"Music Is My Life" is the first comprehensive analysis of Louis Armstrong's autobiographical writings (including his books, essays, and letters) and their relation to his musical and visual performances. Combining approaches from autobiography theory, literary criticism, intermedia studies, cultural history, and musicology, Daniel Stein reconstructs Armstrong's performances of his life story across various media and for different audiences, complicating the monolithic and hagiographic views of the musician.

The book will appeal to academic readers with an interest in African American studies, jazz studies, musicology, and popular culture, as well as general readers interested in Armstrong's life and music, jazz, and twentieth-century entertainment. While not a biography, it provides a key to understanding Armstrong's oeuvre as well as his complicated place in American history and twentieth-century media culture.

The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time. Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night. The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed without any copyrights or royalties paid to the master composers who created these musical canons. Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legitimate and legal editions of these books ever produced. You won't even notice the difference...the covers look the same, the engravings look the same, the songlist is nearly identical, and the price remains fair even on a musician's salary! But every conscientious musician will appreciate that these books are now produced legally and ethically, benefitting the songwriters that we owe for some of the greatest music ever written! 400 songs, including: Air Mail Special * Birdland * Bye Bye Blackbird * Caravan * Doxy * Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) * Georgia * Girl Talk * I Remember You * I Thought About You * In Walked Bud * The Jodi Grind * Just the Way You Are * Killer Joe * Little Sunflower * Mercy, Mercy, Mercy * Moanin' * The Nearness of You * Now's the Time * Old Devil Moon * Phase Dance * St. Thomas * Speak Low * Stardust * Tangerine * Tenor Madness * Watch What Happens * Whisper Not * Willow Weep for Me * Yardbird Suite * and 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.

A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage, beautiful, spirited Pannonica - known as Nica - seemed to have it all: children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard a piece by the jazz legend Thelonious Monk. The music overtook her like a magic spell, and she abandoned her marriage to go and find him. Arriving in New York, Nica was shunned by society but accepted by the musicians. They gave her friendship; she gave them material and emotional support. Her convertible Bentley was a familiar sight outside the clubs and she drank whisky from a hip flask disguised as a Bible. Her notoriety was sealed when drug-addicted saxophonist Charlie Parker died in her apartment. But her real love was reserved for Monk, whom she cared for until his death in 1982. The Baroness traces Nica's extraordinary, thrilling journey - from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa, passing under the shadow of the Holocaust, and finally to the creative ferment of the New York jazz scene. Hannah Rothschild's search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great aunt draws on their long friendship and years of meticulous research and interviews. It is part musical odyssey, part dazzling love story.

In 1960, photographer William Claxton and noted musicologist Joachim Berendt traveled the United States hot on the trail of jazz. Through music halls and marching bands, side streets and subways, they sought to document this living, breathing, beating musical phenomenon that enraptured America across social, economic, and racial lines. The result of Claxton and Berendt's collaboration was Jazzlife, much sought after by collectors and now revived in this fresh TASCHEN volume. From coast to coast, from unknown street performers to legends of the genre, this defining jazz journey explores just what made up this most original of American art forms. In New Orleans and New York, in St. Louis, Biloxi, Jackson, and beyond, Claxton's rapturous yet tender images and accompanying texts examine jazz's regional diversity as much as its pervasive vitality and soul. They show the music makers and the many spaces and people this music touched, from funeral parades to concert stages, from an elderly trumpet player to kids who hung from windows to catch a glimpse of a passing band. With images of Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Gabor Szabo, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and many more, this is as much a compelling slice of history as it is a loving personal tribute.

