Born in Paris in 1908, Stephane Grappelli experienced every decade of the jazz century and his story spans an astonishing 77 years, during which time he performed with the great names of jazz: Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. But it's his performances with Django Reinhardt, for which he is perhaps best remembered. Contains exclusive interviews with Stephane as well as contributions from his family and friends, much newly discovered evidence on both Stephane and Django and many previously unpublished photos. This is a slice of music history, a testament to a man who invented his own style of jazz.

for SATB choir and piano This exciting collection gives a jazzy twist to nine favourite folk songs from around the world, including 'Scarborough Fair', 'A la claire fontaine', and 'Waltzing Matilda' as you've never heard them before! Each song is presented in its original language, and an English singing translation is provided where applicable. The accompanied songs can be peformed with piano solo or with jazz-trio accompaniment; a separate part is available for the bassist, and the drummer should play along ad lib. This fantastic, varied collection will revitalise the repertoire of any choir and is guaranteed to give audiences a fresh perspective on these traditional songs.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was one of the most enduring, popular, reliable and vital small bands in modern jazz history. Blakey was not only a distinguished, inventive and powerful drummer, but along with Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, he was one of jazz's foremost talent scouts. The musicians who flowed seamlessly in and out of this constantly evolving collective during its 36-year run were among the most important artists not just of their eras, but of any era. Though their respective innovations were vital to the evolution of bebop, hard bop and neo bop, the recorded work of the Messengers sidemen has never been properly analyzed. Until now. Hard Bop Academy: The Sidemen of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers critically examines the multitude of gifted artists who populated the many editions of the Jazz Messengers. In addition to dissecting the sidemen's most consequential work with Blakey's band, jazz musician and acclaimed novelist Alan Goldsher offers up engaging profiles of everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Terence Blanchard to Hank Mobley to Wayne Shorter to Horace Silver to Keith Jarrett to Curtis Fuller to Steve Davis. And that's only the beginning. Goldsher conducted over 30 interviews with surviving graduates of Blakey's Hard Bop Academy, many of whom spoke at length of their tenure with the legendary "Buhaina" for the first time. Alan Goldsher is a bassist who has recorded with Janet Jackson, Digable Planets, Cypress Hill and Naughty By Nature. His writing has been published in Bass Player, Tower Pulse, Sport and BasketBull: Chicago Bulls Magazine. Goldsher's debut novel, Jam, was published in 2002 by Permanent Press. He lives in Chicago. Hardcover.

The amount of theoretical knowledge required to become a fluent improvisor on the piano can be overwhelming to the aspiring jazz pianist. Jazz Piano Vocabulary is a series of workbooks designed to help students of jazz piano learn and apply jazz scales by mastering each scale and its use in improvisation. Each book focuses on a different scale, and features: . the scale in all twelve keys - two octaves up and down with complete fingerings . chords and left hand voicings that can be used with the scale . ideas for applying the material . transcriptions and/or etudes using the scale . ideas for further study and listening . detailed instructions and suggestions on how to practice the material . opportunity to contact the author online if questions arise This book explores the Aeolian mode and its use in jazz improvisation. It provides an entry point for the student who is exploring modes for the first time. Beginning improvisors will find that the approach in this book allows them quickly to begin applying the Aeolian mode to simple chord progressions. Volume 6 also offers an introduction to "shell" voicings.Like the other books in this series, this book offers melodic examples that you can practice as well as listen to on the Muse Eek website. The goal is to provide you with enough guidance to work confidently on your own so that you become comfortable integrating the use of the scales into your improvisation. This book is based on Roberta Piket's twenty-plus years of educational experience. In addition to her private students and her experience coaching jazz ensembles at Long Island University, Roberta has given clinics or masterclasses at the Eastman school of Music, Rutgers University, California Institute of the Arts, Macalester College, Duke University, and countless middle and high schools throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. An unusual feature of this book is the author's availability to answer questions on the material at the Muse Eek Publishing website, creating an interactive learning experience for the student.

Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Keeping the Beat on the Street celebrates the renewed passion and pageantry among black brass bands in New Orleans. Mick Burns introduces the people who play the music and shares their insights, showing why New Orleans is the place where jazz continues to grow. Brass bands waned during the civil rights era but revived around 1970 and then flourished in the 1980s when the music became cool with the younger generation. In the only book to cover this revival, Burns interviews members from a variety of bands, including the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, the Dirty Dozen, Tuba Fats' Chosen Few, and the Rebirth Brass Band. He captures their thoughts about the music, their careers, audiences, influences from rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of New Orleans social and pleasure clubs and second lines, traditional versus funk style, recording deals, and touring. For anyone who loves jazz and the city where it was born, Keeping the Beat on the Street is a book to savor.

