Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Story of Jazz (Galaxy Books)

by Marshall W. Stearns

The effect of jazz upon American culture and the American character has been all-pervasive. This superlative history is the first and the most renowned systematic outline of the evolution of this unique American musical phenomenon. Stearns begins with the joining of the African Negro's musical heritage with European forms and the birth of jazz in New Orleans then follows its course through the era of swing and... (more)

Born Blue

by Han Nolan

Leshaya is a survivor. Rescued from the brink of death, this child of a heroin addict has seen it all: revolving foster homes, physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy. Now, as her tumultuous childhood is coming to an end, she is determined to make a life for herself by doing the only thing that makes her feel whole . . . singing. Han Nolan pulls no punches in this hard-hitting story of a girl at the bottom who... (more)

All Music Guide to Jazz - 4th Edition

by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra

This entertaining, easy-to-use reference now reviews and rates more than 18,000 sizzling recordings by over 1,700 musicians in all jazz styles - from New Orleans jazz to bebop, fusion, and beyond. Colorful profiles describe the artists' lives and careers, while anecdotal histories portray selected jazz legends. "Music Maps" chart the evolution of jazz instruments, plus the influence of significant players,... (more)

Jazz Standards (Paperback Songs)

99 classics, including: All the things You Are ¥ Autumn in New York ¥ Bewitched ¥ Cry Me a River ¥ DonÕt Get Around Much Anymore ¥ A Fine Romance ¥ I CanÕt Get Started With You ¥ IÕve Got You Under My Skin ¥ The Lady Is a Tramp ¥ Manhattan ¥ Misty ¥ My Funny Valentine ¥ Old Devil Moon ¥ Prelude to a Kiss ¥ Route 66 ¥ Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ¥ ThereÕs a Small Hotel ¥ When Sunny Gets Blue ¥ YouÕd Be So Nice to Come... (more)

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights

by David Margolick

From four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee David Margolick, STRANGE FRUIT explores the story of the memorable civil rights ballad made famous by Billie Holiday in the late 1930s. The song's powerful, evocative lyrics-written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher who, late in life, adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg-portray the lynching of a black man in the South. Holiday's performances sparked conflict... (more)

Riding on a Blue Note: Jazz and American Pop

Riding on a Blue Note: Jazz and American Pop

by Gary Giddins

"The most imposing figure in jazz writing today" (JazzTimes) on artists from Duke Ellington to Elvis Presley to Irving Berlin-all with that pervasive "blue note" of jazz in common Gary Giddins, winner of the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award, has a following that includes not only jazz enthusiasts but also pop music fans of every stripe. Writing here in a lyrical and celebratory style all his own,... (more)

Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century

Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century

by Gary Giddins

Gary Giddins's Weather Bird is a brilliant companion volume to his landmark in music criticism, Visions of Jazz, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. More then 140 pieces, written over a 14-year period, are brought together for the first time in this superb collection of essays, reviews, and articles. Weather Bird is a celebration of jazz, with illuminating commentaryon contemporary... (more)

Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charels Mingus

Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charels Mingus

by Gene Santoro

Charles Mingus was one of the most innovative jazz musicians of the 20th century, and ranks with Charles Ives and Duke Ellington as one of America's greatest composers. By temperament, he was a high-strung and sensitive romantic, a towering figure whose tempestuous personal life found powerfully coherent expression in the ever-shifting textures of his music. Now, acclaimed music critic Gene Santoro strips away the... (more)

A Century of Jazz

by Roy Carr

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. 350 photos, 200 in color.