Throughout his life, Louis Armstrong tried to explain how singing with a barbershop quartet on the streets of New Orleans was foundational to his musicianship. Until now, there has been no in-depth inquiry into what he meant when he said, ""I figure singing and playing is the same,"" or, ""Singing was more into my blood than the trumpet."" Creating the Jazz Solo: Louis Armstrong and Barbershop Harmony shows that Armstrong understood exactly the relationship between what he sang and what he played, and that he meant these comments to be taken literally: he was singing through his horn. To describe the relationship between what Armstrong sang and played, author Vic Hobson discusses elements of music theory with a style accessible even to readers with little or no musical background. Jazz is a music that is often performed by people with limited formal musical education. Armstrong did not analyze what he played in theoretical terms. Instead, he thought about it in terms of the voices in a barbershop quartet. Understanding how Armstrong, and other pioneer jazz musicians of his generation, learned to play jazz and how he used his background of singing in a quartet to develop the jazz solo has fundamental implications for the teaching of jazz history and performance today. This assertive book provides an approachable foundation for current musicians to unlock the magic and understand jazz the Louis Armstrong way.

Interdisciplinary articles bridge the gulf between classical and popular music. Modern musical-analytical techniques are applied to a wide range of Western music, disregarding barriers between different kinds of music. Topics discussed fall into three sections: compositional poietics (poietics being the pre-compositional activities of composer theorists); structuralist approaches, extending musical-theoretical research to new repertoires; and musical-analysis employing techniques from other disciplines. The essays in this volume present current research into a wide range of Western music, disregarding barriers between different kinds of music, and drawing on modern musical-analytical techniques to draw together the varied subjects they explore. Contributors: Jonathan D. Kramer, Robert Cogan, Robert D. Morris, Andrew Mead, Cynthia Folio, Elizabeth West Marvin, Walter Everett, Jane Piper Clendenning, Jonathan W. Bernard, Ellie M. Hisama, Dave Headlam, Richard Hermann, John Covach, Nicholas J. Cook. Elizabeth West Marvin is associate professor of music theory at the Eastman School of Music. Richard Hermann is assistant professor of music, University of New Mexico.

Birdland was a legendary nightclub in New York City and, from 1949 to 1965, was the scene for the greatest jazz music and musicians in the world. This illustrated book offers a history of this legendary jazz club and presents the greats who played its stage, in capsule biographies, vintage photos, and rare memorabilia. Named after legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Yardbird Parker, the club showcased memorable double and triple bills lasting until dawn. Many classic live recordings were made at the Jazz Corner of the World, such as A Night at Birdland by the Art Blakey Quintet, Basie at Birdland, and Coltrane, Live at Birdland. Birdland established itself as the one place that every jazz musician had to play. Greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Art Tatum, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, and Sonny Rollins, to name only a few, graced its stage.

(Keyboard Instruction). This book presents a concise history, or "survey" of jazz piano. In 13 hands-on lessons and 4 bonus performances, Dick Hyman explores the styles, musical vocabulary, and performers who have defined and shaped this elusive American art form over the last century. Starting with the pre-ragtime music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk and ragtime of Scott Joplin, and ending with the advanced scale types of Nicholas Slonimsky and music of McCoy Tyner, Mr. Hyman discusses and demonstrates the astonishing variety of jazz piano improvisation and the people and techniques that have shaped its evolution. The included DVD, showing all 13 lessons and 4 bonus performances, is filled with closeups of Mr. Hyman's hands as he plays and discusses these techniques. This fascinating package also features a preface and autobiography of Hyman. "From the pre-ragtime genesis of Louis Moreau Gottschalk to the modal post-bop of the great McCoy Tyner, this may be the finest lesson book not only in depth of material but in ease of use ... when you combine the publishing genius of Hal Leonard with the artistic brilliance of Dick Hyman then a five star recommendation is easy " Critical Jazz

The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music documents the emergence of collective movements in jazz and improvised music. Jazz history is most often portrayed as a site for individual expression and revolves around the celebration of iconic figures, while the networks and collaborations that enable the music to maintain and sustain its cultural status are surprisingly under-investigated. This collection explores the history of musician-led collectives and the ways in which they offer a powerful counter-model for rethinking jazz practices in the post-war period. It includes studies of groups including the New York Musicians Organization, Sweden's Ett minne foer livet, Wonderbrass from South Wales, the contemporary Dutch jazz-hip hop scene, and Austria's JazzWerkstatt. With an international list of contributors and examples from Europe and the United States, these twelve essays and case studies examine issues of shared aesthetic vision, socioeconomic and political factors, local education, and cultural values among improvising musicians.

