Music

Hardcover. NY, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 272 pages, b&w photos. Dust jacket with light edgewear, short tears,

NY, RCA Victor, 1949, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Two Records/4 Sides, Youth Series Y-345, narrated by Stering Holloway. Records have moderate wear. Features the music and story from the Disney animated production "Make Mine Music!". Inside a folding album with illustrations from the story on inside covers. Mild soil to outer covers.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 516 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on front fly leaf. The enduring appeal of the music of George and Ira Gershwin has spawned several biographies of the talented brothers who created more than 700 popular songs before George's untimely death at age 39 in 1937--Ira died in 1983 at age 87. But never before has the collaboration itself been the subject of such intelligent and fruitful scrutiny as in this intriguing study. Rosenberg, chair of the musical theater program of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, has a gift for making scholarly points in accessible, albeit mundane language. Readers require no particular musical background in order to enjoy and respond to her original theories about the connections between George's music and Ira's lyrics. Points of comparison are frequently illustrated with side-by-side measures of music, and the striking thematic relationships between such songs as Embraceable You and The Man I Love are also compared dramatically to George's orchestral composition, including the well-known Rhapsody in Blue. This is a rich feast for music historians, musicians and connoisseurs of musical theater as well as inveterate hummers who like a Gershwin tune. Clean copy.

Hardcover. San Diego, Thunder Bay Press , 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 224 pages. From singer-songwriters like Billy Joel and the Bee Gees to folk artists like John Denver and James Taylor to the rock legends Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, you won't find a more complete list of albums that defines the '70s music scene. Each listing features the full-color, original sleeve artwork, and is packed with information about the musician lineup, track listings, and number-one singles that resulted. A celebration of this funky era. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Rodale Books , 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Robert Hilburn's storied career as a rock critic has allowed him a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of some of the most iconic figures of our time. He was the only music critic to visit Folsom Prison with Johnny Cash. He met John Lennon during his lost weekend period in Los Angeles and they became friends. Bob Dylan granted him his only interviews during his "born-again" period and the occasion of his 50th birthday. Michael Jackson invited Hilburn to watch cartoons with him in his bedroom. When Springsteen took to playing only old hits, Hilburn scolded him for turning his legendary concerts into oldies revues, and Springsteen changed his set list. In this totally unique account of the symbiotic relationship between critic and musical artist, Hilburn reflects on the ways in which he has changed and been changed by the subjects he's covered; Bono weighs in with an introduction about how Hilburn's criticism influenced and altered his own development as a musician.

Hardcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 3rd pr., 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 279 pages, b&w photos. Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his "solo" turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, "Man, you ought to leave your karma to science." Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Stein and Day, 2nd pr., 1974, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, laminated card wraps, 112 pages, b&w illustrations. Ex-library copy with light stamping and bookplate on inside front cover. On the African influences on blues and jazz.

NY, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 1st pbk, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 361 pages, b&w illustrations. INSCRIBED BY JANIS IAN on the title page. The legendary singer and songwriter of the 70s gives us her memoir in the music business. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Grand Central Publishing, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 388 pages. Drawing on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, filmmakers, and the generation of artists who emerged in their wake, this "monumental origin story" celebrates the legacy of the Velvet Underground, which burns brighter than ever in the 21st century. Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen--whether it be the 1960s or the 2020s--the Velvet Underground represents ground zero. Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang around a psychedelic rock and roll band--a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol's Factory--the Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up. They never smiled in photographs, wore sunglasses indoors, and invented the archetype that would be copied by everyone from Sid Vicious to Bobby Gillespie. They were avant-garde nihilists, writing about drug abuse, prostitution, paranoia, and sado-masochistic sex at a time when the rest of the world was singing about peace and love.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A raucous and vividly dishy memoir by the only woman writer on the masthead of Rolling Stone Magazine in the early Seventies. In 1971, Robin Green had an interview with Jann Wenner at the offices of Rolling Stone magazine. She had just moved to Berkeley, California, a city that promised "Good Vibes All-a Time." Those days, job applications asked just one question: "What are your sun, moon and rising signs?" Green thought she was interviewing for a clerical job like the other girls in the office, a "real job." Instead, she was hired as a journalist. With irreverent humor and remarkable nerve, Green spills stories of sparring with Dennis Hopper on a film junket in the desert, scandalizing fans of David Cassidy and spending a legendary evening on a water bed in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s dorm room. In the seventies, Green was there as Hunter S. Thompson crafted Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and now, with a distinctly gonzo female voice, she reveals her side of that tumultuous time in America. Brutally honest and bold, Green reveals what it was like to be the first woman granted entry into an iconic boys' club. Pulling back the curtain on Rolling Stone magazine in its prime, The Only Girl is a stunning tribute to a bygone era and a publication that defined a generation. 293 page, illustrated with b&w and color photos.