"We should be grateful to Mick Burns for undertaking the task of producing... the only book to cover the subject of what he rightly calls the brass band renaissance." -- New Orleans Music

"A welcome look at the history of brass bands. These oral histories provide a valuable contribution to New Orleans musical history.... What shines through the musicians' words is love of craft, love of culture." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune

"A seminal work about the Brass Bands of New Orleans." -- Louisiana Libraries

"I learned courage from Buddha, Jesus, Lincoln, and Mr. Cary Grant." So said Miss Peggy Lee. Albert Einstein adored her; Duke Ellington dubbed her "the Queen." With her platinum cool and inimitable whisper, Peggy Lee sold twenty million records, made more money than Mickey Mantle, and presided over music's greatest generation alongside pals Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Drawing on exclusive interviews and never-before-seen information, Peter Richmond delivers a complex, compelling portrait of an artist that begins with a girl plagued by loss, her father's alcoholism, and her stepmother's abuse. One day she boards a train, following her muse and hoping her music will lead her someplace better. And it does: to the pantheon of great American singers.

This unique book is especially designed for traditionally trained classical pianists who are interested in learning the rudiments of jazz piano. It uses a systematic, a step-by-step approach to learning to read jazz lead sheets, and provides simple techniques for beginning jazz and blues improvisation. The book is based on many years of successfully teaching classical pianists and piano teachers to overcome their notation dependency and conquer their fear of improvisation. A special feature is the inclusion of complete lead sheets for several popular jazz tunes (Satin Doll, Lover Man, Summertime, Autumn Leaves, Birth of the Blues).

Here is quite simply one of the most original books about a jazz musician ever published--a biography-cum-discography that focuses in turn on fourteen major albums recorded by Miles Davis, using them as a jumping off point for an illuminating discussion of the turbulent life and work of the "Evil Genius of Jazz." Richard Cook, a veteran writer respected throughout the jazz world, looks at such landmark recordings as Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Kind of Blue, The Complete Live at The Plugged Nickel, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and Live at Montreux. Each of these recordings is considered in detail, illuminating their contribution to Davis's development as instrumentalist, group leader, and composer. But Cook goes well beyond these fourteen albums, evaluating all the trumpeter's recordings (official and bootleg), and relating them to events in Miles's life as well as to wider currents in contemporary music. Cook helps us disentangle Miles the legendary figure from the music itself, to re-hear and reconsider this marvelous body of work ranging over four exhilarating decades. The author also highlights the indispensable contributions of sidemen such as John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, and many others, as well as calling for a reassessment of the importance of such "satellite" figures as Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Chick Corea in the development of Miles's music. A comprehensive and rigorous guide to the music and life of Miles Davis, It's About That Time is a stunning book that burns away the fog of myth that surrounds its complex and contrary subject.

John Coltrane was a key figure in jazz, a pioneer in world music, and an intensely emotional force whose following continues to grow. This new biography, the first by a professional jazz scholar and performer, presents a huge amount of never-before-published material, including interviews with Coltrane, photos, genealogical documents, and innovative musical analysis that offers a fresh view of Coltrane's genius.
Compiled from scratch with the assistance of dozens of Coltrane's colleagues, friends, and family, "John Coltrane: His Life and Music" corrects numerous errors from previous biographies. The significant people in Coltrane's life were reinterviewed, yielding new insights; some were interviewed for the first time ever.
The musical analysis, which is accessible to the nonspecialist, makes its own revelations--for example, that some of Coltrane's well-known pieces are based on previously unrecognized sources. The Appendix is the most detailed chronology of Coltrane's performing career ever compiled, listing scores of previously unknown performances from the 1940s and early 1950s.
Coltrane has become a musical inspiration for thousands of fans and musicians and a personal inspiration to as many more. For all of these, Porter's book will become the definitive resource--a reliable guide to the events of Coltrane's life and an insightful look into his musical practices.
." . . well researched, musically knowledgeable, and enormously interesting to read. Porter is a jazz scholar with deep knowledge of the tradition he is studying, both conceptually and technically." --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan
"Lewis Porter is a meticulous person with love and respect forAfro-American classical music. I applaud this definitive study of my friend John Coltrane's life adn achievements." --Jimmy Heath, jazz saxophonist, composer, educator
Lewis Porter is Associate Professor of Music, Rutgers University in Newark. A leading jazz scholar, he is the author of "Jazz Readings from a Century of Change" and coauthor of "Jazz: From Its Origins to the Present," He was a project consultant on "The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane," which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Historical Reissue, and an editor and assisting author of the definitive Coltrane discography by Y. Fujioka.

