Results for "Book Excerpts"
Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good

by Con Chapman
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 Stomp to Swing" and Chapter 3 Bennie Moten and His Competitors" from Con Chapman's Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good (Equinox, 2023). Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once wrote that he couldn't define pornography, but he knew it when he saw ...
The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician’s Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White

by AAJ Staff
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 15 Angel Of Love," from Mike & Dorothy Longo's The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White (Redwood Publishing, 2023). It was 1966. Word had gotten out, and it felt as though everyone was complimenting me about my gig at the ...
Saxophone Colossus: The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins

by Aidan Levy
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 23 The Bridge" from Aidan Levy's Saxophone Colossus: The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins (Hachette Books, 2023). On September 7, 1960, Sonny turned thirty. The next day, he recorded his thoughts on the milestone in his journal. Birthday now past but tendencies toward disruption still ...
A Life In Music

by Wulf Muller
The following is an excerpt from the Chapter 1996," from Wulf Müllers illustrated chronicle A Life In Music (Amazon Direct Publishing, 2022) Dee Dee Bridgewater performed three sold out nights at the glamorous and legendary Paris venue L'Olympia, with new signing to Verve France, singer Jeffery Smith, opening for her. Dee Dee's show ...
Ain’t But a Few of Us

by AAJ Staff
The following is an excerpt from the section Magazine Freelancers" taken from Ain't But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story edited by Willard Jenkins (Duke University Press, 2022). Magazine Freelancers by John Murph John Murph has successfully channeled his voracious appetite for modern music into a keenly social outlook that takes ...
Misty: The Music of Johnny Mathis

by Jakob Baekgaard
The following is an excerpt from the chapter Songs for the Season: The Christmas Albums" from Jakob Baekgaard's Misty: The Music of Johnny Mathis (Sonicbond Publishing, 2022). Songs for the Season: The Christmas Albums Every music genre deserves to be treated with respect, but that isn't always the case. Christmas music seems to incarnate both ...
Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside The Sitting Room

by Bruce Lindsay
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 (A Life of Whimsical Fantasies) and 9 (A Life on the Page), from Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside The Sitting Room (Equinox Publishing, 2022). Chapter 6: A Life of Whimsical Fantasies Ivor's love of jazz, formed during his teens and early-20s, remained strong and he visited ...
Solo Monk: A Poem By Steve Kowit

by AAJ Staff
One day back in the '60s, Monk was sitting at the piano, Charlie Mingus pulling at his coat how Monk should put the word in so the Mingus group could play the Five Spot, seeing as how Monk's already legendary gig down there was ending--Mingus all persuasion & cajolery, ran it ...
Ugly Beauty: Jazz in The 21st Century

by Philip Freeman
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1, JD Allen: Just Keep Going" from Philip Freeman's Ugly Beauty: Jazz in The 21st Century (ZerO Books, 2022). Queens, New York seems purposely designed to confuse travelers. It's January 2, 2020, a brisk but sunny day, and I'm to meet saxophonist JD Allen at Samurai ...
Ode to a Tenor Titan

by Bill Milkowski
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 8, Going Solo, The Pittbull and The EWI" from Bill Milkowski's Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker (Backbeat Books, 2022). By early 1986, Michael began formulating plans for his long-overdue solo debut. He was 37, a universally respected ...