Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field
by Associate Professor Mark Burford
Making Music American
by Professor of Musicology E Douglas Bomberger
Investigates the connections between jazz, sexual identity, and radical black politics In his controversial essay on white jazz musician Burton Greene, Amiri Baraka asserted that jazz was exclusively an African American art form and explicitly fused the idea of a black aesthetic with radical political traditions of the African diaspora. In the Break is an extended riff on “The Burton Greene Affair,” exploring the tangled relationship between black avant-garde in music and literature in the 1950s...
Melodic Cells for Jazz Guitar
by Oz Noy, Tim Pettingale, and Joseph Alexander
During most of its 70 year history, the "Melody Maker" was considered the bible of not just pop and rock music, but the jazz scene as well. Over the years its writers interviewed virtually every great jazz singer from Billie Holiday to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett to Peggy Lee. Complementing 20 exclusive interviews with the greatest song stylists of the 20th century - plus brief biographies and details of key recordings - are pictures from some of the world's greatest music photographers includin...
"A mighty object to behold . . . enchanting . . . a complicated, intriguing development in the power struggle between the analog and the digital."--Los Angeles Review of Books"The Third Man project originated from a weekly poetry series in Nashville that attracted both ends of the poetry spectrum--established national award winners (Pulitzer Prize finalists Dale Ray Phillips and Adrian Matejka) and complete unknowns such as local bartenders, teachers and even a mortician. Both are side-by-side i...
Pepper Adams' Joy Road is more than a compendium of sessions and gigs done by the greatest baritone saxophone soloist in history. It's a fascinating overview of Adams' life and times, thanks to colorful interview vignettes, drawn from the author's unpublished conversations with Adams and other musicians. These candid observations from jazz greats about Adams and his colleagues reveal previously unknown, behind-the-scenes drama about legendary recordings made by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, The...
This book about Miles Davis is more psychologically driven than a straight biography; but it does cover his musical career, as well his spirituality as a jazz musician. Davis rocketed to jazz fame as a trumpeter, making a plethora of jazz recordings during his life time; and his music kept the "jazz world" on edge for almost fifty years. This book also discusses Davis's religion, politics, civil rights activism, and his personal struggles as a Black man in the United States. Miles Davis and Ja...
Dave Davies was seventeen when he recorded "You Really Got Me." With the British Invasion in full swing, the precocious teenager was thrown into the storm. In an instant, he had it all-hit records, fame, adoring fans, even an older brother in his band. But all was not well. Living a Bacchus-like life in Swinging London, Dave Davies was haunted by ghosts from his past and an unshakeable longing. When he had his own hit single at age twenty-one, a solo career appeared on the horizon. Two years lat...
Jazz was born on the streets, grew up in clubs, and will die - so some fear - at the university. Facing dwindling commercial demand and the gradual disappearance of venues, many aspiring jazz musicians today learn their craft, and find their careers, in one of the many academic programs that now offer jazz degrees. School for Cool is their story. Going inside the halls of two of the most prestigious jazz schools around-at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and the New School in New York - Eit...