James Rae's highly successful method Progressive Jazz Studies has given countless aspiring jazz players the confidence to play with real style. Now with Jazz Saxophone Studies, 78 of Rae's studies are brought together into a single great-value book, from Grade 1 to 5 (elementary to late intermediate).
Part 1 introduces the beginner to jazz rhythms including swing quavers, syncopation and anticipation; Part 2 contains fully graded melodic jazz studies; and Part 3 develops confidence within common jazz tonalities: whole-tone, diminished and blues scales, modes and the II-V-I chord sequence.

The increased circulation of people and ideas within Europe is not matched by an awareness of a shared history among its jazz community. In the course of almost a century, European jazz musicians not only produced a corpus of work worthy of much wider appreciation, but also adopted strategies to deal with a variety of situations, ranging from outright prohibition to survival in the market and institutions. This volume provides an organic overview of European jazz history in order to serve as an inspiration for new generations of listeners and musicians independently of current marketing hype. It covers the linear narrative of jazz history in Europe from its inception to the year 2000 presented on a geographical basis country by country. Each article is authored by a jazz history specialist from the specific country contextualizing the music in the cultural landscape of that country, discussing the most influential figures of its development, and referencing the sometimes considerable literature available in the national language. An unprecedented pool of authors makes much of this information available in English for the first time. Further chapters cover related subjects like popular music in Europe, the history of African-American entertainers before jazz, cross-national traditions like Gypsy and Jewish music, festivals, film and avant-garde music. The book also draws on the newly available resources created by the extensive work being done nationally by various jazz archives; chapters are supplemented by suggested listening lists and bibliographies.

Between Beats: The Jazz Tradition and Black Vernacular Dance offers a new look at the complex intersections between jazz music and popular dance over the last hundred-plus years. Author Christi Jay Wells shows how popular entertainment and cultures of social dancing were crucial to jazz music's formation and development even as jazz music came to earn a reputation as a "legitimate" art form better suited for still, seated listening. Through the concept of choreographies of listening, the book explores amateur and professional jazz dancers' relationships with jazz music and musicians as jazz's soundscapes and choreoscapes were forged through close contact and mutual creative exchange. It also unpacks the aesthetic and political negotiations through which jazz music supposedly distanced itself from dancing bodies. Fusing little-discussed material from diverse historical and contemporary sources with the author's own years of experience as a social jazz dancer, it advances participatory dance and embodied practice as central topics of analysis in jazz studies. As it explores the fascinating history of jazz as popular dance music, it exposes how American anxieties about bodies and a broad cultural privileging of the cerebral over the corporeal have shaped efforts to "elevate" expressive forms such as jazz to elite status.

In this vivid history of jazz, a respected critic and a leading scholar capture the excitement of America s unique music with intellectual bite, unprecedented insight, and the passion of unabashed fans. They explain what jazz is, where it came from, and who created it and why, all within the broader context of American life and culture. Emphasizing its African American roots, Jazz traces the history of the music over the last hundred years. From ragtime and blues to the international craze for swing, from the heated protests of the avant-garde to the radical diversity of today s artists, Jazz describes the travails and triumphs of musical innovators struggling for work, respect, and cultural acceptance set against the backdrop of American history, commerce, and politics. With vibrant photographs by legendary jazz chronicler Herman Leonard, Jazz is also an arresting visual history of a century of music."

Jazz on a Winter's Night is a Christmas piano album of stylish, swinging arrangements. Favourite Christmas carols and songs receive the complete jazz treatment, with rhythm, harmony, grooves, and solos all carefully notated. The expertise of the arranger, a celebrated jazz pianist and composer, guarantees an authentic jazz sound, and a range of styles from Nat King Cole to John Coltrane. While paying homage to American Christmas jazz, the collection also reflects a European tradition, in such time-honoured classics as 'In the bleak mid-winter'.

