Description: The history of the night club with an unbelievable story: The Bottom Line.
Brief description:
Peter Cunningham is a professional photographer who loves the work he is privileged to be doing. His teachers include Baptist fisherman Lester Tate, French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, Zen Master Bernie Glassman and singer-songwriter Janis Ian. Peter has exhibited his photographs and films in New York, Krakow, London, Paris, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Kigali, Nanjing, Beijing, Berlin and Grand Manan, Canada. His clients include singers, teachers, chefs, playwrights, athletes, accountants, actors, fishermen and clowns. He has taught "Photography as Zen Practice" in China, and is co-author with Peter Matthiessen of "Are We There Yet? A Zen Journey through Space and Time." Peter's first paid job was to make Bruce Springsteen's Columbia Records pictures in 1973, he joined the staff of The Bottom Line in 1974, and in 1982 made Madonna's first publicity pictures. He is currently working on books about sculpture, children, history, values, language, and juxtaposition.
petercunninghamphotography.com
Review Quotes:
"At its core, Positively Fourth and Mercer is about the music, but it's also a soulful slice of New York life. It's a hefty tale. Billy Altman does a yeoman's job framing it, while Allan Pepper's vividly detailed memories provide a rich loam of living history. Old habitués and newcomers alike will have a blast diving in." --Book and Film Globe
"Entertainingly assembled from interviews with performers, staff, and patrons, the book doubles as a slice of New York cultural and economic history." --Air Mail "An oasis of purity for the serious music fan . . . The Bottom Line hosted every form of music during its 1974-2004 run . . . and saw countless indelible, even incendiary rock 'n' roll moments." --New York Post "A lively history of a club that was much more than the sum of its parts." --AMNY "The club that wrote the book on music is now a book. . . . A definitive look at the famed cabaret that ruled Greenwich Village from 1974 to 2004." --Chelsea News "This will give you a behind the scenes look at what made this club so special. And show you, chapter and verse, the making of the modern-day music business. The Bottom Line became a club like no other!" --John Scher, President, Metropolitan Entertainment Consultants "A gritty, gorgeous, behind-the-scenes portrait of how a neighborhood dive turned into a global pilgrimage site for anyone chasing the holy grail of live music ... This isn't some dusty nostalgia trip-it's a 336-page love letter to the soul of New York, when the Village still whispered poetry and rockstars bled magic onto bare stages." --Times Square Chronicles "This is a fabulous book about a fabulous time and place. I can't put it down." --Richard Barone, Singer/Songwriter/Arranger/Author/Director/Record Producer, frontman for The Bongos "This book reads like a Scorsese script." --Christine Lavin, Singer/Songwriter/Recording Artist "As befits the quintessential 'listening room' it was, the Bottom Line's story can only be told as an oral history. The very best thing about an oral history is when done right, it captures the humanity of its subject. Like we did when we used to line up on the sidewalk, we come for the sound. We come for the voices. The sightlines are clear, the intimacy is palpable, the moments are vivid, and, thanks to Allen Pepper and Billy Altman, we all have the best seat." --Bill Scheft, author, Letterman writer (1991-2015), former Bottom Line opening act "A veritable who's who of the music world either dishes it out or is dished." --Phantom of the Movies Video Scope Magazine "A stone delight. Every page brims with lively lore that vividly illuminates the legacy of a beloved NYC venue that meant so much to the audiences and performers who experienced many magical nights there." --Dennis Diken, Drummer, The Smithereens