Perfect for the beginning guitarist who wants to learn more about jazz, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the world of jazz guitar. Author Phil Capone explains jazz harmony in a clear and accessible style, from simple chord changes to the II-V-I progression, turnarounds and other classic jazz sequences. Building steadily throughout the book, you'll learn authentic jazz voicings and accompaniment styles, as well as vital jazz theory. Packed with practical advice on improvisation, Exploring Jazz Guitar unlocks the secrets of jazz harmony, allowing you to construct authentic jazz solos. Complete with an accompanying CD containing demonstration solos and live jazz backing tracks.

It's never too late to play jazz gives players the chance to learn about jazz, as well as explore their favourite repertoire in easy-to-play arrangements. The pieces are suitable for those who have learnt for approximately one year, or have reached Level 14 of the It's never too late to play piano tutor, by Pam Wedgwood. This book guides the player through the different skills and techniques needed to play jazz, covering swing rhythm, syncopation, walking bass, blues and improvisation. The pieces are gently progressive and include irresistible new pieces by Pam and Olly Wedgwood, as well as plenty of jazz classics such as I Get A Kick Out Of You, A Nightingale Sang, My Baby Just Cares For Me and As Time Goes By. The CD contains performance tracks and a range of backing tracks to bring your jazz playing to life! Pam Wedgwood is one of the UK's favourite composers of popular piano music and creator of Jazzin' About, After Hours and Up-Grade. The ground-breaking It's never too late... Series gives adults the opportunity to learn the piano with a method devised especially for them. This best-selling tutor breaks the learning into manageable chunks, features accompanying CDs, and is packed with irresistible music and fascinating information - all the motivation needed to make learning fun!

Chet Atkins called Lenny Breau (1941-1984) "the greatest guitarist who ever walked the face of the earth." Breau's astonishing virtuosity influenced countless performers, but unfortunately it came at the expense of his personal relationships. Ron Forbes-Roberts analyzes Breau and his recordings to reveal an enormously gifted man and the inner workings of his music.

This book is a study of a crucial period in the life of American jazz and popular music. "Pearl Harbor Jazz" analyses the changes in the world of the professional musician brought about both by the outbreak of World War II and by long-term changes in the music business, in popular taste and in American society itself. It describes how the infrastructure of American music, the interdependent fields of recording, touring, live engagements, radio and the movies, was experiencing change in the conditions of wartime, and how this impacted upon musical styles, and hence upon the later history of popular music. Successive chapters of the book examine the impact of these changed conditions upon the songwriting and music publishing industries, upon the world of the touring big bands, and upon changing conceptions of the role of jazz and popular music.

Not only the economic conditions but also ideas were changing; the book traces a movement among writers and critics which created new definitions of 'jazz' and other terms that had a permanent influence on the way musical styles were thought of for the rest of the century. The book deals in some depth with the work of a number of important artists in these various fields, including, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Johnny Mercer and Frank Sinatra, looks at the growing presence of bebop, the rise of country music, and the contemporary musical scenes in such locations as New York and Los Angeles. The book combines detail of the day to day working lives of musicians with challenging views of the long-term development of musical style in jazz and popular music.

