"Billie Holiday deserves a biography in which her musicianship isn't overshadowed by the tragic events of her life. O'Meally has written that book," says "Entertainment Weekly" about this absorbing and authoritative account of the greatest jazz singer in history. O'Meally emphasizes Holiday's artistry and training rather than her personal miseries, and he uses voluminous archival material to correct common myths about Holiday. Chronicling her rigorous musical apprenticeship in Baltimore, her reception in New York by Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and her work with various musicians, particularly Lester Young, "Lady Day" is an impassioned testament to Holiday's genius that confirms her place in American jazz.

When originally published in 1974, Ekkehard Jost's Free Jazz was the first examination of the new music of such innovators as Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Jost studied the music (not the lives) of a selection of musicians,black jazz artists who pioneered a new form of African American music,to arrive at the most in-depth look so far at the phenomenon of free jazz. Free jazz is not absolutely free, as Jost is at pains to point out. As each convention of the old music was abrogated, new conventions arose, whether they were rhythmic, melodic, tonal, or compositional, Coltrane's move into modal music was governed by different principles than Coleman's melodic excursions Sun Ra's attention to texture and rhythm created an entirely different big bang sound then had Mingus's attention to form.In Free Jazz, Jost paints a group of ten "style portraits",musical images of the styles and techniques of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, the Chicago-based AACM (which included Richard Abrams, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Anthony Braxton, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago), and Sun Ra and his Arkestra. As a composite picture of some of the most compelling music of the 1960s and'70s, Free Jazz is unequalled for the depth and clarity of its analysis and its even handed approach.

Eric Clapton's position as the world's greatest rock guitarist is unlikely to change in our lifetime. His career over the past four decades has been closely followed by millions of fans, as a member of the influential Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes, and for many years as a highly successful solo artist. He has a vast catalogue behind him. His rise to guitar hero in the 60s led to a much documented involvement with drugs. The historic Rainbow concert marked the beginning of his return. His turbulent marriage to Patti Boyd was another media favorite. Ultimately it is Clapton's music and complete mastery of the electric guitar which is his most important attribute. Unavailable for several years, Shapiro's earlier study, "Slowhand," established itself as one of the classics of rock biography. Here the life is fully reappraised and brought up-to-date to cover the tragic death of Clapton's son, Conor, in 1991 and includes a complete discography and many previously unpublished photographs.

Visions of Jazz: The First Century contains 79 chapters that illuminate the lives of virtually all major figures in jazz history. Poised to become a classic, this volume is an evocative journey through the first one hundred years of jazz music.

Valerie Wilmer's 1970 classic, Jazz People, has long been considered one of the three or four finest books ever written on jazz. Featuring extensive interviews with fourteen jazz geniuses, including Art Farmer, Cecil Taylor, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Big Joe Turner, and Archie Shepp, Wilmer captures the essential qualities of each artist in her interviews, providing deeply moving portraits--in words and in photographs--of the often troubling lives of the musicians who changed the shape of jazz in the fifties and sixties.

This reference volume is intended for both the casual and the most avid blues fan. It is divided into five separately introduced sections and covers 50 artists with names like Muddy, Gatemouth and Hound Dog who helped shape 20th-century American music. Beginning with the pioneering Mississippi Delta bluesmen, the book then follows the spread of the genre to the city, in the section on the Chicago Blues School. The third segment covers the Texas blues tradition; the fourth, the great blueswomen; and the fifth, the genres development outside its main schools. The styles covered range from Virginia-Piedmont to Bentonia and from barrelhouse to boogie-woogie. The main text is augmented by substantial discographies and a lengthy bibliography.

Woody Herman was a central figure in the development of jazz - a musical giant whose career spanned the big band and bebop eras. Gene Lees has spent close to a decade interviewing Herman's friends and fellow musicians, to produce a vivid portrayal of the triumph and tragedy of a life in jazz.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music, this book features more than 20 interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Oversize, with 45 halftones.

Born of poor Jewish immigrant parents in Chicago in 1909, Beny Goodman joined the local synagogue band at the age of ten with two of his brothers. As he was the smallest of the three he was given a clarinet. Within a decade he was a musical legend, constantly in demand for radio shows and guest appearances with America's leading jazz orchestras. In 1934 he formed his own band, and by the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman was hailed as the undisputed `King of Swing'. James Lincoln Collier brilliantly recreates the colourful popular music world of the 1920s and 1930s, when the music industry was just expanding, radio was the great source of musical entertainment, and swing bands were first finding national audiences. He also offers perceptive insights into the character and music of a man whose magic transformed the Depression years into the Swing Era.