Softcover. NY, Da Capo, 1st pbk, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 470 pages, b&w illustrations. Light edge wear to wrappers. Small stains on fore-edge. Else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Macmillan and Co, 1st, 1894, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 163 pages, illustrated throughout in b&w by Hugh Thomson. Unfortunate foxing throughout text. Minor wear to illustrated boards with light soil to rear cover.

Hardcover. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 276 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Condon has brought a half century of jazz into focus with his published scrapbook of photographs and recollections. This particular volume contains 16 original autographs obtained by a patron of his jazz clubs. Includes the signatures of all four house band leaders: drummer Buzzy Drootin (1947-1951), pianist Ralph Sutton (1948-1956), pianist Johnny Varro and cornetist Ed Polcer (1957). Also Johnny Blowers, Dick Cary, Peanuts Hucko, Cliff Leeman, Jack Lesberg, Rosy McHargue, Joe Muranyi, Red Norvo, Jess Stacy, Dick Wellstood, Spiegel Wilcox, and Teddy Wilson.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Backbeat Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY LASKIN on the title page. For more than 30 years, Grit Laskin has been building guitars, and his striking inlay work places his instruments in a class all their own. He is credited with single-handedly taking the ages-old tradition of musical instrument inlay from its purely decorative roots into an art form, a means of expression. In his hands, shell, stone, legal ivory and metal emerge as the palette of a re-invented medium. A sumptuous, full-color-throughout, coffee-table quality tome, this is the first book to document the breadth of his work and the techniques he has devised. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Columbia MO, University of Missouri, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 216 pages. This unique reference book is a compendium of makers and manufacturers of every variety of musical instrument made in the United States circa 1981. It provides names and addresses of instrument makers indexed alphabetically. Each entry gives all known information on the total and annual number of instruments the maker has produced, the number of workers in the shop, the year the individual or firm began manufacturing instruments, whether the instruments are available on demand or made to order, and whether a brochure is available from the maker. Complete cross-references are provided for companies known by more than one name, for partnerships, and for parent and subsidiary firms. Instruments are also indexed, and makers are listed by state for the convenience of the reader. Lists of schools of instrument making and relevant organizations and publications are included as appendixes. An invaluable source of information for historians and for the rapidly growing number of collectors of musical instruments, who will be able to use the data gathered here in appraising instruments and tracing their history.

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, price-clipped dust jacket. 192 pages including index. Traces the life and career of the influential jazz musician from the 1920s to his death in 1991. Profusely illustrated with b&w, some color photos.

Hardcover. NY, Warner/Amistad, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright. unclipped dust jacket. Wonderful, inspiring stories of dozens of black women in opera and classical music. Features in-depth portrais of such notables as Sissieretta Jones, Elizabeth Taylor-Greenfield, Marie Selika, Marian Anderson, Flora Batson, Dorothy Maynor and many more. 236 pages including index. B&W photos. Inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Books, reprint, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wrappers, 264 pages, b&w illustrations. In this classic work of American music writing, renowned critic Albert Murray argues beautifully and authoritatively that the blues as such are synonymous with low spirits. Not only is its express purpose to make people feel good, which is to say in high spirits, but in the process of doing so it is actually expected to generate a disposition that is both elegantly playful and heroic in its nonchalance. In Stomping the Blues Murray explores its history, influences, development, and meaning as only he can. More than two hundred vintage photographs capture the ambiance Murray evokes in lyrical prose. Only the sounds are missing from this lyrical, sensual tribute to the blues. Originally published in 1976. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean with mild shelf wear.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 414 pages. Contains a wealth of jazz profiles he has written for The New Yorker during the past twenty-seven years. He gives us, in this spectacular volume, his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Mary Lou Williams, written in their brilliant twilight. Clean, like new.