Peter Townsend lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University and in the School of Music at the University of Huddersfield, England

Steve Lacy: Conversations is a collection of thirty-four interviews with the innovative saxophonist and jazz composer. Lacy (1934-2004), a pioneer in making the soprano saxophone a contemporary jazz instrument, was a prolific performer and composer, with hundreds of recordings to his name. This volume brings together interviews that appeared in a variety of magazines between 1959 and 2004. Conducted by writers, critics, musicians, visual artists, a philosopher, and an architect, the interviews indicate the evolution of Lacy's extraordinary career and thought. Lacy began playing the soprano saxophone at sixteen, and was soon performing with Dixieland musicians much older than he. By nineteen he was playing with the pianist Cecil Taylor, who ignited his interest in the avant-garde. He eventually became the foremost proponent of Thelonious Monk's music. Lacy played with a broad range of musicians, including Monk and Gil Evans, and led his own bands. A voracious reader and the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, Lacy was particularly known for setting to music literary texts-such as the Tao Te Ching, and the work of poets including Samuel Beckett, Robert Creeley, and Taslima Nasrin-as well as for collaborating with painters and dancers in multimedia projects. Lacy lived in Paris from 1970 until 2002, and his music and ideas reflect a decades-long cross-pollination of cultures. Half of the interviews in this collection originally appeared in French sources and were translated specifically for this book. Jason Weiss provides a general introduction, as well as short introductions to each of the interviews and to the selection of Lacy's own brief writings that appears at the end of the book. The volume also includes three song scores, a selected discography of Lacy's recordings, and many photos from the personal collection of his wife and longtime collaborator, Irene Aebi. Interviews by: Derek Bailey, Franck Bergerot, Yves Bouliane, Etienne Brunet, Philippe Carles, Brian Case, Garth W. Caylor Jr., John Corbett, Christoph Cox, Alex Dutilh, Lee Friedlander, Maria Friedlander, Isabelle Galloni d'Istria, Christian Gauffre, Raymond Gervais, Paul Gros-Claude, Alain-Rene Hardy, Ed Hazell, Alain Kirili, Mel Martin, Franck Medioni, Xavier Prevost, Philippe Quinsac, Ben Ratliff, Gerard Rouy, Kirk Silsbee, Roberto Terlizzi, Jason Weiss

Jazz Italian Style explores a complex era in music history, when politics and popular culture collided with national identity and technology. When jazz arrived in Italy at the conclusion of World War I, it quickly became part of the local music culture. In Italy, thanks to the gramophone and radio, many Italian listeners paid little attention to a performer's national and ethnic identity. Nick LaRocca (Italian-American), Gorni Kramer (Italian), the Trio Lescano (Jewish-Dutch), and Louis Armstrong (African-American), to name a few, all found equal footing in the Italian soundscape. The book reveals how Italians made jazz their own, and how, by the mid-1930s, a genre of jazz distinguishable from American varieties and supported by Mussolini began to flourish in northern Italy and in its turn influenced Italian-American musicians. Most importantly, the book recovers a lost repertoire and an array of musicians whose stories and performances are compelling and well worth remembering.

(Book). Written by one of jazz journalism's best and most knowledgeable critics, this book explores the full swing spectrum from its origins in the 1920s through its current retro resurgence. Features intriguing capsule biographies of 400 of the best musicians, from classic artists like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman to retro swingers such as the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, with each artist's most notable CDs reviewed and rated, plus info on film appearances, books, and hard-to-find recordings. Includes insightful essays that explore this music's cultural impact, fun photos and swing memorabilia.

In the long decade between the mid-fifties and the late sixties, jazz was changing more than its sound. The age of Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady was a time when jazz became both newly militant and newly seductive, its example powerfully shaping the social dramas of the Civil Rights movement, the Black Power movement, and the counterculture. Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't is the first book to tell the broader story of this period in jazz--and American--history. The story's central figures are jazz musicians like Coltrane and Mingus, who rewrote the conventions governing improvisation and composition as they sought to infuse jazz with that gritty exuberance known as "soul." Scott Saul describes how these and other jazz musicians of the period engaged in a complex cultural balancing act: utopian and skeptical, race-affirming and cosmopolitan, they tried to create an art that would make uplift into something forceful, undeniable in its conviction, and experimental in its search for new possibilities. Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't considers these musicians and their allies as a cultural front of the Civil Rights movement, a constellation of artists and intellectuals whose ideas of freedom pushed against a cold-war consensus that stressed rational administration and collective security. Capturing the social resonance of the music's marriage of discipline and play, the book conveys the artistic and historical significance of the jazz culture at the start, and the heart, of the sixties.