Jazz Heritage brings together twenty years' of reviews, musicians' profiles, and critical essays by the renowned critic Martin Williams. This companion volume to the prize-winning The Jazz Tradition includes profiles of great performers at work in studios and clubs, "liner notes" for many classic recordings, and Williams's acclaimed critical essays on the artistry of Charlie Parker, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and others. Consistently eye-opening and original, these pieces are essential reading for jazz musicians, students, scholars, and fans.

(Music Sales America). Woody Mann's teaching method for acoustic blues guitar is exactly what every aspiring blues player needs. Using his vast first-hand knowledge of the genre he has written a selection of pieces that present different blues styles into individual performances which make their essential techniques accessible as never before. The 51 instrumentals featured include many styles of acoustic blues that span ragtime, Mississippi Delta open-tuning numbers and the folk-blues sounds of the Carolinas. The book includes a dropcard with an access code to downloadable audio.

The roots of much American music lie in the intensely personal art form of the blues. What bluesmen from W.C. Handy to B.B. King have told us about their lives has shaped America's perception of the blues. These life stories provide central insights into blues music and stand as a fascinating form of narrative in their own right. Barry Lee Pearson has conducted dozens of field interviews and collected over a hundred published autobiographies to present this collective portrait of bluesmen's careers as they themselves tell them: their musical learning, communities, work, pleasures, travels, triumphs, and crises.

Search the Internet for the 100 best songs or best albums. Dozens of lists will appear from aficionados to major music personalities. But what if you not only love listening to the blues or country music or jazz or rock, you love reading about it, too. How do you separate what matters from what doesn't among the hundreds-sometimes thousands-of books on the music you so love? In the Best Music Books series, readers finally have a quick-and-ready list of the most important works published on modern major music genres by leading experts. In 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own, Edward Komara, former Blues Archivist of the University of Mississippi, and his successor Greg Johnson select those histories, biographies, surveys, transcriptions and studies from the many hundreds of works that have been published about this vital American musical genre. Komara and Johnson provide a short description of the contents and the achievement of each title selected for their "Blues 100." Entries include full bibliographic citations, prices of copies in print, and even descriptions of specific editions for book collectors. 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own also includes suggested blues recordings to accompany each recommended work, as well as a concluding section on key reference titles-or as Komara and Johnson phrase it: "The Books behind the Blues 100." 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own serves as a guide for any blues fan looking for a road map through the history of-and even history of the scholarship on-the blues. Here Komara and Johnson answer the question of not only what is a "blues" book, but which ones are worth owning.

Pee Wee King's birth on February 18, 1914, into a Milwaukee working-class Polish family named Kuczynski was hardly an indicator that he would grow up to become a pioneer and superstar of country and western music. Certainly no one in the Polish-German community of his youth could have foreseen his influence on the direction of American popular music or his enduring fame on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Even Pee Wee King himself is incredulous at the unlikely twists and turns of his life and career. Pee Wee King is best remembered today as the co-writer of the most popular country music song of all time, The Tennessee Waltz. He is just as important, however, for his vital role in expanding the horizons, and the market potential, of country and western music. He took the polka and waltz rhythms of his youth, mixed them with the sounds of the big bands of the thirties and forties, and flavored it all with the balladry and moods of the Western cowboy. He combined this new sound with folk and country traditions rooted in places like Louisville, Knoxville, and Nashville. The result was a smooth, listenable, danceable, up-to-date sound that has become the most popular form of music in the United States. Recipient of numerous awards, including induction into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Pee Wee King has been one of the most important figures in country music for over sixty years. Told in King's own voice and words, this biography, based on many hours of taped conversations, is the first account of King's incredible life and career. Featuring a star-studded cast of characters from the history of music -- Eddy Arnold, Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Gene Autry, Patti Page, and many others -- this memorable book is a must-read for any fan of country music.

This book presents a collection of essays on the debates about origins, authenticity, and identity in folk and blues music. The essays had their origins in an international conference on the Transatlantic routes of American roots music, out of which emerged common themes and questions of origins and authenticity in folk music, black and white, American and British. The central theme is musical influences, but issues of identity--national, local, and racial--are also recurring subjects. The extent to which these identities were invented, imagined, or constructed by the performers, or by those who recorded their work for posterity, is also a prominent concern and questions of racial identity are particularly central. The book features a new essay on the blues by Paul Oliver alongside an essay on Oliver's seminal blues scholarship. There are also several essays on British blues and the links between performers and styles in the United States and Britain and new essays on critical figures such as Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie.

