This biography tells the story of one of the most notorious figures in the history of popular music, Morris Levy (1927-1990). At age nineteen, he cofounded the nightclub Birdland in Hell's Kitchen, which became the home for a new musical style, bebop. Levy operated one of the first integrated clubs on Broadway and helped build the careers of Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell and most notably aided the reemergence of Count Basie. In 1957, he founded a record label, Roulette Records. Roulette featured many of the significant jazz artists who played Birdland but also scored top pop hits with acts like Buddy Knox, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Joey Dee and the Starliters, and, in the mid-1960s, Tommy James. Stories abound of Levy threatening artists, songwriters, and producers, sometimes just for the sport, other times so he could continue to build his empire. Along the way, Levy attracted ""investors"" with ties to the Mafia, including Dominic Ciaffone (a.k.a. ""Swats"" Mulligan), Tommy Eboli, and the most notorious of them all, Vincent Gigante. Gigante allegedly owned large pieces of Levy's recording and retail businesses. Starting in the late 1950s, the FBI and IRS investigated Levy but could not make anything stick until the early 1980s, when Levy foolishly got involved in a deal to sell remaindered records to a small-time reseller, John LaMonte. With partners in the mob, Levy tried to force LaMonte to pay for four million remaindered records. When the FBI secretly wiretapped LaMonte in an unrelated investigation and agents learned about the deal, investigators successfully prosecuted Levy in the extortion scheme. Convicted in 1988, Levy did not live to serve prison time. Stricken with cancer, he died just as his last appeals were exhausted. However, even if he had lived, Levy's brand of storied high life was effectively bust. Corporate ownership of record labels doomed most independents in the business, ending the days when a savvy if ruthless hustler could blaze a path to the top.

"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.

Jazz musician Bobby Hackett - 'one of the finest natural musicians in the business' according to Muggsy Spanier - began his career in the 1930s; it ended with his death in 1976. An extensively researched discography of the vast number of recorded sessions in which Hackett took part during these decades forms the essential core of this substantial book. It is prefaced with the fascinating biographical insights gathered from the articles, reviews, news stories, meetings and interviews which the editors accumulated as they worked, and illustrated throughout with contemporary photographs, advertising, and record labels and covers. Detailed indexes feature both the famous and the influential - Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, Jackie Gleason, Horace Heidt, Glenn Miller, Lee Wiley among them - and the lesser-known working musicians and artists of the era.Prompted by Hackett's death, this work of research started with hand-written index cards, and progressed through typewriters and several generations of word processors and computer operating systems; its publication is a realisation not only of Bobby Hackett's life in music, and place in a period of musical history, but also of an enthusiasm sustained through personal acquisitions, friendships and travel - and listening to a lot of jazz!

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.

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.

Those who have lived - not just witnessed - the efflorescence of a pivotal culture moment never see the world through veiled eyes again. Jimmy Lyons was there, devising wholly original inventions of words and music while the Beats, the neo-folk troubadours, the post-bop jazz shooting stars, and the tie-dyed psychedelic rockers were scorching through the underbrush and opening new paths of creativity as alternatives to the increasingly bottom line-driven mainstream. Lyons, though, wasn't content to find a niche in one countercultural movement or another. He kept moving, observing, and writing new poems, stories, and songs. But he never gave up on the wry sophistication of the classic American popular song. Indeed, he has dedicated himself to infusing the same hallowed forms perfected by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and others, with his singular fantasias of ingeniously colored and textured wordplay.

These plays have a subtext only Lyons can provide, derived from what he calls the "rituals of the road" and the "the circular rhythms" of the race track, the beats and pulses of everyday American life that rarely raise a ripple on the surface of American culture. Lyons hears the screams and dreams of his countrymen and woman; from them he creates new modes of expression. He has been changed by each of his open-hearted an open-eared encounters, and this body of work is his way of making those changes sing and swing. - Derk Richardson

"Modern Jazz Guitar Ensemble" Vol. 1 is a collection of four original compositions arranged for five guitars, bass, and drums. The arrangements range in style from swing, rock, 3/4, and straight eighth. The arrangements feature chromatic melodies and modern chord voicings that create a contemporary new sound for the jazz guitar ensemble. Each chart provides many opportunities for all the players in the ensemble to solo. The arrangements in this book are ideally suited for the intermediate/advanced level guitar ensemble. For audio and video samples of the charts visit www.nickfryermusic.com

There are three fundamentals to any great solo: Chords, Scales, and Tone Selection. Learn to use the fundamentals as your three-step approach to jazz improvisation. Over 80 images for Treble and Bass Clef. This book is perfect for beginners, struggling intermediates, and jazz instructors requiring a concise method for students. Simple enough for immediate results, this method can be applied to any style, from the easiest inside harmonies, to the most advanced outside substitutions. While other methods teach patterns and riffs, this book reveals how those patterns and riffs get created in the first place. All images in this edition are monochrome (black and white).