The album covers collected in this comprehensive volume under the well-known Blue Note record label embody classic design and pioneering typography. Two hundred color photographs of the album sleeves, an informative history of the Blue Note record company, and a portrait of Reid Miles, who designed nearly 500 album covers, capture the integrity of this distinctive record label. Sophisticated jazz connoisseurs and young listeners alike, as well as those with an interest in style and graphic design, will enjoy this exciting book of jazz memorabilia.

    Charles Mingus was a pioneer figure in modern jazz. Besides being a virtuoso bass player who played with the top jazz musicians for four decades, he was also an accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer who recorded more than 100 albums and wrote more than 300 original and innovative scores. This incredible collection explores Mingus' background and prestigious career as well as 55 of his pieces. The stories behind each song are given and accompanied by notes on how Mingus played the piece. Mingus photos, anecdotes, quotes and an extensive discography fill this volume that collectors will treasure. A truly personal work that celebrates the genius within this jazz legend. Songs include: Fables of Faubus * Sue's Changes * Better Get Hit in Your Soul * Weird Nightmare * and more.

    But its beauty is inextricably entwined with pain, hardship, and tragedy-yet Scott's resilience made his life a story of triumph. Born in Cleveland in 1925, Scott was orphaned as a teenager, and suffered from Kallman's syndrome, which kept his voice unnaturally high. He toured with Lionel Hampton in the '40s and recorded for Savoy Records. In 1962 Ray Charles produced and played on what many agree was Scott's best album, Falling in Love Is Wonderful, and a career breakthrough seemed imminent. But it was not to be, and Scott returned to Cleveland to work as an orderly and a shipping clerk-until he was rediscovered performing at his friend Doc Pomus's funeral in March of 1991. Acclaimed biographer David Ritz, with Scott's cooperation, has created a poignant portrait of a man whose voice cuts to the sadness and hope within us all. Faith in Time resonates like a haunting melody.

    Elements used in jazz improvisation are isolated for study: they are examined in recorded solos, suggestions are made for using each element in the jazz language, and specific exercises are provided for practicing the element.

    Now back in print, this bestseller by Mel Torme is a brilliant biography of his friend of forty years, Buddy Rich, who was one of the most famous drummers of the Swing Era, having starred in the Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey bands. His career started when he was two years old in his parents' Vaudeville act, and by the time he was four he was the highest paid child performer in the world. The Buddy Rich story is a fascinating one, as much for what it says about the world of American music and entertainment as for the remarkable life it portrays. Drawing from interviews and many personal reminiscences, Torme packs this biography with vivid, often funny, anecdotes. His personal touch and his in-depth knowledge of jazz make for a moving, insightful, and often hilarious biography. 233 pages, 6-1/2 x 9-1/2 Softcover

    New Orleans Jazz Fest: A Pictorial History is an extraordinary documentation through photographs of the evolution of this yearly festival that in New Orleans has become a seasonal ritual comparable only to the revelry of Mardi Gras.

    This collection includes over 100 Coltrane classics: Bessie's Blues * Blue Train (Blue Trane) * Giant Steps * Impressions * Naima (Niema) * Some Other Blues * Venus * and more.

    Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. Benny Carter, the true "Gentleman of Jazz." And Bix Beiderbecke, the F. Scott Fitzgerald of players. The story of jazz is a story of individuals--enormously gifted, dedicated, sometimes driven, yet often gentle people. In this volume, Gene Lees, continues his richly entertaining and informative chronicle of the lives and times of jazz with a new collection of fourteen memorable essays drawn from his renowned Jazzletter. Waiting for Dizzy adds to the insights of his two previous collections, Meet Me at Jim & Andy's and Singers and the Song, both highly acclaimed. Meet Me at Jim and Andy's won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Lyricist, essayist, and music historian, Gene Lees draws on a lifetime of experience--and in many cases friendships--in the jazz world to bring fresh insights to the lives and work of these magnificent artists, whether he is discussing why any guitarists have unsteady time or the complex role of race in jazz history. He is a repository of the humor of the jazz musician, recounting their wit and practical jokes: Ray Brown and Herb Ellis dying their hair as a gag on Oscar Peterson, or Joe Venuti trying to nail a foot-tapping tenor player's shoe to the floor. And as a perceptive cultural historian, he questions the jazz myth that no white musician ever made a signficant contribution to jazz. But the heart of Waiting for Dizzy is its exquisitely crafted character studies, warm pictures of the men (and women) who created and continue to create this music. He begins in the era of its first great flowering, the 1920s. He then presents a gallery of vivid portraits of a diverse group of musicians, including the seminal arranger Bill Challis, Joe Venuti, Herb Ellis, Benny Carter, Lenny Breau, and Edmund Thigpen. The theme of discrimination against black Americans turns up frequently, as in the portraits of Al Grey and Hank Jones. Readers meet Spiegle Wilcox, the 87-year-old trombonist who played in the legendary Jean Goldkette band of the mid-20s, and left the music world only to return to playing 50 years later; Emily Remler, the tragic, determined, gifted guitarist who sought to break the sex barrier and her own drug habit, only to die all too young in a far-away place; and Bud Shank, the fine alto saxophonist who disappeared into the numbing atmosphere of studio work, and at last rebelled to return to jazz. The books final essay is its pinnacle: a day spent in the recording studio with Dizzy Gillespie, surrounded by brilliant younger musicians who are his spiritual children, among them Art Farmer and Phil Woods. It is a lyrical, affectionate, and affecting portrait of one of the three or four most important figures--and the most loved-- in jazz history. From Bix to Dizzy, from swing to be-bop, from the 1920s to the 1990s, Waiting for Dizzy is an exhilarating collection by the author The Washington Post Book World calls "not only an extraordinarily perceptive reporter and analyst of jazz performance, jazz history, and jazz people, but also one of those writers who's a joy to read on any subject at all."

    Combines facts and jazz lore, its evolution, dominating personalities and musicians, social and political news that effected the genre, more. Everything a jazz enthusiast needs to know. Printed endpapers. 100 full-color, 200 black-and-white photographs.

    Peter Street in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans is where the pioneers of traditional jazz have played their music nearly every night since the 1960s. Carter tells the story of the hall, the people who ran it, and the musicians who played there.