Jazz Blues category: 910 books

The New York loft jazz scene of the 1970s was a pivotal period for uncompromising, artist-produced work. Faced with a flagging jazz economy, a group of young avant-garde improvisers chose to eschew the commercial sphere and develop alternative venues in the abandoned factories and warehouses of Lower...

William C. Sweatman (1882-1961) is one of the most truly important, yet unheralded, African American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth century. In That's Got 'Em!, Mark Berresford tracks this energetic pioneer over a seven-decade career. His talent transformed...

Starting where he left off with his "Serious Jazz Practice Book," guitar legend Barry Finnerty has created another woodshed classic for all jazz soloists. Recording artist with Miles Davis, the Brecker Bros., etc., Barry shows how to become a better improviser by melodically mastering the individual...

This theoretical book is meant to improve contemporary jazz styles techniques for all musician players of modern jazz.The book is divided into scale exercises, arpeggio exercises, jazz line phrases as well as contemporary chord progressions.

A quick overlook on progressive guitar chords and jazz to get the player started. Just browsing the book will enlighten you. The book will discuss the 5 basic 7th chords that are a must to know for jazz and progressive guitar. It also discusses the arpeggios for each chord. The book will also give you...

15 Jazz Etudes for Saxophone on the Melodic Minor Scale is a set of etudes for the advanced jazz student. The etudes demonstrate how the melodic minor scale is used in jazz improvisation.

A lively look at the long career of these legendary musicians, from a Storyville dance hall to the White House and beyond.   In 1910, the Tuxedo Jazz Band played its first show at the Tuxedo Dance Hall in Storyville under Oscar Celestin. The popular ensemble would go on to play all over New Orleans,...

Free Jazz, Harmolodics, and Ornette Coleman discusses Ornette Coleman’s musical philosophy of "Harmolodics," an improvisational system deeply inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. Falling under the guise of "free jazz," Harmolodics can be difficult to understand, even for seasoned...

With a Foreword by Benny Golson, Peter King’s book ranks among the great jazz autobiographies. One of the world's leading alto saxophonists, he tells his story with searing honesty, revealing the obsessions and motivations that have driven him and the dilemmas of surviving as a top creative musician...

The two haunting, poetic novellas that comprise The Bass Saxophonebrilliantly evoke the comedy and sadness of life under the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. They are prefaced by a remarkable memoir of Skvorecky's jazz-obsessed youth. Jazz is a symbol of freedom in both these novellas. In Emoke,...

Unlike most jazz arranging books, which focus on the rudiments of arranging (transposition, ranges, notation, and so forth), this book deals with the real substance of arranging for small jazz ensembles, in addition to the rudiments. Rinzler devotes a chapter to each of the following arranging elements:...

This 4th book in the Learn Jazz Piano series, called How To Solo, focuses on soloing techniques, using jazz standards as your guide. Everything you have learned from books 1 – 3 is now brought together to turn your jazz solos into an expression of your individuality.

Sonny Rollins is arguably the most influential tenor saxophonist that jazz has produced. He began his musical career at the tender age of eleven, and within five short years he was playing with the legendary Thelonius Monk. In the late forties (before his twenty-first birthday), Rollins was in full...

Jazz and Totalitarianism examines jazz in a range of regimes that in significant ways may be described as totalitarian, historically covering the period from the Franco regime in Spain beginning in the 1930s to present day Iran and China. The book presents an overview of the two central terms and...