Book Review

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 ...

Mujician: Keith Tippett – The Authorised Biography by Martin Phillips

by Mark McKergow
June 13, 2026

Mujician: Keith Tippett--The Authorised Biography Martin Phillips 325 Pages ISBN: 978 1916320697 Jazz In Britain 2026 Pianist, composer, improviser, and educator Keith Tippett (1947--2020) was a truly original voice in jazz. Born in Bristol, England, to a policeman father and Irish mother, he remained closely connected to his roots in southwest England. He is best remembered for his free improvisation work--both solo and with his quartet Mujician alongside Paul Dunmall, Tony Levin and Paul Rogers. (The name came ...

Death of the Soccer God

by Kyle Simpler
May 10, 2026

Death of the Soccer God Dimitry Elias Léger 222 Pages ISBN: # 978-0-374-61988-6 Farrar, Strauss Giroux 2026 The old cliché about a person's life flashing before their eyes immediately before death is the essence of Dimitry Elias Léger's novel Death of the Soccer God. Gilbert Chevalier was the king of the world after he scored the winning goal in the 1950 World Cup. Now, he finds himself facing a firing squad at Fort Dimanche, the ...

Listen to Prestige Now, Think Later

by Patrick Burnette
April 19, 2026

Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Records, 1949-1972 Tad Richards 250 Pages ISBN: 979-8-8558-0495-9 State University of New York Press 2025 Most jazz histories end up focusing on individual musicians, understandably enough. Talk about movements in jazz all you want: dixieland, swing, be-bop, hard-bop. You will end up talking about Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver and Art Blakey. A few towering ...