Komeda: A Private Life in Jazz is the biography of Krzysztof (Trzcinski) Komeda (1931-1969), composer of no fewer than 40 soundtracks, including film scores to all of Roman Polanski's early films such as Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby; and revered figure in the world of jazz, which regards his album, Astigmatic (released in 1966), as a key album in the history of European jazz. This biography of Komeda, originally published in Polish by Znak in 2018, the first to be published in the English language, not only traces Komeda's life, but also the development of Polish jazz during this period, showing how this arose in large part out of a need for self-expression and personal freedom during a repressive period of Soviet communist dominance. The book is full of interviews between the biographer and people who worked with and knew Krzysztof Komeda personally, and, while thoroughly-grounded in primary sources, it is written in a playful, questioning, engaging style.

With twenty-three Grammy wins, Chick Corea is a legendary jazz figure and one of the most prolific and influential contemporary pianists of our time. He has produced hundreds of releases in multiple genres over five decades, and he is one of the hardest-working musicians in the industry, with a yearly tour schedule of over 250 international concerts. He has authored multiple books and instructional works, and many regard him today as easily one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Experiencing Chick Corea looks at the full span of Corea's career, decade by decade, touching on the vast array of musical styles he engaged, from his initial work with Herbie Mann to his free explorations with Circle. It touches on his arguably most influential album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, his involvement with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and subsequent efforts as pioneer in the fusion scene with Return to Forever, his duo collaborations, classical outings, and his acoustic and trio work in the 1990s and beyond. Learning how to listen to Corea is itself a bit of a magic carpet ride, given the range of material he has created and the breadth and depth of that work. Experiencing Chick Corea introduces this American Icon to audiences beyond the domain of jazz fans already familiar with this work. Monika Herzig places Corea's creations in their historical and social contexts so any music lover can gain a fuller understanding of the incredible range of his work.

A beautifully illustrated edition of Studs Terkel's timeless portraits of America's jazz legends, for readers of all ages.
Studs Terkel's first book, "Giants of Jazz," is the master interviewer's unique tribute to America's jazz greats, now available in an affordable paperback edition with the original illustrations and discography.
The thirteen profiles in this "luminous" ("Jazzwise") collection weave together stories of the individual jazz musicians' lives with the history of the jazz era, and the music's evolution from the speakeasies of New York to the concert halls of the world's greatest cities. Terkel--a lifelong fan and friend of many of these legends--uses firsthand interviews with artists such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker to tell the human stories behind the giants who shaped this uniquely American music form. Some of the many fascinating details Terkel relates include Joe Oliver's favorite meal, Fats Waller's 1932 rendezvous in Paris with eminent organist Marcel Dupre, Dizzy Gillespie's childhood trip to a pawnshop to buy his first horn, and the origin of Billie Holiday's nickname. Paperback with French flaps, thirteen b/w illustrations.

Cool syncopation, funky riffs and smooth, stylish tunes---from dynamic to nostalgic, Pam Wedgwood's series has it all. Jazzin' About is a vibrant collection of original pieces in a range of contemporary styles, tailor-made for the intermediate player. This new edition features a fantastic accompanying CD, complete with performances, backing tracks and slowed-down backings for practice. So take a break from the classics and get into the groove as you cruise from blues, to rock, to jazz.

For more than thirty years, Jazz Hot, the world's oldest jazz magazine (launched in 1935, as DownBeat), has regularly published Pascal Kober's photos, breakfast interviews, album and festival reviews and feature articles. Over the years, he has built up a unique catalogue of more than 35,000 jazz photos, taken all over the world. As a freelance journalist and photographer, he later contributed to many publications in the French and international press. The venue: musee de l'ancier evechee. Located in the heart of Grenoble, the Bishop's Palace (l'Ancien Eveche) is today a protected historical monument dated from the thirteenth century, housing a highly visited heritage museum. Since its establishment in 1998, this museum has been curated by Isabelle Lazier, an ethnologist, with a passion for both music and photography. In alphabetical order: Jorge Ben, Joao Bosco, Stanley Clarke, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Joao Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gruntz, Jon Hendricks, Elvin and Hank Jones, Joachim Kuhn, Michel Legrand, Manhattan Transfer, Branford and Ellis Marsalis, Mike Stern, Sam Rivers, Linda Womack and... the public. Pascal Kober is a journalist and photographer.