This volume uniquely offers perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on the connections and interplay of influences in roots music and the debates about these subjects drawing on the work of eminent established scholars and emerging young academics who are already making a contribution to the field. Throughout, the contributors offer the most recent scholarship available on key issues.

(Guitar Recorded Versions). 30 tunes: Evil * Got My Mojo Working * Honey Bee * I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man * more.

A frank autobiography of the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. This book records his life - the music, the women and the drugs. It talks about the white promotors and producers who exploited black musicians as well as the critics.

Peter Guralnick's writings on music and musicians are unique in the literature of American popular culture. His first three books, Feel Like Going Home, Lost Highway, and Sweet Soul Music-which together form a sort of trilogy that has achieved classic status-trace twentieth-century American popular music to its roots by bringing to life the people, the songs, and the performances that forever changed not only the American music scene but America itself.

Here, in a narrative that captures all the tumult and liberating energy of a nation in transition, is the story of the legendary performers-among them Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green-who merged gospel and rhythm-and-blues to create sweet soul music.

This book provides a sequel to Robert Ford's comprehensive reference work A Blues Bibliography, the second edition of which was published in 2007. Bringing Ford's bibliography of resources up to date, this volume covers works published since 2005, complementing the first volume by extending coverage through twelve years of new publications. As in the previous volume, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations, and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. With extensive listings of print and online articles in scholarly and trade journals, books, and recordings, this bibliography offers the most thorough resource for all researchers studying the blues.

The life and early death of a South Side guitar genius, the greatest unheralded Chicago blues-maker

Jimi Hendrix called Earl Hooker "the master of the wah-wah pedal." Buddy Guy slept with one of Hooker's slides beneath his pillow hoping to tap some of the elder bluesman's power. And B. B. King has said repeatedly that, for his money, Hooker was the best guitar player he ever met.

Tragically, Earl Hooker died of tuberculosis in 1970 when he was on the verge of international success just as the Blues Revival of the late sixties and early seventies was reaching full volume.

Second cousin to now-famous bluesman John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker was born in Mississippi in 1929, and reared in black South Side Chicago where his parents settled in 1930. From the late 1940s on, he was recognized as the most creative electric blues guitarist of his generation. He was a "musician's musician," defining the art of blues slide guitar and playing in sessions and shows with blues greats Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and B. B. King.

A favorite of black club and neighborhood bar audiences in the Midwest, and a seasoned entertainer in the rural states of the Deep South, Hooker spent over twenty-five years of his short existence burning up U.S. highways, making brilliant appearances wherever he played.

Until the last year of his life, Hooker had only a few singles on obscure labels to show for all the hard work. The situation changed in his last few months when his following expanded dramatically. Droves of young whites were seeking American blues tunes and causing a blues album boom. When he died, his star's rise was extinguished. Known primarily as a guitarist rather than a vocalist, Hooker did not leave a songbook for his biographer to mine. Only his peers remained to praise his talent and pass on his legend.

"Earl Hooker's life may tell us a lot about the blues," biographer Sebastian Danchin says, "but it also tells us a great deal about his milieu. This book documents the culture of the ghetto through the example of a central character, someone who is to be regarded as a catalyst of the characteristic traits of his community."

Like the tales of so many other unheralded talents among bluesmen, "Earl Hooker, Blues Master," Hooker's life story, has all the elements of a great blues song -- late nights, long roads, poverty, trouble, and a soul-felt pining for what could have been.

Sebastian Danchin is a freelance writer and record producer. He also creates programs for France's leading radio network, Radio-France, and is the blues editor for France's leading jazz magazine, "Jazzman." His previous books, among others, include "Les Dieux du Blues" (Paris: Editions Atlas, 1995) and "Blues Boy: The Life and Music of B. B. King" (University Press of Mississippi, 1998).

Saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was one of the most innovative and influential jazz musicians of any era. The implications of Parker's contributions to jazz were so compelling that jazz artists on all instruments were moved to reevaluate every aspect of their art with regard to melody, rhythm, and harmony. As one of the architects of modern jazz (often called "bebop"), Parker had a profound effect on American music that continues to this day. This book opens by considering current research on Parker's biography, laying out some of the contradictory accounts of his life, and setting the chronology straight where possible. It then progresses to four chapters that focus on Parker's music, tracing his artistic evolution and major achievements as a jazz improviser. Much like a guided tour through an artist's retrospective, the book introduces readers to a sampling of Charlie Parker's most illustrative works. The musical discussions and transcribed musical examples are keyed to compact disc timings for easy location - a feature unique to this book.