There he is, drumming on "Tutti Frutti," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," and thousands of other songs. As a studio player in New Orleans and Los Angeles from the 1940s through the 1970s, Earl Palmer co-created hundreds of hits and transformed the lope of rhythm and blues into full-tilt rock and roll. He was, as a result, one of the first session men to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Palmer's distinctive voice alternates with the insights of music journalist and historian Tony Scherman in an unforgettable trip through the social and musical cultures of mid-century New Orleans and the feverish world of early rock.

His blistering guitar playing breathed life back into the blues. Performing night after night - from his early teens to his tragic death at age thirty-five, in tiny pass-the-hat clubs and before thousands in huge arenas - Stevie Ray Vaughan fused blazing technique with deep soul in a manner unrivaled since the days of Jimi Hendrix. The genuineness and passion of his music moved millions. It nearly saved his life. Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire is the first biography of this meteoric guitar hero. Emerging from the hotbed of Texas blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan developed his unique style early on, in competition with his older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, founder of the Fabulous Thunderbirds - a competition that shaped much of Stevie's life. Fueled by drugs and alcohol through a thousand one-night stands, he lived at a fever pitch that nearly destroyed him. Musically exhausted and close to collapse, in his final years Stevie Ray mustered the courage to overcome his addictions, finding strength and inspiration in a new emotional openness. His death in a freak helicopter crash in 1990 silenced one of the great musical talents of our time. Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire reveals Stevie Ray Vaughan's life in all its remarkable, sometimes unsavory detail. It also brings to life the rich world of Texas music out of which he grew, and captures the staggering dimensions of his musical legacy. It will stand as the definitive biographical portrait of Stevie Ray.

In 1963, in a south London hotel, Andrew Loog Oldham discovered an unknown rhythm and blues band called the Rolling Stones and became their manager and producer; by 1967 they had achieved worldwide celebrity, been arrested in a notorious drugs raid and split with the manager that made them. 2Stoned is the remarkable record of these years, when Oldham's radical strategies transformed them into the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band That Ever Drew Breath. In his first book, Stoned, Oldham recorded his early years and the meeting with the Stones that changed all their fates; 2Stoned is the story of what followed.

In The Heart of Rock & Soul, veteran rock critic Dave Marsh offers a polemical guide to the 1,001 greatest rock and soul singles ever made, encompassing rock, metal, R&B, disco, folk, funk, punk, reggae, rap, soul, country, and any other music that has made a difference over the past fifty years. The illuminating essays,complete with music history, social commentary, and personal appraisals,double as a mini-history of popular music. Here you will find singles by artists as wide-ranging as Aretha Franklin, George Jones, Roy Orbison, the Sex Pistols, Madonna, Run-D.M.C., and Van Halen. Featuring a new preface that covers the hits,and misses,of the'90s, The Heart of Rock & Soul remains as provocative, passionate, and timeless as the music it praises.

W. C. Handy's blues, Memphis Blues," "Beale Street Blues," "St. Louis Blues",changed America's music forever. In Father of the Blues, Handy presents his own story: a vivid picture of American life now vanished. W. C. Handy (1873-1958) was a sensitive child who loved nature and music but not until he had won a reputation did his father, a preacher of stern Calvinist faith, forgive him for following the "devilish" calling of black music and theatre. Here Handy tells of this and other struggles: the lot of a black musician with entertainment groups in the turn-of-the-century South his days in minstrel shows, and then in his own band how he made his first 100 from "Memphis Blues" how his orchestra came to grief with the First World War his successful career in New York as publisher and song writer his association with the literati of the Harlem Renaissance.Handy's remarkable tale,pervaded with his unique personality and humour,reveals not only the career of the man who brought the blues to the world's attention, but the whole scope of American music, from the days of the old popular songs of the South, through ragtime to the great era of jazz.