Visions of Jazz: The First Century

by Gary Giddins

Poised to become a jazz classic, Visions of Jazz: The First Century contains 79 chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade style trumpet playing to Frank Sinatra's intimate crooning, jazz critic Gary Giddins continually astonishes the reader with his unparalleled insight. Giddins opens the doors of jazz to include musicians such as Irving Berlin... (more)

John Coltrane: John Coltrane

by Bill Cole

Reissued to commemorate the 75th anniversary of John Coltrane's birth. Here is the book that distinguished music critic Leonard Feather called a "brilliantly perceptive examination of the forces that shaped Coltrane's brief life." Illustrating the influence of African folklore and spirituality on Coltrane's work and sound, Bill Cole creates an innovative portrait of the legendary tenor saxophonist. With... (more)

Jazz

by Celeste Bullock, Toni Morrison

Set in Harlem in the 1920s, this novel chronicles a bittersweet triangle involving a middle-aged door-to-door salesman, his mentally unstable wife, and his eighteen-year-old girlfriend. By the author of Beloved. Reprint. 150,000 first printing. K. PW.

Wild Ducks Flying Backward

The Short Writings of Tom Robbins

by Tom Robbins

Known for his meaty seriocomic novels, Tom Robbins’s shorter work has appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper’s , from Playboy to the New York Times . Collected here for the first time in paperback, the essays, articles, observations—and even some untypical country-music lyrics—offer a rare overview of the eclectic sensibility of an American original. Whether rocking with the Doors,... (more)

Jazz: A History of America's Music

by Geoffrey C. Ward

The companion volume to the ten-part PBS TV series by the team responsible for The Civil War and Baseball . Continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed works, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessential American music—jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every color, jazz... (more)

The Real Book: Sixth Edition

by Hal Leonard Corporation

The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time. Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night. The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed without any copyrights or royalties paid to the master composers who created these musical canons. Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legitimate and legal editions of... (more)

Jaco: The Extraordinary and the Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "the World's Greatest Bass Player"

Jaco: The Extraordinary and the Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "the World's Greatest Bass Player"

by Bill Milkowski

This tragic tale of the man who revolutionized the electric bass will appeal to players, fans, and anyone curious about the fine line between creative genius and madness. Bass players and music fans today - whether of jazz, rock, reggae, pop, or punk - owe much to Jaco Pastorius who literally reinvented the role of the electric bass. Jaco takes an in-depth look at his life through biographical narrative, personal... (more)

Giants of Jazz

by Milly Hawk Daniel, Studs Terkel

A beautifully illustrated edition of Studs Terkel's timeless portraits of America's jazz legends, for readers of all ages. Studs Terkel's first book, Giants of Jazz , is the master interviewer's unique tribute to America's jazz greats, now available in an affordable paperback edition with the original illustrations and discography. The thirteen profiles in this "luminous" ( Jazzwise ) collection weave together... (more)

Really The Blues

by Mezz Mezzrow

"Really The Blues" is the story of a white kid who fell in love with black culture, learning to blow clarinet in the reform schools, brothels and honky-tonks of his youth. Drawn by the revelation of the blues, he followed the music along the jazz avenues of Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, and into the heart of America's soul. Told in the jive lingo of the underground's inner circle, this classic is an... (more)

The Oxford Companion to Jazz

Jazz and its colorful, expansive history resonate in this unique collection of 60 essays specially-commissioned from today's top jazz performers, writers, and scholars. Contributors include such jazz insiders as Bill Crow, Samuel A. Floyd Jr., Ted Gioia, Gene Lees, Dan Morgenstern, Gunther Schuller, Richard M. Sudhalter, and Patricia Willard. Both a reference book and an engaging read, the Companion surveys the... (more)

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Browse Subjects: jazz

Top Books

by Marshall W. Stearns

by Han Nolan

by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra

by David Margolick

by Gary Giddins

by Gary Giddins

by Gene Santoro

by Roy Carr

by Gary Giddins

by Bill Cole

by Celeste Bullock, Toni Morrison

The Short Writings of Tom Robbins

by Tom Robbins

by Geoffrey C. Ward

by Hal Leonard Corporation

by Bill Milkowski

by Milly Hawk Daniel, Studs Terkel

by Mezz Mezzrow