Blues category: 910 books

Jazz is a music formed from a combination of influences. In its infancy, jazz was a melting pot of military brass bands, work songs and field hollers of the United States slaves during the 19th century, European harmonies and forms, and the rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean. Later, the blues and...

*Cool. *It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein...

Fred Astaire: one of the great jazz artists of the twentieth century? Astaire is best known for his brilliant dancing in the movie musicals of the 1930s, but in Music Makes Me, Todd Decker argues that Astaire’s work as a dancer and choreographer —particularly in the realm of tap dancing—made...

There were but four major galaxies in the early jazz universe, and three of them--New Orleans, Chicago, and New York--have been well documented in print. But there has never been a serious history of the fourth, Kansas City, until now. In this colorful history, Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix range...

From Palace to Palais, the musicians who played in the big bands tell their own stories, bringing to life an unforgettable era. Pre-war reminiscences give an insight into a never-to-be-forgotten era, when London's nightclubs were the haunts of the aristocracy and of royalty, and the Prince...

Examining the culture and politics of the Black Power era of the late 1960s, this book explores the relationship of soul music to the Black Power movement from the vantage point of the musicians and black revolutionaries themselves. The 1960s were a turbulent time for race relations in the United...

Cholly Atkins's career has spanned an extraordinary era of American dance. He began performing during Prohibition and continued his apprenticeship in vaudeville, in nightclubs, and in the army during World War II. With his partner, Honi Coles, Cholly toured the country, performing with such jazz masters...

The early decades of American popular music-Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin, John Philip Sousa, Enrico Caruso-are, for most listeners, the dark ages. It wasn’t until the mid-1920s that the full spectrum of this music-black and white, urban and rural, sophisticated and crude-made it onto records for...

"The best book ever produced about Louis Armstrong by anyone other than the man himself."—Terry Teachout, Commentary In the early twentieth century, New Orleans was a place of colliding identities and histories, and Louis Armstrong was a gifted young man of psychological nimbleness....

With over 100 illustrations, book 2 of Learn Jazz Piano journeys further into the heart of jazz and blues improvisation. In non-technical language Paul Abrahams explains such concepts as rootless voicings and tritone substitution.

(Fake Book). Since the 1970s, The Real Book has been the most popular book for gigging jazz musicians. Hal Leonard is proud to publish completely legal and legitimate editions of the original volumes as well as exciting new volumes to carry on the tradition to new generations of players in all styles...

He was the Wicked Wilson Pickett, the legendary soul man whose forty-plus hits included "In the Midnight Hour," "634-5789," "Land of 1000 Dances," "Mustang Sally," and "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You." Remarkably handsome and with the charisma...

Book 3 focuses on practical advice and strategies for learning jazz pianists. Following on from books 1 and 2, Paul Abrahams guides you through more advanced topics such as bebop blues. He then demonstrates how to navigate chord charts and play jazz standards like a pro. This book also contains a recommended listening list and advice on building a jazz repertoire.

“A lively and anecdotal history” of the tiny family-run studio where jazz greats from Jelly Roll Morton to Louis Armstrong made their first recordings (Jazz Times).   From 1917 to 1932, in a primitive studio next to the railroad tracks, the Gennett family of Richmond, Indiana, recorded some of...