Jazz, Blues

For non-aficionados, jazz can be slippery and difficult to grasp. Jazz can leave a novice baffled, unsure how to listen, and with the question “How is it that they know what to play?” Know-It-All Jaz …

When a jazz hero dies, rumors, speculation, gossip, and legend can muddle the real cause of death. In this book, Frederick J. Spencer, M.D., conducts an inquest on how jazz greats lived and died purs …

Early Jazz is an overview of the beginnings of jazz from its nineteenth-century roots through 1929, when elements of the Swing Era began to emerge. It is the first book on early jazz history in over …

Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and fearless contrarian—’I’m a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian pro-lifer’—has lived through much of jazz’s history and has known many of …

In histories of music, producers tend to fall by the wayside–generally unknown and seldom acknowledged. But without them and their contributions to the art form, we’d have little on record of some o …

All great musicians have one thing in common—to a great extent they know what the harmony of a song is as they hear it. Do you? If not, here is a practical guide to get you up to speed. Written by …

Mark Barnett knows and loves jazz, and he has a special talent for explaining the music-and his passion for it-in words that everyone can understand. It’s a talent that shines from every line in this …

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 a …

This book is a summary of both exercises and improvisation lines designed to enhance contemporary jazz style techniques. The book covers scales, arpeggios, chromatic exercises and jazz line phrases f …

Association of Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music–Best History (tie) (2011) Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882-1961) is one of the most important, yet unheral …