In discussing his legendary forty-year career, Davis discusses music's 'cool' era and fusion movement and offers candid views on fellow musicians, promoters, producers, critics, and his personal life

Keith Jarrett is probably the most influential jazz pianist living today: his concerts have made him world famous. He was a child prodigy who had his first solo performance at the age of seven. In the sixties he played with the Jazz Messengers and then with the Charles Lloyd Quartet, touring Europe, Asia, and Russia. He played electric keyboards with Miles Davis at the beginning of the seventies, and went on to lead two different jazz groups—one American and one European. He straddles practically every form of twentieth century music—he has produced totally composed music, and has performed classical music as well as jazz. Jarrett has revolutionized the whole concept of what a solo pianist can do. And his albums such as Solo Concerts (at Lausanne and Bremen), Belonging, The Koln Concert, and My Song have gained him a worldwide following.Now, with Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music, Ian Carr has written the definitive story of Jarrett's musical development and his personal journey. This is a revealing, fascinating, and enlightening account of one of the outstanding musicians of our age.

Product Description: Kirk describes his life as a traveling jazz musician

Recounts the life and career of Duke Ellington's collaborator, the composer of such jazz standards as 'Take the A train' and a homosexual who received little acknowledgement for his talents during his lifetime (view table of contents)

Product Description: Told by Chris Murphy—a down-on-his-luck Irish American guitarist who devoted himself to Miles Davis, first as his roadie and assistant, and then as one of his most trusted road managers—Miles to Go is a frank and intimate exploration of Davis's eccentric working life, drug habits, paranoia, depression, and subsequent recovery...read more

John Coltrane, who died aged 40 in 1967, is one of half a dozen truly fundamental contributors to the history of jazz. No young saxophonist of the past forty years has been able to escape his influence, and few musicians have had their work so obsessively documented on record. This work presents a narrative of Coltrane's life.

Product Description: Detailing the fascinating career of Joe Evans, Follow Your Heart chronicles the nearly thirty years that he spent immersed in one of the most exciting times in African American music history. An alto saxophonist who between 1939 and 1965 performed with some of America's greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, Billie Holiday, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lionel Hampton, and Ivory Joe Hunter, Evans warmly recounts his wide range of experience in the music industry...read more

Product Description: Born in a poor, dangerous section of New Orleans known as The Battlefield, Louis Armstrong overcame tremendous odds to become one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. From his 1920s-era Hot Five recordings, which forever changed the face of jazz, to such latter-day pop hits as Hello, Dolly! and the well-known What a Wonderful World, Armstrong enjoyed a remarkable career that spanned more than five decades...read more

Keep It Real: The Life Story of James "Jimmy" Palao, "The King of Jazz" by Joan Singleton This book will become a major resource for anyone interested in the beginning history of Jazz. It was written to develop an understanding of some of the events that caused Jazz to prosper and to give credit to an important figure, Jimmy Palao, who gave his life to developing, teaching and sharing his musical skills. It was Jimmy Palao who taught Buddy Bolden how to read and work with the cornet. Jimmy later played in the Buddy Bolden Band and the teacher learned from the student. Buddy became ill in 1905 and never played again... Buddy Bolden never recorded or published any of his music. This could have been the end of his friend's music but Jimmy Palao had fallen in love with this style of music and he became leader of the Imperial Band and began to develop this music. It was believed that Jimmy Palao was the first to coin the term "Jazz" This biography explores the life and career path from 1897 to 1925 of Jimmy Palao who became the Leader and Director of the Original Creole Orchestra, one of the greatest musical organizations of this era; the first band to travel to over 75 cities in the U.S. and Canadian cities and gain national prominence. He was the first King of Jazz. He developed the syncopated 4/4 beat and created collective improvisation and allowed the band members to explore new instrumental techniques. These were the sounds of real Jazz. This is a... candid and somewhat revealing, look at the relationships between the Jazzmen of the Original Creole Orchestra, and the culture and the social dynamics that brought them together. . It takes us into the beginning of the Roaring Twenties as Jimmy Palao's career continued to blossom and was cut short at the early age of 45 years old. This book is Great Reading... It's thought provoking.... It's a research in history that reads like a novel. Let's Together Celebrate over 100 Years of Jazz!!! America's National Treasure

Product Description: This first major biography of the most romanticized icon in jazz thrillingly recounts his wild ride. From his emergence in the 1950s--when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeared on the West Coast to become, seemingly overnight, the prince of "cool" jazz--until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth...read more

Product Description: 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 a significant contribution to the art of jazz...read more

Product Description: Finalist for Best Jazz Book of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists AssociationThe things that I have, I’ll give to you. This is my legacy with you, Albert. This is my last hoo-rah. So begins the autobiography of Jonathan David Samuel Jones—or as the world better knows him, Papa Jo Jones...read more

Product Description: This is the first comprehensive treatment of the remarkable music and influence of Carla Bley, a highly innovative American jazz composer, pianist, organist, band leader, and activist. With fastidious attention to Bley's diverse compositions over the last fifty years spanning critical moments in jazz and experimental music history, Amy C...read more

Product Description: (Book). By age 16, Pat Martino was already working as a member of R&B star Lloyd Price's touring musical revue. By age 18, Martino moved to Harlem, where he quickly earned a reputation as a hard-bopping six-stringer with formidable chops through a series of apprenticeships with the likes of honking tenor saxophonist Willis "Gaitor Tail" Jackson and Hammond B-3 organ master Jack McDuff...read more

Product Description: TONY BENNETT: Harold Jones is one of the finest men I know. I have reviewed "The Singer's Drummer" and it is a Knock-Out! I am happy that someone is putting together a history of what really happens on the road. This is a very creative work...read more

Product Description: Written in tightly constructed rhymed quatrains, this is the first biography of internationally acclaimed Texas jazz trumpeter Kenny Dorham. Beginning in 1963 with Dorham’s recordings in Denmark, this book-length poem traces the story of the Texan’s career performing with the greatest musicians of the bop and hard bop eras in jazz history—including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane...read more

Book by Serrano, Basilio