Softcover. Lanham MD, Scarecrow Press, reprint, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 203 pages. Using over 90 original interviews, as well as his extensive research in a variety of New Orleans' archives, Dr. Kennedy deftly explores the role public school teachers had in the formative years of jazz, as well as the influence they continue to have on the musical life of one of America's foremost musical cities. As jazz and music mentors, these teachers employed creativity, innovation, and dedication in propelling some of the world's finest musicians forward into brilliant careers. Chord Changes on the Chalkboard includes a foreword by jazz legend Ellis Marsalis, Jr. and is a must for jazz fans and historians, music libraries, and for collections supporting the study of popular culture and African-American history. Bright, clean copy.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. Facsimile reprint of two 18th century editions; stapled wraps; 37 clean, 65 unmarked pages. The librettos and music by Motteux and Eccles. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly rubbed dust jacket, 560 pages, b&w illustrations. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald's death, music historian Judith Tick draws on deep archival research, family interviews and newly available recordings and concert footage to show how Fitzgerald fused a Black vocal aesthetic with mainstream popular repertoire to revolutionise American music. From Fitzgerald's first audition at the Apollo Theatre to swing-era success at the Savoy, Tick shows how this 'girl singer' broke new ground: as a female bandleader, as a ground-breaking bebop improviser and as the arbiter of the American canon with her Song Book recordings. Yet even as she electrified concert halls and sold millions of records, jazz critics belittled her as 'naive'. Tick reveals instead an ambitious risk-taker with a stunningly diverse repertoire, whose exceptional musical spontaneity (often radically different on stage than in the studio) made her a transformational artist. Remainder dot to top edge otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. Cleveland OH, Dayton C. Miller, reprint, 1922, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 197 pages, dark blue cloth with gilt lettering and design. Many b&w drawings and photos, some fold-out. Light edgewear to cloth edges, mild foxing to end papers, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 634 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with a few black & white photographs. Bookplate on inside front cover. Features music and lyrics. 1 Fold-out map of Virginia. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. US, Taschen, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 560 pages. A compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions. Large heavy volume. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap.

Hardcover. Neptune NJ, Paganiniana Publications, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 176 pages, maroon cloth covers with gilt lettering, design. Scarce book by a master teacher. INSCRIBED BY BRONSTEIN on rear end paper upside-down. No dust jacket issued.

Softcover. San Francisco, Backbeat Books, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 271 pages, b&w illustrations. Chasin' That Devil Music has the feel of a documentary about the making of a thrilling motion picture. The main focus is on the Delta blues singers of the early 20th century--artists such as Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson who've achieved near-mythic status in blues circles. In addition, many of the articles gathered in this splendidly illustrated volume capture the process and people involved in tracking long-lost recordings nearly as elusive as the performers who made them. Here, for example, is the story of author/blues scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow's three-year hunt for the death certificate of Robert Johnson, the celebrated Mississippi bluesman and a figure whose legend has grown greater with each year since his much-debated death in 1938. The text here is nearly as raw in spots as the music that sparked it, but, as with those sounds (which can be heard on a terrific CD sampler included with the book), enthusiasts will find Chasin' That Devil Music riveting. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. University Of Iowa Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 168 pages. Using jazz as the key metaphor, Porter refocuses old interpretations of Ellison by placing jazz in the foreground and by emphasizing, especially as revealed in his essays, the power of Ellison's thought and cultural perception. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Da Capo Press, reprint, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 301 pages, b&w photos. Sarah Vaughan possessed the most spectacular voice in jazz history. In Sassy, Leslie Gourse, the acclaimed biographer of Nat King Cole and Joe Williams, defines and celebrates Vaughan's vital musical legacy and offers a detailed portrait of the woman as well as the singer. Revealed here is "The Divine One" as only her closest friends and musical associates knew her. By her early twenties Sarah Vaughan was singining with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Billy Eckstine, helping them invent bebop. For forty-five years thereafter, she reigned supreme in both pop and jazz, with several million-selling hits (among them "Broken Hearted Melody," "Make Yourself Comfortable," and "Misty"). But life offstage was never smooth for Sarah Vaughan. Her voluptuous voice was matched by her exuberant appetite for excess: three failed marriages, financial difficulties through many changes in management, late-night jam sessions, liquor, and cocaine. Remainder line on bottom edge, otherwise clean.

