Blues category: 910 books

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of jazz in the 21st Century, with nearly 60 conversational profiles of major jazz artists, from living masters such as Wayne Shorter to rising stars such as Esperanza Spalding. The artists discuss their lives, their music, and the state of the art form....

The musical output of pianist and composer Herbie Hancock is a design rarely seen in jazz; a child prodigy working their way up the ranks to elder statesman and influencing an entire generation of musicians across numerous genres. Sowing his oats in classical repertoire, Hancock used jazz to satiate...

An intimate portrait of Destiny's Child and the girl who would be Queen. The Real Destiny's Child is one exclusive interview, 66 links to rare music and singles, 8 exclusive photos, and 22 director stills from the "Bootylicious Remix" video. A revealing eye on the state of the union...

This book is aimed primarily at professional jazz drummers wanting to improve the way they play the swing pattern, and swing subdivisions in general. Drummers of any style will benefit from the reading, which includes several tips on practicing, playing with others, and developing a strong internal clock

Brad succumbs to the white plague, Oscar too spends his days fighting disease, confined to a hospital. Playing the organ at night for a mysterious sickly girl, he discovers his own talent, although years after recovery, he finds himself desperate, poor, and depressed—until the devil, otherwise known...

Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945 provides the first broad scholarly discussion of this music since 1990. The book critically examines key moments in the history of black British popular music from 1940s jazz to 1970s soul and reggae, 1990s Jungle and the sounds of Dubstep and Grime that have...

Jerrilyn McGregory explores sacred music and spiritual activism in a little-known region of the South, the Wiregrass Country of Georgia, Alabama, and North Florida. She examines African American sacred music outside of Sunday church-related activities, showing that singing conventions and anniversary...

Janet Jackson's rusted right can was only on TV for a split second, but it changed our lives forever. Increased FCC regulations changed the landscape of the entertainment industry. A generation of children, traumatized, turned to opioid abuse to cope with the sheer physical pain of seeing an older...

Friday Night Jam is an anecdotal, instructional how-to (and sometimes painful how-not-to) guide to group improvisation, based on the firsthand learning experiences of author and African drummer Nowick Gray in a weekly open jam in rural British Columbia, in the early 1990s. This chronicle conveys the...

Lester Young was one of the great jazz masters, and his impact on the course of the art form was profound. He fundamentally changed the way the saxophone was played--his long, flowing lines brought new levels of expressiveness and subtlety to the jazz language, setting the standard for all modern...

"Although it will be of primary interest to those who are engaged in composition themselves, [this] book is also recommended for readers who may wish to gain further insight into just what makes jazz composition so different from traditional approaches."—Malcolm Bessom, The Music Magazine

This is the first single-volume publication of both the out-of-print original and revised versions of Krazy**Kat, a unique "jazz pantomime" for piano. Based on George Herriman's hugely influential newspaper comic strip that chronicled the adventures of a lovelorn feline, this comic production...

Sonny Rollins is arguably the most influential tenor saxophonist that jazz has produced. He began his musical career at the tender age of eleven, and within five short years he was playing with the legendary Thelonius Monk. In the late forties (before his twenty-first birthday), Rollins was in full...

The setting is the Royal Gardens Cafe. It's dark, smoky. The smell of gin permeates the room. People are leaning over the balcony, their drinks spilling on the customers below. On stage, King Oliver and Louis Armstrong roll on and on, piling up choruses, the rhythm section building the beat until...