Jazz Biographies

This unparalleled collection of Louis Armstrong's candid writings introduces readers to a little-known facet of the master trumpeter, band leader, and entertainer.

In a counterpoint to Davis' autobiography, Carr provides a balanced portrait of one of the undisputed cultural icons of the 20th century.

Organized by year, style, and place, this first-ever chronicle of jazz is supplemented with special features on subjects relevant to each period. "A Century of Jazz" covers not only the major jazz cult artists--Armstrong, Parker, Coltrane--but also crossover figures such as Crosby, Glenn Miller, and Sinatra and is richly illustrated with a wealth of rare images and graphic material.

One of the most original books about a jazz musician ever published, this biography-cum-discography focuses on 14 major albums recorded by Miles Davis, using them as a jumping off point for an illuminating discussion of the turbulent life and work of the "Evil Genius of Jazz."

The acclaimed biography of the legendary tenor "Lester Leaps In jumps off the page with authenticity and insight. The Prez was an amazing creator with a uniquely wicked sense of humor, and this book captures it all."
--Quincy Jones

From the stance of writer, musician, cultural critic, and jass historian, Laurent de Wilde has created a biographical tour-de-force, capturing the genius of the music and artistry of Thelonius Monk and the mid-century New York jazz scene.

The name alone conjures images of the Savoy Ballroom, the Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie bands, hot jazz, sweet ballads, and a genuinely unique presence. Ella Fitzgerald, an artist who has been called a national treasure - and no one has disputed the laudation - has captivated an international audience for more than fifty years. Her inimitable voice has been heard in intimate clubs, in concerts, on radio and television, and on countless recordings. First Lady of Song is a celebration of her life and work. In these pages are revived memories of duets with Frank Sinatra, harmonizing with Dinah Shore, and solo triumphs at Carnegie Hall.

One of the most important jazz critics of our time presents unforgettable andcontroversial portraits of the most significant musicians of this century.

Unlike other great bandleaders, Ellington personally created nearly all the music played by his orchestra. Using family papers, sheet music, and original recordings, Hasse provides a complete portrait of Ellington's great achievements.

Bringing the same fresh and engaging approach that characterized his critically acclaimed Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Kahn tells the story of the genesis, creation, and aftermath of this classic recording.

This biography is a rich portrait of saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, one of the great architects of jazz, and a man whose influence will be felt by musicians and music fans for generations to come.

This story of a musician hailed as a genius and dismissed as a madman will appeal to anyone intrigued by the fine line between creative inspiration and insanity. Jaco looks deep inside the life and music of this talented but tormented bass player who revolutionized his instrument and became one of the most potent forces in modern music. Like his heroes Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, Jaco didn't make it to age 40. But by the time he died at 35, the music world was indebted to him. Jaco had reinvented the role of the electric bass - playing melodies, chords, harmonics and percussive effects simultaneously, and bridging the gaps between jazz, classical, R&B, rock, reggae, pop, and punk. Jaco rode his fame like a skyrocket to oblivion. This book begins that trip with Jaco's first gigs on the Florida nightclub circuit in the late '60s, follows him on tour with Wayne Cochran & The C.C. Riders in the early '70s, and traces his whirlwind evolution into an international star with Weather Report by 1978. But Jaco also reveals the artist's private battle with manic-depressive psychosis aggravated by substance abuse, and describes his tragic downfall that led to homelessness and bizarre behavior on the streets of New York, institutionalization, release, and a senseless, violent death in 1987.

No musical idiom has inspired more fine writing than jazz, and nowhere has that writing been presented with greater comprehensiveness and taste than in this glorious collection. In Reading Jazz, editor Robert Gottlieb combs through eighty years of autobiography, reportage, and criticism by the music's greatest players, commentators, and fans to create what is at once a monumental tapestry of jazz history and testimony to the elegance, vigor, and variety of jazz writing.

In Hard Bop, the first thorough study of a brand of post-bebop jazz that included many of the most talented American musicians from roughly 1955 to 1965, David H. Rosenthal vividly examines the roots, traditions, explorations and permutations, personalities and recordings of a climactic period in jazz history. Beginning with hard bop's origins as an amalgam of bebop and R&B, he describes the evolution of movement that welcomed all influences.

A jazz critic for "The Times" in London now covers all aspects of Dizzy Gillespie's extraordinary life and career, taking readers through the musician's days as a sparkling trumpet soloist in the swing bands of the 1930s to the role he played in creating bebop.

Noted anthropologist, critic, and musical scholar John F. Szwed takes readers on a tour of the tangled history of jazz and explores how it developed from ethnic music to become America's most popular style and then part of the avant garde in less than 50 years.

Jazz: A History of America's Music
By Ward, Geoffrey C.
Burns, Ken
Marsalis, Wynton
2000/11 - Alfred A. Knopf
9780679445517 Find in the Library

Poised to draw the largest PBS audience since Ken Burns's The Civil War, the television series Jazz is, like the music itself, an exploration and a celebration of an American experience. And the engrossing, informative, and lavishly illustrated companion volume, Jazz: A History of America's Music, is both the essential accompaniment to the film and a book that stands magnificently on its own.

As Ornette Coleman approaches his 70th birthday, this book takes full measure of the man who has been called the most important jazz figure since Charlie Parker.