Softcover. NY, Quadrangle /New York Times Book Co., 2nd pr., 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 251 pages; Music and lyrics for TV advertising songs pre-1070's. Remember Brush Your Teeth with Pepsodent; Ajax, the Foaming Cleanser; It's the Real Thing, I'm Chiquita Banana, and so many more? They're all here, over 120 jingles with musical arrangements. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Da Capo Press, reprint, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with silver gilt lettering. First published in 1962 Jazz Panorama presents roughly forty short articles from the pages of The Jazz Review from the late 1950s and early 1960s, selected by respected jazz historian Martin Williams, the magazine's co-founder (with Nat Hentoff).This is the type of book that one can dip into from time to time and always find something both enjoyable and educational. Written in clear, understandable prose, the book collects short essays, record reviews (usually of multiple LPs), and two interviews. A wide range of jazz styles and movements is covered here, everything from Dixieland to "third stream" and the avant-garde of Ornette Coleman.The jazz musicians included for discussion range from King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton to Bix Biederbecke. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, and Miles Davis. 318 pages, clean copy. No dust jacket.

Softcover. NY, Berkeley Boulevard Books, 1st thus, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 325 pages, b&w illustrations. Brimming with concert information, the histories of their songs, profiles of band members, tour highlights, Phish-filled anecdotes, articles by fans and editors, and more, this book is the ultimate guide to this popular band. Clean, bright copy. Like new.

Hardcover. Bloomsbury Sigma, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth, 320 pages. The story of recorded sound - the technological developments, the people that made them happen and the impact they had on society - from the earliest inventions via the phonograph to LPs, EPs and the recent resurgence of vinyl.While Thomas Edison's phonograph, the first device that could both record and reproduce sound, represented an important turning point in the story of recorded sound, it was really only the tip of the iceberg, and came after decades of invention, tinkering and experiment.Into the Groove tells the story of the birth of recorded sound, from the earliest serious attempts in the 1850s all the way up to the vinyl resurgence we're currently enjoying. This book celebrates the ingenuity, rivalries and science of the modulated groove.

Softcover. Chicago's Books Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 200 pages, b&w illustrations. CD included. An interesting behind-the-scenes look at the golden age of Midwest radio. This book is a must read if you grew up in the late 1950's and 1960's listening to WLS radio in Chicago. Clark Weber takes us along with him as he starts his radio career in a little daytime station and then progresses to the "Big 89". He chronicles the rise of WLS into a 38 state "Blowtorch" during the 25+ years that the station ruled the midwest airways as THE 'Top 40' radio station. You will hear stories of the 'jocks' that worked with him, how fun it was working the big 'hops' around Chicago and the midwest, his understanding wife, and his lone solo airplane flight that almost ended the fun for him. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 838 pages. Light edgewear, small tear to price-clipped dust jacket; fold to front flap. Previous price sticker on front fly leaf. Else clean and tight.

Hardcover. London , Jazz Book Club/ Andre Deutsch, reprint, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 242 pages, in a very good dust jacket.

Hardcover. London, Robert Hale, 1st UK, 1986, Hardcover, 254 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Biography of the nineteenth century composer, Franz Schubert (1797-1828). The author "corrects the legend that Schubert was a penniless, myopic roly-poly. This sympathetic and musically astute biography pays tribute to Schubert's raw talent and shows him to have been a composer of outstanding brilliance".

