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Bill Russell and the New Orleans Jazz Revival
Born in 1905, Bill Russell demonstrated diverse musical interests from an early age. Having been a contemporary of John Cage, Henry Cowell, and Lou Harrison, amongst others, his significance as a percussion composer is well known amongst aficionados. His work as a musicologist of New Orleans jazz mu...
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The Godfather of British Jazz
This is the first book about the life of jazz pianist and composer Stan Tracey CBE (1926-2013). Drawn largely from his personal diaries and some of his many interviews, his son Clark Tracey pieces together what made the late Stan Tracey a unique character in jazz music. Stan's wit and wisdom also co...
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The Long Shadow of the Little Giant
Over forty years have elapsed since the death of the British jazz legend Tubby Hayes and yet his story still continues to captivate. Beginning as a precociously talented teenage saxophonist, he took first the local and then the international jazz scene by storm, displaying gifts equal to the finest...
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Antipodean Riffs
Antipodean Riffs is a collection of essays on Australian jazz and jazz in Australia. Chronologically they range from what could be called the 'prehistory' of the music -- the tradition of US-sourced African-American music that predated the arrival of music billed as 'jazz' -- to the present. Themati...
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An Unholy Row
The post-war jazz revival marked the beginning of an independent British youth culture with music as its focus. Although it always remained a minority enthusiasm, jazz actually embodied the vaguely felt sentiments, dissatisfactions and aspirations of the post-war generation more fully than any other...
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Jazz Me Blues
Jazz trombonist Chris Barber formed his first band in the late 1940s, but it is the band that he has led from 1954, after parting company with trumpeter Ken Colyer, that has established all kinds of records for success and longevity. The 54 year partnership with trumpeter Pat Halcox is the longest c...
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Mr. P.C.
Winner of the 2013 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research in Jazz During his 13 year career between 1955 and 1968, Paul Chambers was one of the leading double bass players in jazz, performing with a wide variety of artists and a range of...
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James Brown
For ten years between 1965 and 1975, James Brown was the most popular and cutting-edge of any black artist. As one journalist put it, "before Brown, there was music with a beat. After Brown music had found a groove." The drawing out of this "groove," leveraged on "the one," - or the first and third...
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Lee Morgan
This is the first biography of the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938-72). He was a prodigy: recruited to Dizzy Gillespie's big band while still a teenager, joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers not much after, by his early-20s Morgan had played on four continents and dozens of albums. The trumpeter wou...
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New Orleans
This book is a highly personal portrait of a city and its music in the aftermath of the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. Among the musicians and groups at the heart of the New Orleans jazz scene who make their appearance in this book are: The Rebirth Brass Band, Hot 8, The Soul Rebels, Th...