Jazz Blues category: 910 books
Last Train to Memphis
The Rise of Elvis Presley
Language: English
Release Date: December 20, 2012
From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the most vivid and enduring myths of American culture.
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based...
98% Funky Stuff
My Life in Music
Language: English
Release Date: February 1, 2013
Revealing the warm and astonishing story of an influential jazz legend, this personal narrative tells the story of a man’s journey from a Southern upbringing to a career touring the world to play for adoring fans. It tells how James Brown first discovered the Parker brothers—Melvin, the drummer,...
by Preston Lauterbach
Language: English
Release Date: March 30, 2015
Language: English
Release Date: March 30, 2015
The vivid history of Beale Street—a lost world of swaggering musicians, glamorous madams, and ruthless politicians—and the battle for the soul of Memphis.
Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of...
Gigs
Jazz and the Cabaret Laws in New York City
Language: English
Release Date: December 1, 2004
Gigs provides a fascinating account of a unique victory for musicians against repressive entertainment licensing laws. It provides a much-needed study of the social, political, cultural and legal conditions surrounding a change in law and public attitudes toward vernacular music in New York City.
This...
A Love Supreme
The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album
Language: English
Release Date: October 28, 2003
Few albums in the canon of popular music have had the influence, resonance, and endurance of John Coltrane's 1965 classic A Love Supreme-a record that proved jazz was a fitting medium for spiritual exploration and for the expression of the sublime. Bringing the same fresh and engaging approach that...
Billie Holiday
Wishing On The Moon
Language: English
Release Date: April 24, 2009
Certainly no singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself with her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. "Now, finally, we have a definitive biography," said Booklist of Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday, "by...
by Bruce Crowther
Language: English
Release Date: April 10, 2012
Language: English
Release Date: April 10, 2012
The life and times of Gene Krupa Traces the life and career of the late drummer and assesses his influence on modern jazz. In depth account of Gene's life and the times surrounding that period. Includes selected discography and plenty of photographs.
Footprints
The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter
Language: English
Release Date: March 1, 2007
Saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter has not only left his footprints on our musical terrain, he has created a body of work that is a monument to artistic imagination. Throughout Shorter's extraordinary fifty-year career, his compositions have helped define the sounds of each distinct era in the...
Best Seat in the House
My Life in the Jeff Healey Band
Language: English
Release Date: November 6, 2018
For 15 years, Tom Stephen had the unique distinction of being both drummer and manager of the Jeff Healey Band. The dual role was fraught with conflicts of interest. One minute, he was leading the debauched life of a rock musician; the next, he was disciplining the band for the havoc they caused.
But...
Lost Highway
Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians
Language: English
Release Date: December 20, 2012
This masterful explorationof American roots music--country, rockabilly, and the blues--spotlights the artists who created a distinctly American sound, including Ernest Tubb, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, and Sleepy LaBeef. In incisive portraits based on searching interviews...
by SHER Music, Ed Fuqua
Language: English
Release Date: January 12, 2011
Language: English
Release Date: January 12, 2011
This book gives you all the basic principles underlying solid walking bass lines. Comprehensive, easy to understand, with page after page of great transcriptions of the author's walking lines on the accompanying CD. The CD of NY professional jazz players can also be used as a swinging play-along CD....
Lush Life
A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2013
Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) was one of the most accomplished composers in American music, the creator of such standards as "Take the 'A' Train", yet all his life he was overshadowed by his friend and collaborator, Duke Ellington. Through scrutiny of Strayhorn's private papers and more than...
Someone to Watch Over Me
The Life and Music of Ben Webster
Language: English
Release Date: February 5, 2010
For a half century, Ben Webster, one of the "big three" of swing tenors-along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young-was one of the best-known and most popular saxophonists.
Early in his career, Webster worked with many of the greatest orchestras of the time, including those led by...
Rhythm Is Our Business
Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express
Language: English
Release Date: March 10, 2010
In the 1930s, swing music reigned, and the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra was the hottest and hippest attraction on the black dance circuits. Known for its impeccable appearance and infectious rhythms, Lunceford's group was able to out-swing and outdraw any band. For ten consecutive years, they were the...