Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago s music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices.

Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields his own tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone as Armstrong shucks and jives across the page. Through Brothers's expert ears and eyes we meet an Armstrong whose quickness and sureness, so evident in his performances, served him well in his encounters with racism while his music soared across the airwaves into homes all over America.

Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism blends cultural history, musical scholarship, and personal accounts from Armstrong's contemporaries to reveal his enduring contributions to jazz and popular music at a time when he and his bandmates couldn t count on food or even a friendly face on their travels across the country. Thomas Brothers combines an intimate knowledge of Armstrong's life with the boldness to examine his place in such a racially charged landscape. In vivid prose and with vibrant photographs, Brothers illuminates the life and work of the man many consider to be the greatest American musician of the twentieth century."

Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it happen 'on the ground'? What challenges do they have to face? Jazz is a part of the cultural fabric of many of the European countries. Jazz in Europe: Networking and Negotiating Identities presents jazz in Europe as a complex arena, where the very notions of cultural identity, jazz practices and Europe are continually being negotiated against an ever changing social, cultural, political and economic environment. The book gives voice to musicians, promoters, festival directors, educators and researchers regarding the challenges they are faced with in their everyday practices. Jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them, as if 'Jazz' and 'Europe' were blank canvases where diversified notions of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.

Graham Collier's radical new analysis of the place of the composer in jazz is nothing less than a complete reassessment of the direction in which the music is developing and a powerful argument for fresh thinking. He takes a detailed look at the music of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans. His views about jazz composition - jazz happens in real time, once - and about contemporary composers are clearly and strongly expressed, controversial and provocative. This book will appeal to lay readers, especially those who enjoy an argument, as well as professional musicians and teachers. Musical examples in the book are linked to the author's website. 'I find "The Jazz Composer" to be an insightful, intelligent, creative and artful view to the understanding of jazz composition. It is written and developed for all interested listeners, the novice as well as the performer, and shows the way to the deepest artistic level' - Justin DiCioccio, jazz educator. 'Composers - take heed! ...If you're confident in your compositional devices - take the challenge to have your foundations soundly rattled If you're searching for a methodology to follow or guide you, it could well lie here...Not for the squeamish . ..prepare to be provoked' - Mike Gibbs, jazz composer. 'Collier ...makes music that speaks directly ...strongly personal but in no way self-dramatising ...It's reassuring to learn that when he turns to prose, the same qualities are in place' - Brian Morton, jazz critic.

Jazz Journey: A Guide for Listening explores jazz music from its 19th Century forerunners through today. The text takes readers on an historical audio and video tour of select jazz performances of the last hundred years. All of the major styles of jazz-including the predecessors of jazz, Ragtime and Blues-are covered, including New Orleans style, Chicago style, Stride piano, Swing, Bebop, Cool, Hard Bop, modal, Free jazz, freer jazz, and Fusion. Major performers include Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Horace Silver, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett, among others. For easy access to the music described in the text, the revised first edition features an online, active learning component with links to audio and video recordings, as well as listening guides. Jazz Journey is an ideal reading and listening experience for jazz appreciation courses for non-majors. It can also be used in jazz history classes for music and jazz studies majors.