Original Music composed by Antonio Ciacca for the Chocolate Festival Event, pairing Richart chocolate with live jazz.

Women performers played a vital role in the development of American and transatlantic entertainment, celebrity culture, and gender ideology. Sara E. Lampert examines the lives, careers, and fame of overlooked figures from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama, ballet, and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences. These women lived and performed the tensions and contradictions of nineteenth-century gender roles, sparking debates about women's place in public life. Yet even their unprecedented wealth and prominence failed to break the patriarchal family structures that governed their lives and conditioned their careers. Inevitable contradictions arose. The burgeoning celebrity culture of the time forced women stage stars to don the costumes of domestic femininity even as the unsettled nature of life in the theater defied these ideals.A revealing foray into a lost time, Starring Women returns a generation of performers to their central place in the early history of American theater.

"Black Pearls" is an anthology of black women singers who made major contributions to American music. The word anthology derives from the Greek language meaning "gathering of flowers." In this collection, Josephine Qualls has described the evolution of Jazz music and its' related musical forms as embodied in the careers of these women ranging from Bessie Smith through Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson (mother of pearls) and many others. Also included are descriptions of several early venues in which black women developed their talents. The musical art forms of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Ragtime and Dixieland highlights the descriptions of the births, early years and lifelong careers of these African/American women. Spanning the years from 1895 to the present, this is an engaging and informative book leaving the reader fascinated by the amazing variety in this "collection of flowers." "Black Pearls" belongs in the library of any fan or historian of African/American music.

After around 35 years touring the world professionally in the many areas of music as both a sideman, and a leader, I am very proud to finally publish some of my original compositions. It has been many years that people ask me about my different originals, as well as enquire about the availability of the lead sheets. Finally I have assembled them into a book format. The book begins chronologically from 2003- 2011. My last 6 CD's starting with the Motive Series, One Step Closer, Family First, Live At The Bird's Eye, Good Rhythms Good Vibes, and Live at Chorus jazz Club. You will surely notice how my harmonic language skills grow and change over the years. Feel free to explore the different ways they can be performed. Many of the tunes can be played in multiple styles, and you can just use the harmonic/rhythmic roadmap and melody your way.

Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker is the first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities on jazz and culture in America.

Throughout his life, Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at the age of thirty-four.

Drawing on interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members, Kansas City Lightning recreates Parker's Depression-era childhood; his early days navigating the Kansas City nightlife, inspired by lions like Lester Young and Count Basie; and on to New York, where he began to transcend the music he had mastered. Crouch reveals an ambitious young man torn between music and drugs, between his domineering mother and his impressionable young wife, whose teenage romance with Charlie lies at the bittersweet heart of this story.

With the wisdom of a jazz scholar, the cultural insights of an acclaimed social critic, and the narrative skill of a literary novelist, Stanley Crouch illuminates this American master as never before.

Jazz rock flourished from 1968 to 1974, offering a distinctively cool and innovative hybrid sound that captivated a generation-and beyond. Superstar bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago have earned their place in popular consciousness, but the movement included many other powerful, innovative groups such as Tower of Power and Malo. Author Mike Baron explores the history of this music fusion, its rise and fall in popularity. He offers highlights-and his own unique insights from a front-row seat in jazz rock-into what made the era so special. A Brief History of Jazz Rock is a sax-meets-Strat bible that dares to inspire a Renaissance-to cultivate a new generation of musicians who might mix brass with bass, and help return forgotten bands like If and Dreams to their place on the main stage.

Peggy Lee holds a special place in the history of American popular and jazz music. From her birth on May 26, 1920, to her final recording on August 26, 1995, to the New Yorker's obituary from February of 2002, this chronological record covers every moment of her professional life. Detailed entries describe recordings (both albums and songs), radio and television appearances, her work in films, and her songwriting efforts, drawing from interviews with Lee and others, nightclub and concert reviews, and a wealth of other sources. Appendices list CD releases of Lee's recordings and the songs she composed. Illustrated with many rare photographs.

"Practical Jazz Theory for Improvisation" is a jazz theory text with an emphasis on improvisation. Originally conceived as the Jazz Theory/Improvisation text and curriculum for the 2014 National Jazz Workshop, it has already been adopted by several university jazz programs. This book begins at a level accessible by students just beginning in jazz, with reference appendices to fill any fundamental music theory knowledge, yet progresses systematically in technical and conceptual content well beyond all but the most advanced college improvisation classes. With notated examples and exercises demonstrating all concepts as well free downloadable play-along tracks for all exercises, this book will have students playing the material almost immediately. While not required, the available 300+ page companion book, "Practical Jazz Theory for Improvisation Exercise Workbook" (available in treble and bass clef) has all exercises notated in all keys to allow for quicker technical and aural advancement.

This work provides an in-depth look at the role of black music within the Harlem Renaissance movement, suggesting its primacy to Renaissance philosophy and practice. Floyd holds that the music of this period was also the source of certain ambivalent attitudes on the part of the black leadership. The book features essays on various subjects including musical theatre, Duke Ellington, black music and musicians in England, concert singers and the interrelationships between black painters and music. It also includes a music bibliography of works composed during the period.

A collection of anecdotes and reminiscences by local musicians and others of the Hastings jazz and social scene in the 50's and 60's. Together with photos and press clippings, it provides a trip down memory lane back to those fabulous years.

This is a book for students and seasoned performers who want to know more about the thought processes for improvising Jazz. It is also for teachers who wish to control the subject in graduated steps. It shows promising students that it won't do to play just anything at any time, and that there is a difference between mere self-gratification and really connecting with a much larger audience. If, as a movement, Jazz has lost its way, this book shows the way back.

Carter and Ralph Stanley--the Stanley Brothers--are comparable to Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs as important members of the earliest generation of bluegrass musicians. In this first biography of the brothers, author David W. Johnson documents that Carter (1925-1966) and Ralph (b 1927) were equally important contributors to the tradition of old-time country music. Together from 1946 to 1966, the Stanley Brothers began their careers performing in the schoolhouses of southwestern Virginia and expanded their popularity to the concert halls of Europe. In order to re-create this post-World War II journey through the changing landscape of American music, the author interviewed Ralph Stanley, the family of Carter Stanley, former members of the Clinch Mountain Boys, and dozens of musicians and friends who knew the Stanley Brothers as musicians and men. The late Mike Seeger allowed Johnson to use his invaluable 1966 interviews with the brothers. Notable old-time country and bluegrass musicians such as George Shuffler, Lester Woodie, Larry Sparks, and the late Wade Mainer shared their recollections of Carter and Ralph. Lonesome Melodies begins and ends in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. Carter and Ralph were born there and had an early publicity photograph taken at the Cumberland Gap. In December 1966, pallbearers walked up Smith Ridge to bring Carter to his final resting place. In the intervening years, the brothers performed thousands of in-person and radio shows, recorded hundreds of songs and tunes for half a dozen record labels, and tried to keep pace with changing times while remaining true to the spirit of old-time country music. As a result of their accomplishments, they have become a standard of musical authenticity.