Hardcover. London, Ernest Benn, 11th pr., Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 656 pages. 10,000 musical themes indexed for easy reference.

Hardcover. London, Faber and Faber, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Music's confrontation with modernity has been difficult, and has often involved the artist leaving his country for political and social reasons. In the company of a range of performers,this work reflects the difficulties encountered and the audiences' often reluctant attitude towards them.

Hardcover. San Diego, Thunder Bay, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, color throughout. Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Use Your Illusion 1&2 - the 90s saw some classic albums produced by artists such as Nirvana, U2, Gun n Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as a resurgence in country music popularized by Shania Twain and Garth Brooks. Combining information from both the US and UK charts provided by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and British Phonographic Industry (BPI), 100 Best Selling Albums of the 90s features chart-topping work from Michael Jackson, Puff Daddy and Green Day. Each album entry is accompanied by the original sleeve artwork front and back - and is packed full of facts and recording information, including a complete track listing, musician and production credits, and an authoritative commentary on the record and its place in cultural history. Soundtracks featured include the 60s and 70s hits on Forrest Gump, the Elton John/Tim Rice songs in The Lion King, and the orchestral score for Titanic (and Celine Dion's Oscar-winning My Heart Will Go On). Other stand-out albums include the Eagles' reforming to make Hell Freezes Over and Eric Clapton's Unplugged, a career revival for him in the popular 90s back-to-basics semi-acoustic series.

Softcover. NY, Cooper Square Press, 1st pbk, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 285 pages, b&w illustrations. As told by the musicians who made it happen, Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock revisits country rock's rise to the top of the charts. Music scholar John Einarson delves into the years from 1963, when Buck Owens and his Buckaroos brought an electric edge to their Texas honky-tonk tunes, to 1973, when The Eagles released their album "Desperado" on David Geffen's label. Einarson examines how folk, rockabilly, blues, Nashville country, Tejano, bluegrass, and other musical idioms influenced a generation of journeyman musicians. He traces the paths taken by the songsmiths, the bands in which they served their apprenticeships, and the songs they wrote together, as they steadily shaped the country rock sound. The protagonists of this story include talented but troubled Gram Parsons, a virtuoso determined to burn out before he faded away; the versatile and appealing Linda Ronstadt; Mike Nesmith, the Monkee from Texas who returned to his musical roots with a trilogy of country-rock albums; TV heartthrob turned country rocker Rick Nelson; folkie songbird Emmylou Harris before she made it in Nashville; and many others. Clean.

