Book Review

The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music

by Katchie Cartwright
October 24, 2026

The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music Colin Asher 308 Pages ISBN: #978-1-324-05139-8 W. W. Norton 2026 Colin Asher spent the pandemic teaching remotely from his living room while his public-defender partner worked on getting her clients released from “atrocious" conditions on Rikers Island in New York City. He kept a few jazz albums on repeat at home “in an effort to keep our household grounded." Elmo Hope's Sounds from ...

Energy Center: A History Of Studio Rivbea

by John Sharpe
October 18, 2026

Energy Center: A History Of Studio Rivbea Ed Hazell 324 Pages ISBN: 978-5-415-02882-5 NoBusiness Records 2026 Multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers helped reshape New York's jazz landscape not only through his music but by creating Studio Rivbea, an independent space for rehearsal, education and performance that gave adventurous musicians room to develop and play on their own terms. In Energy Center, Ed Hazell chronicles the pioneering Lower East Side venue, from its founding in 1973 ...

The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound

by Karl Ackermann
October 2, 2026

The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound Howard Reich 288 Pages ISBN: #978-0-226-84644-6 University of Chicago Press 2026 Jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but it came of age in Chicago. In The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound (The University of Chicago Press, 2026), Howard Reich demonstrates why Chicago became one of jazz's great creative laboratories through twenty-five portraits that ...

Cool Cat Blues: The Life and Times of Georgie Fame, as told to and adapted by Ben Sidran

by Mark McKergow
August 11, 2026

Cool Cat Blues: The Life and Times of Georgie Fame Ben Sidran 160 Pages ISBN: 9781800509283 Equinox Publishing 2026 British singer and keyboardist Georgie Fame's long career reaches back to the pre-Beatles “swinging London" of the early '60s. After decades with small groups and big bands as well as steady sideman work, this book presents his story as told to senior jazz historian and longtime colleague Ben Sidran. Born Clive Powell ...

Reimagining Panama's Musical And Cultural Narratives Of Jazz

by Ian Patterson
August 6, 2026

Reimagining Panama's Musical And Cultural Narratives Of Jazz Patricia Zarate de Perez 203 Pages ISBN: 9781793621832 Lexington Books 2026 A young but precocious music, jazz thrust its way into almost every corner of the planet in double time, shaping and, in turn, being shaped by every culture it has touched. Little wonder then, that the history of jazz--much like the music itself--is an ongoing process of discovery, recalibration, acknowledgment and debate. With Reimagining ...

Cool Heat: Anita O'Day And Her Dangerous Jazz Life

by C. Michael Bailey
July 22, 2026

Cool Heat: Anita O'Day and Her Dangerous Jazz Life James Gavin 214 Pages ISBN: # 978 80050 309 0 Equinox 2026 The last words James Gavin writes of the jazz singer, Anita O'Day in Cool Heat: Anita O'Day and Her Dangerous Jazz Life are in thanking the Equinox publication staff for ..."paving the way for me to tell one of the greatest stories in jazz." For more than two decades, James Gavin ...

Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story by Brad Tolinski And Chris Gill

by Doug Collette
July 16, 2026

Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story Brad Tolinski And Chris Gill 400 pages ISBN: #978-0306836589 Da Capo 2026 Brad Tolinski & Chris Gill do not just tell The Jeff Beck Story in their biography of the maverick guitar genius. Very early in its four-hundred pages, Blow By Blow becomes a virtual history of the evolution of '60s and '70s rock, blues and fusion music and, in turn, a discerning view into the ...

Cosmic Music: The Life, Art And Transcendence Of Alice Coltrane

by Ian Patterson
June 24, 2026

Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane Andy Beta 452 PagesISBN: 978 1 3996 2621 7 White Rabbit2026 As is often the case with marginalized, controversial or divisive figures in jazz, recognition of their achievements tends to come in a rush only after they have passed. Alice Coltrane died in 2007. Since then, contemporary jazz musicians such as Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, Brandee Younger, Nubya Garcia, Alina Bzhezhinska and Matthew Halsall ...

The Rolling Stones - The Biography

by Thomas Cole
June 21, 2026

The Rolling Stones, The Biography Bob Spitz 704 ISBN-10 : 0593489098 ISBN-13 : 978-0593489093Penguin2026 Anticipation mounts as the lights are turned down low and finally... the curtain rises and the announcement from the PA system bellows--"Please welcome the Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band in the World--THE ROLLING STONES! That endorphin rush never fails to well up upon hearing those words accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the most dynamic, long-standing rock ...

Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles By Philip Norman

by Doug Collette
June 16, 2026

Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles Philip Norman368 Pages ISBN: 9780306837234 Da Capo 2026 Logic would suggest Philip Norman is uniquely qualified to write the biography of the late manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein. After all, the British-born author composed Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation (MJF Books, 1981), a best-selling chronicle of the iconic band. But the subsequent revisionism applied to the work, including Norman's ...