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Publisher
The Mary Lou Williams Project
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
She was ahead of her time, a genius. During an era when Jazz was the nation's popular music, Mary Lou Williams was one of its greatest innovators. As both a pianist and composer, she was a font of daring and creativity who helped shape the sound of 20th century America. And like the dynamic, turbulent nation in which she lived, Williams seemed to redefine herself with every passing decade. From child prodigy to "Boogie-Woogie Queen" to groundbreaking...
42) Ella Fitzgerald
Author
Publisher
Lincoln Children's Books
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Meet Ella Fitzgerald, one of the most influential jazz singers of all time! New in the Little People, Big Dreams series, this inspiring and informative little biography follows the inspirational life of the First Lady of Song, from her early singing days on the streets of Harlem, to her success as a jazz legend, with the message: 'It's not where you come from, but where you're going that counts.' With stylish and quirky illustrations and a facts and...
Author
Publisher
Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
Over the course of his fifty-year career, George Benson has performed for hundreds of millions of fans around the world, received ten Grammy Awards, and recorded with some of the most revered musicians of his era. And he has finally decided to tell his story. "Benson: The Autobiography" follows the musician's remarkable rise from the ghettos of Pittsburgh to the stages of Dubai, and everywhere in between. His tales of scuffling on the road with jazz...
44) Bix
Author
Publisher
Gallery 13
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Stunning illustrations provide a near-wordless graphic exploration highlighting the career of Leon Bix Beiderbecke, one of the most innovative jazz soloists of the 1920s next to the legendary Louis Armstrong. While composing and recording some of the landmark music in the early years of the genre, Bix struggled with personal demons, facing the disapproval of his conservative parents and an increasing dependence on alcohol. Presented in predominantly...
Author
Publisher
Random House
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"'About this Book' In the tornado that was downtown New York in the 1980s, John Lurie stood in its vortex. After founding the band The Lounge Lizards with his brother in 1979, Lurie quickly became a centrifugal figure in the world of outsider artists, cutting-edge filmmakers, and cultural rebels. In the book, Lurie vibrantly brings to life the whole wash of 1980s New York as he develops his artistic soul over the course of the decade and comes into...
Author
Publisher
Duke University Press
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"William Parker is the most influential jazz bassist since Charles Mingus. Universal Tonality tells the story of his origins-traced from Africa to the Carolinas to Harlem-and then details his path to music. Universal Tonality chronicles Parker's career from his early days playing with Cecil Taylor to leading his own bands"--
Author
Series
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
"Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America is the first complete biography of William Henry "Chick" Webb (1905-1939), the innovative father of modern jazz drumming and a leading bandleader of the Swing Era, whose band and music thrilled dancers and audiences across the country. Webb was born in East Baltimore and had chronic spinal tuberculosis as a child, leaving him only four feet tall with a hump on his back. He moved to Harlem in...
Author
Publisher
University of California Press
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
English
Description
"This biography traces the output of jazz master Charles Mingus--his recordings, his compositions, and his writings--highlighting key moments in his life and musicians who influenced him and were influenced by him. As a young man, Mingus played with Louis Armstrong as well as with Kid Ory. Mingus also played in bands led by Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, Art Tatum, and many others. He began leading his own bands in New...
Author
Publisher
little bee books
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Description
Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. On the outside, you couldn't find two girls who looked more different. But on the inside, they were alike--full of hopes and dreams and plans of what might be. Ella Fitzgerald's velvety tones and shube-doobie-doos captivated audiences. Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington couldn't wait to share the stage with her, but still, Ella could not book a performance at one of the biggest clubs in town--one...
Author
Publisher
University of California Press
Pub. Date
[2018]
Language
English
Description
"Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his "solo" turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters...
Author
Publisher
Backbeat Books
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
"From his upbringing as a “red-diaper baby” among some of the leading lights of American music and Left politics, to his legendary work as bassist for the Bill Evans trio, to his collaborations with such figures as Charles Mingus and Billie Holiday, Chuck Israels has witnessed over a half-century of change and innovation in American jazz music. In Bass Notes, he offers up both an engaging memoir and a meditation on the history of jazz music and...
Author
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
"Miles Davis's Bitches Brew is one of the most iconic albums in American music, the preeminent landmark and fertile seedbed of jazz-fusion. Fans have been fortunate in the past few years to gain access to Davis's live recording from this time, when he was working with an ensemble that has come to be known as the Lost Quintet. In this book, jazz historian and musician Bob Gluck explores the performances of this revolutionary group--Davis's first electric...
Author
Publisher
Faber
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
The definitive biography of guitar icon and Grammy Award-winning artist, Bill Frisell. FEATURING EXCLUSIVE LISTENING SESSIONS WITH: Paul Simon; Justin Vernon of Bon Iver; Gus Van Sant; Rhiannon Giddens; The Bad Plus; Gavin Bryars; Van Dyke Parks; Sam Amidon; Hal Willner; Jim Woodring; Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill. 'A beautiful and long overdue portrait of one of America's true living cultural treasures.' JOHN ZORN 'The perfect companion-piece to the...
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Description
"Eubie Blake tells the story of one of the key composers of 20th century American popular song. Through his music, he rose from the slums of Baltimore to the heights of Broadway success. His show Shuffle Along was the first African-American show to win a major white audience, becoming the tenth most popular show of the 1920s. The show introduced future black stars - including Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, and Florence Mills - the syncopated chorus...
55) Mary's idea
Author
Publisher
HarperCollins Children's Books
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
"A picture book biography of Mary Lou Williams, an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and is an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color"--
Author
Publisher
Thunder's Mouth Press
Pub. Date
[1998]
Language
English
Description
This revised edition of Ian Carr's biography "sheds new light on Davis' life and career: from the early days in New York with Charlie Parker; to the Birth of Cool; through his drug addiction in the early 1950s and the years of extraordinary achievements (1954-1960), during which he signed with Columbia and collaborated with such unequaled talents as John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Cannonball Adderly. Carr also explores Davis' dark, reclusive...
Author
Publisher
Hachette Books
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Sonny Rollins has long been considered an enigma. Known as the "Saxophone Colossus," he is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz improvisers of all time, winning Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honor, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and a National Medal of Arts. A bridge from bebop to the avant-garde, he is a lasting link to the golden age of jazz, pictured in the iconic "Great Day in Harlem" portrait. His seven-decade career has been well documented,...
Author
Publisher
Charlesbridge
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
"Sonny Rollins is one of the most prolific sax players in the history of jazz, but in 1959, at the height of his career, he vanished from the scene. His return to music was an interesting journey - with a long detour on the Williamsburg Bridge. Too loud to practice in his apartment, Rollins played on the New York City landmark for two years among the cacophony of the traffic and the stares of bystanders. Then in 1962, Rollins went back to the studio...
Author
Publisher
Penguin Press
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
"From the author of the definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, the story of how jazz arrived at the pinnacle of American culture in 1959, told through the journey of three towering artists-Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans-who came together to create the most famous and bestselling jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. The myth of the 60s depends on the 1950s being the before times of conformity, segregation, straightness-The Lonely Crowd...
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