Softcover. NY, Da Capo Press, reprint, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 245 pages, b&w photos. Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) was one of the most brilliant exponents of New Orleans jazz. A prodigy on the clarinet, he soloed with Bunk Johnson's orchestra at age eleven, was improvising cornet-clarinet duos with Buddy Petit at age fifteen. Leaving New Orleans in the 1920s, Bechet took his Creole sound and spirit to New York, where he adopted the soprano saxophone and soon developed the unique style that marked his special artistry.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 402 pages, b&w illustrations. An insightful examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African Independence on jazz in the 1950s and 60s, Freedom Sounds traces the complex relationships among music, politics, aesthetics, and activism through the lens of the hot button racial and economic issues of the time. Ingrid Monson illustrates how the contentious and soul-searching debates in the Civil Rights, African Independence, and Black Power movements shaped aesthetic debates and exerted a moral pressure on musicians to take action. Throughout, her arguments show how jazz musicians' quest for self-determination as artists and human beings also led to fascinating and far reaching musical explorations and a lasting ethos of social critique and transcendence. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 308 pages, b&w illustrations. Burt Korall is widely recognized as the most authoritative writer on jazz drumming. His first book Drummin' Men--The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Swing Era is considered a classic. It was praised by Nat Hentoff as "a book that illuminates not only the pantheon of jazz drummers in classic jazz, but makes clear the very essence of the jazz spirit." Now, in this exciting sequel, Korall offers a richly informative history of drumming in the Bebop era.Bebop--hard driving, discordant, melodically unconventional--introduced new sounds and innovative rhythms that changed the face of jazz. Korall looks at this music through the eyes of the musicians themselves, covering a whole range of important jazz drummers, but focusing upon the most original and significant--principally Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Korall provides a knowledgeable background about the history of bebop--and the unfortunate and almost universal heroin addiction that swept through the jazz world in the wake of Charlie Parker's habit. The book contains Korall's own memoir of nearly 50 years in the jazz world, linked by his narrative of the careers of these drummers and their place in the bebop jazz scene. But the most remarkable aspect of the book is the oral history that weaves together the stories of the drummers themselves as well as their friends and contemporaries. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket, 495 pages. Boogaloo--the synonym of choice among the cognoscenti for rhythm and blues--is a stylish and profound meditation on the art, influence, and commerce of black American popular music. At once deeply knowing and keenly observant, Arthur Kempton reveals the tensions between the sacred and the profane at the heart of "soul music," and the complex centrality of "Aframericans" in the evolution of our mass musical culture. What that culture is all about, who owns it, and who gets paid--these are issues of moment in his epic narrative. Kempton brilliantly traces the interconnections among a century's worth of signal personalities, events, and achievements: from Thomas A. Dorsey, the so-called Father of Gospel Music, whose career ("Got to Know How to Work Your Show") sheds light on Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown, among others, to the rise of that "handsome Negro lad," Sam Cooke (perhaps the greatest of soul singers) and his definitive crossover dreams; from Berry Gordy Jr.'s infatuation with Doris Day and his sharp business plan to capture and exploit the sounds of young America through Motown ("It's What's in the Grooves That Counts") to the founding of Stax Records and Memphis Soul by a white farm kid who grew up dreaming of being a country fiddler; from the visionary funk of George Clinton to the ascendancy of hip hop ("Sharecropping in Wonderland"), the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, and the story of Death Row Records. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 532 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very light wear to jacket, two small scratches to upper jacket spine. Otherwise very clean and tight copy. In this superb collection of essays, reviews and articles, Giddins brings together, for the first time, more than 140 pieces written over a 14-year period, most of them for his column in the Village Voice (also called "Weather Bird"). The book is first and foremost a celebration of jazz, with illuminating commentary on contemporary jazz events, on today's top musicians, on the best records of the year, and on leading figures from jazz's past. Readers will find extended pieces on Louis Armstrong, Erroll Garner, Benny Carter, Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Billie Holiday, Cassandra Wilson, Tony Bennett, and many others.

Hardcover. Portland OR, Amedeus Press, 1st, March 1, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 453 pages, b&w photographs and frontispiece, sheet music end paper. Light edge wear to dust jacket. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st UK, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 168 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket with light rubbing. Collection of correspondence between Pierre Boulez and John Cage. Translated and edited by Robert Samuels.

Hardcover. London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 72 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to edges. Black and white illustrations throughout by Mezzo. From 'Crossroads Blues' to 'Sweet Home Chicago', 'Hellhound on My Trail' to 'Come On In My Kitchen', Robert Johnson wrote some of the most enduring and formative songs of the original blues era, songs that would go on to help shape the birth of rock 'n' roll in the 1960s. Beloved of Clapton, Dylan and the Stones, Robert Johnson remains one of the most iconic and mythologized figures in popular music (and the first of many to die at the age of 27). Born in the in the South in Mississippi, Johnson made his way to the urban North as a traveling musician, but it was only when he returned to the South that he recorded the twenty-nine songs, in two sessions, which would create his legacy. Exploring the stories and legends that surround his life and death -- his childhood, his womanizing, his pact with the devil at the crossroads -- Mezzo and DuPont have produced a fittingly creative and beautiful depiction of this most extraordinary life.

Hardcover. Germany, PPVMedien, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 220 pages profusely illustrated in color. The story of Taylor Guitars from small San Diego company to a company producing over 70000 quality guitars a year. Showcases many rare guitars, including instruments made by Bob Taylor before the company's founding, standard production models and custom built instruments. Clean copy.