Part design history, part trip down musical memory lane, this anthology of jazz album artwork is above all a treasure trove of creative and cultural inspiration. Spanning half a century, it assembles the most daring and dynamic jazz cover designs that helped make and shape not only a musical genre but also a particular way of experiencing life. From the 1940s through to the decline of LP production in the early 1990s, each chosen cover design is distinct in the way it complements the energy of the album's music with its own visual rhythms of frame, line, text, and form. To satisfy even the most demanding of music geeks, each record cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing performer and album name, art director, photographer, illustrator, year, label, and more. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

The post-war jazz revival marked the beginning of an independent British youth culture with music as its focus. Although it always remained a minority enthusiasm, jazz actually embodied the vaguely felt sentiments, dissatisfactions and aspirations of the post-war generation more fully than any other form of expression. Older people were, on the whole, indifferent or positively hostile to what was, for many, simply an 'unholy row'. In British society, class and culture were bound inextricably together, but jazz was an alien form with no obvious class affiliations. It was culturally neither 'high' nor 'low', and so found a ready welcome in a world where the old certainties were breaking down. Throughout this period, jazz came in two more or less exclusive types - 'revivalist', which sought to recreate the classic jazz of the 1920s, and modern. Enthusiasts on both sides regarded their music as being more important than mere entertainment. In it they found a quality which they defined vaguely as 'honesty' or 'sincerity', which may perhaps be summed up as 'authenticity'. The book follows the development of both jazz tendencies over a decade and a half, paying particular attention to two outstanding figures: Humphrey Lyttelton and John Dankworth. It also seeks to convey a flavour of that now remote era and the frisson that jazz created.

The definitive biography of guitar icon and Grammy Award-winning artist Bill Frisell. FEATURING EXCLUSIVE LISTENING SESSIONS WITH: Paul Simon; Justin Vernon of Bon Iver; Gus Van Sant; Rhiannon Giddens; The Bad Plus; Gavin Bryars; Van Dyke Parks; Sam Amidon; Hal Willner; Jim Woodring; Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill 'A beautiful and long overdue portrait of one of America's true living cultural treasures.' JOHN ZORN 'The perfect companion-piece to the music of its subject.' MOJO 'Outlines the subject's life in a series of scrupulous strokes and intimate interviews that are rare in such undertakings . . . a cool, casual victory.' IRISH TIMES Over a period of forty-five years, Bill Frisell has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential musicians at work today. A quietly revolutionary guitar hero for our genre-blurring times, he connects to a diverse range of artists and admirers, including Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Gus Van Sant and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, all of whom feature in this book. A vital addition to any music lover's book collection, Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer tells the legendary guitarist's story for the first time. 'Stuffed with musical encounters, so many that every couple of pages there's an unheard Frisell recording for the reader to chase down.' NEW YORKER 'Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer is the definitive biography.' BILL MILKOWSKI, DOWNBEAT 'Superb . . . the book races along like Sonny Rollins in full sail. Like subject, like writer: this is super-articulate, adventurous prose.' PERSPECTIVE '[Watson's] writing balances unbridled passion and dispassionate research nearly as deftly as Mr. Frisell's playing does sound and silence . . . compelling.' WALL STREET JOURNAL

"Hold tight. The way to go mad without losing your mind is sometimes unruly." So begins La Marr Jurelle Bruce's urgent provocation and poignant meditation on madness in black radical art. Bruce theorizes four overlapping meanings of madness: the lived experience of an unruly mind, the psychiatric category of serious mental illness, the emotional state also known as "rage," and any drastic deviation from psychosocial norms. With care and verve, he explores the mad in the literature of Amiri Baraka, Gayl Jones, and Ntozake Shange; in the jazz repertoires of Buddy Bolden, Sun Ra, and Charles Mingus; in the comedic performances of Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle; in the protest music of Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill, and Kendrick Lamar, and beyond. These artists activate madness as content, form, aesthetic, strategy, philosophy, and energy in an enduring black radical tradition. Joining this tradition, Bruce mobilizes a set of interpretive practices, affective dispositions, political principles, and existential orientations that he calls "mad methodology." Ultimately, How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind is both a study and an act of critical, ethical, radical madness.