gould, but however, this volume offers tremendous insight into Glenn's life. I don't believe Mr Kazdin is attempting to write a comprehensive critique on Glenn, but give the reader a feeling of what a personal Gould experience was. Glenn is presented here in raw form. We are given glimpses of Glenn in the Studio, his strange habits, his philosophy on anger managment, drug use, and more importantly, his habit of dropping friendships instantly. Kazdin unfortunatly experienced his relationship dissolve allmost instantly and it did leave some scars. I have read at least 5 books on Glenn and I find this book to be the most raw and informative next to Otto Fredericks book entitled "A Life in Variations". One cannot help but be facinated with Gould's Life. He left the concert stage by age 30, lived in seclusion, worked in the midnight to early morning hours, was brilliant but eccentric. Kazdin does share some bitterness in the book which has some dreadful qualities, especially in regards to Glenn's supposed knowledge of Recording and overdubbing, etc. In the end however, I feel that Kazdin does acknowledge Glenn's gifts. I recommend this book highly. It probably needs a new epilogue or preface from the author, but it appears it is out of print.
Rating: 
Summary: An Andrew K. autobiography
Review: I read this book long time ago and still have this bad aftertaste in my mouth - the story of this producer writing about his experience, this "poor" man kept at an arms length by Glenn Glould - bitching about it over and over again! Mr. Kazdin - you have bad taste. You were hired to do a job - no more, no less! What a pity Gould did not have anybody more giving during this (for him difficult)period - immagine what type of recordings the world might have experienced!!
Rating:
Summary: An Andrew K. autobiography
Review: I read this book long time ago and still have this bad aftertaste in my mouth - the story of this producer writing about his experience, this "poor" man kept at an arms length by Glenn Glould - bitching about it over and over again! Mr. Kazdin - you have bad taste. You were hired to do a job - no more, no less! What a pity Gould did not have anybody more giving during this (for him difficult)period - immagine what type of recordings the world might have experienced!!
Rating: 
Summary: Yup, it's bitter...
Review: I think this book told me as much about Andrew Kazdin as it did about Glenn Gould. I recently read an article about Andrew Kazdin's technique in the recording studio. He likes to have control. But you see, so did Glenn Gould... I'm astounded that Kazdin and Gould were able to work together for as many years as they did. And they did do great work together during those years.Still, go ahead and read this book, if you have a chance, because it does have a lot of details and insight into Glenn Gould in the recording studio. You must take some of Andrew Kazdin's assertions with a grain of salt, however.
Rating: 
Summary: Charity is becoming of you, Mister Kazdin
Review: That the ever enigmatic, provocative and talented Glenn Gould can stir such passions from beyond the grave does not surprise me; give his mid 1970's Mozart a listen; view his CBC video's produced with Bruno Monsaigngeon; read his review of "Classical Barbra." He was a Shakespeare of late twentieth century media. But just as Hamlet dramatizes the fine line between justice and vengeance, the destructful consequences of vengence does this book reflect more upon its author than its subject. As mentioned in other reviews, it is remarkable how hostile and vindictive Andrew Kazdin is when approaching the subject of Glenn Gould. While it may have been theraputic to the author to write this memoir, much of the text should have been left confined to a personal diary. Andrew Kazdin was Glenn Gould's producer at Columbia/CBS for fifteen years spanning Gould's most productive period in the studio. Kazdin's memoirs provide insight into the artist, his passions and paranoias, above and beyond that covered by less intimate biographers. As such, to the serious Gould fanatic, the revelations make required reading. Unfortunately, the strong negative emotions between Mr. Kazdan and Mr. Gould often colors these revelations in such hues that it reflect poorly upon all parties. I would suggest "Glenn Gould, the Ecstacy and Tragedy of Genius" by Peter Ostwald as a companion to this volume.
Rating:
Summary: A dark but honest book
Review: This is not a bitter book. Truthful, yes. Revealing to be sure. And Kazdin does not hide the fact that he was hurt professionally and personally by Gould's treatment of him. But "bitter" is still not an appropriate word to use in describing this book.
I learned more about Glenn Gould from reading this book than from reading all the other, more romanticized biographies. Kazdin makes a valuable point: No other biographers actually worked with Gould; how could they possibly understand his working method?
Certain passages (particularly the account of the woman who continually sent fan mail, and the account of how Gould treated his piano tuner) I found genuinely moving. Other passages--such as the Elizheva Kaufman story and the "Let the master do it" story--are exquisite bits of dark comedy.
The only part of the book I found gratuitously bitter (as opposed to truthful) was Kazdin negative assessment of the Payzant biography. (Payzant's book is basically a compilation of Gould's own writing with Payzant's somewhat interesting filler commentary.) I agree with Kazdin's assessment, but his tone was unnecessarily hostile, and that hostility weakened his argument.
Other than that, Kazdin's book is a fascinating down-to-earth look at the way Gould worked. It helped me see Gould not merely as a musical genius with colorful eccentricities, but as a man with serious emotional problems, who could, at times, be hell-on-wheels to work with--and who still made great music!
Rating:
Summary: talk about bitter
Review: Whoa. Andrew Kazdin's book gives a nice window into Gould's studio methods -- the sometimes devious, always crafty way of manipulating sounds to create the perfect studio product -- and his personality. The book is hurt tremendously, though, by the extreme bitterness of the author. Kazdin (Gould's recording producer for CBS) claims to have been wronged by the pianist in business matters. This could have been an excellent book about a pioneer of music and audio engineering, but instead it is ruined by personal squabbles involving the author. For a third person account of Gould's life, I recommend Otto Friedrich's biography. For an account of his music, try Payzant's book _Glenn Gould, Music and Mind_.
Rating:
Summary: talk about bitter
Review: Whoa. Andrew Kazdin's book gives a nice window into Gould's studio methods -- the sometimes devious, always crafty way of manipulating sounds to create the perfect studio product -- and his personality. The book is hurt tremendously, though, by the extreme bitterness of the author. Kazdin (Gould's recording producer for CBS) claims to have been wronged by the pianist in business matters. This could have been an excellent book about a pioneer of music and audio engineering, but instead it is ruined by personal squabbles involving the author. For a third person account of Gould's life, I recommend Otto Friedrich's biography. For an account of his music, try Payzant's book _Glenn Gould, Music and Mind_.
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