This is a biographical and critical guide to performers and writers in a wide variety of musical fields, including pop, rock, rap, jazz, rhythm and blues, folk, New Age, country, gospel, and reggae. Each biannual volume covers 80-100 musicians.

"Contemporary Musicians provides comprehensive information on more than 2,000 musicians and groups from around the world. Entries include a detailed biographical essay, selected discographies, contact information and a list of sources. Features include e-mail addresses and online sources where available.

"Contemporary Musicians provides comprehensive information on more than 2,000 musicians and groups from around the world. Entries include a detailed biographical essay, selected discographies, contact information and a list of sources. Features include e-mail addresses and online sources where available.

New Volume Students and other researchers will love this biographical and critical series covering performers and others in a wide variety of musical fields. Each volume covers more than 80 musicians and provides vital statistics, critical essays, photographs and more. Musician and subject indexes facilitate research. Look for:
-- Rap star 2Pac
-- Country sensation Shania Twain
-- Dance hitmakers Soul II Soul
-- Eclectic British rockers Blur
-- Punk-folk artist Ani DiFranco
-- Jazz bassist Christian McBride
-- And many others

New Volume Students and other researchers will love this biographical and critical series covering performers and others in a wide variety of musical fields. Each volume covers more than 80 musicians and provides vital statistics, critical essays, photographs and more. Musician and subject indexes facilitate research. Look for:
-- Rap star 2Pac
-- Country sensation Shania Twain
-- Dance hitmakers Soul II Soul
-- Eclectic British rockers Blur
-- Punk-folk artist Ani DiFranco
-- Jazz bassist Christian McBride
-- And many others

New Volume Students and other researchers will love this biographical and critical series covering performers and others in a wide variety of musical fields. Each volume covers more than 80 musicians and provides vital statistics, critical essays, photographs and more. Musician and subject indexes facilitate research. Look for:
-- Rap star 2Pac
-- Country sensation Shania Twain
-- Dance hitmakers Soul II Soul
-- Eclectic British rockers Blur
-- Punk-folk artist Ani DiFranco
-- Jazz bassist Christian McBride
-- And many others

This set contains the biography of drummer Johnny Blowers, who recorded with industry titans such as Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and others, and a copy of Blowers' CD Johnny Blowers & His Giants of Jazz which features 10 tracks.

Provides jazz scholars, specialists, and both novice and experienced listeners with a detailed, critical commentary on this jazz master's recordings from 1924 to 1974. The guide begins with a brief overview of the artist and the complexity and unending creativity of his music. The chapters follow the chronological sequence covering identifiable stages in output and list essential Ellingtonia. The appendixes include a bibliography, a comprehensive discography listing both LPs and CDs, a list of useful addresses, and a list of Ellington musicians and the date of their membership in the band.

Bands were playing, people were dancing, the music business was booming. It was the big-band era, and swing was giving a new shape and sound to American culture. Swing Changes looks at New Deal America through its music and shows us how the contradictions and tensions within swing-over race, politics, its own cultural status, the role of women-mirrored those played out in the larger society. Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, recordings, photographs, literature, and films, Swing Changes offers a vibrant picture of American society at a pivotal time, and a new perspective on music as a cultural force.

This book is not a recounting of ancedotes nor a simple chronology of musical events, but a history. It evaluates the gathered evidence and draws conclusions. Its narrative and summaries are based on repeated careful listenings to thouands of recordings, on the reports of musicians who witnessed and experienced many of the crucial events and created some of the masterworks, and on the fresh research and insightful thought of hundreds of serious scholars who love and respect this music.

"Russo has undertaken an ambitious project, attempting to discuss together the elements of music that are commonly treated separately in books on harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. As such, his new book contains enough musical instruction to be of interest even to students not particularly interested in 'jazz' or Russo's own musical idiom. For the student who wants to compose or arrange for 'jazz' ensembles from dance bands to full orchestras, Russo has shown himself to be a generous source of good advice."--Jon Newsom, Notes