The amount of theoretical knowledge required to become a fluent improvisor on the piano can be overwhelming to the aspiring jazz pianist. Jazz Piano Vocabulary is a series of books designed to help students master each scale and learn how to apply it in improvisation. Each book focuses on a different mode of the major scale, and features: . the scale in all twelve keys - two octaves up and down with complete fingerings . chords and left hand voicings that work with the scale . motivic sequences and melodic ideas (with right hand fingerings) . detailed instructions and suggestions on how to practice the material . opportunity to contact the author online if questions arise Volume 4, which focuses on the fourth mode of the major scale, the Lydian mode, also includes exercises for the left and right hand to help the intermediate improvisor with common phrasing and rhythmic problems, a jazz waltz etude, and exercises for learning how to comp in 3/4 meter. Because the Lydian mode is used in a more advanced harmonic context than some of the other modes, this volume is recommended after the material in Volumes 1, 2, and 5 has been mastered. Sound samples and additional information are made available to the reader on the publisher's website. This book is based on Roberta Piket's twenty-plus years of educational experience. In addition to her private students and her experience coaching jazz ensembles at Long Island University, Roberta has given clinics or masterclasses at the Eastman school of Music, Rutgers University, California Institute of the Arts, Macalester College, Duke University, The Jazz School, and countless middle and high schools throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. An unusual feature of this book is the author's availability to answer questions on the material at the Muse Eek Publishing website, creating an interactive learning experience for the student.

The beginnings of jazz and the story of Charles ""Buddy"" Bolden (1877- 1931) are inextricably intertwined. Just after the turn of the century, New Orleanians could often hear Bolden's powerful horn from the city's parks and through dance hall windows. Despite his lack of formal training, his unique style- both musical and personal- made him the first ""king"" of New Orleans jazz and the inspiration for such later jazz greats as King Oliver, Kid Ory, and Louis Armstrong. For years the legend of Buddy Bolden was overshadowed by myths about his music, his reckless lifestyle, and his mental instability. In Search of Buddy Bolden overlays the myths with the substance of reality. Interviews with those who knew Bolden and an extensive array of primary sources enliven and inform Donald M. Marquis's absorbing portrait of the brief but brilliant career of the first man of jazz. This paperback edition includes a new preface and appendix relating events and discoveries that have occurred since the book's original publication in 1978.

This book is the 2nd volume in a series designed to help the student of jazz piano learn and apply jazz scales by mastering each scale and its uses in improvisation. Each book focuses on a different scale, illustrating the scale in all twelve keys with complete fingerings. Also provided are chords and left hand voicings to match, exercises and etudes to help apply the material to improvising, ideas for further study and listening, and detailed instructions and suggestions on how to practice the material.

Preface jazz technique. It presents an alternative to what is currently being taught in jazz curriculums (such as the over-used chord-scale system). Building upon the original work of Arnold Schonberg in his Structural Functions of Harmony (1954; 1969) this work takes Schonberg's monotonality approach and broadens it for use in the jazz medium. the tonic chord would still be considered related--whether directly or indirectly. With the central chord becoming the primary tonal personality of a work, all melodic and chordal deviations from that prime become but related regions branching off from, but controlled or dominated by, the established tonality. In this handbook the concept of the sixth degree of the scale, and other substitute intervals, is given emphasis as a starting point of melodic improvisation. performer, thus widening both the harmonic and melodic possibilities of creative improvisation. Commercial jazz is the music of the future, and the techniques offered here utilize scientific principles of universal and fundamental implication. Volume I discovers different intervals to play while improvising, using specially outlined solo techniques. hoped that you will find it likewise rewarding, while expanding your own creative horizons.

New, expanded and updated edition of the best comprehensive survey of who's who of British jazz musicians. Over 900 biographies detail the work of musicians from every era of British jazz, ranging from those who played professionally before 1920 at the dawn of jazz in Britain, through to today's younger stars. Contains new information on the early careers of those who became famous and the chronological listing of events in each subject's life sheds new light on the development of jazz in Britain. Thousands of facts are presented and some popular myths dispelled. Veteren musicians have been traced, even those who have left the profession or emigrated have been included. One of the most fully documented sources on the jazz musicians of any country outside the USA and a treasury of information covering every jazz style. John Chilton divides his time between plaging his trumpet (his band The Feetwarmers backed singer George Melly for 30 years) and writing his books on jazz. John has written biographies of Billie Holiday, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Jordan, Henry 'Red' Allen and Roy Eldridge as well as Who's Who of Jazz - Storyville and Swing Street, the definitive account of the early careers of early American jazz musicians (which is currently in its fifth edition). His writings on jazz have won him in a grammy and the prestigious ARSC award. Down Beat magazine has dubbed him a 'master of the craft of research'.