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Subject Area: Music-Jazz
Goins, Wayne E.2005 0-7734-6091-8 460 pages
This is a biography on the career of jazz guitarist Charlie Christian, who was raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the Depression era in the Southwestern region of the United States. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the details surrounding the events that shaped Christian’s musical development, beginning with his early influences of ‘Territory bands’ and ‘western swing’ groups. The book documents Christian’s performances in the urban area of Oklahoma City on Second Street, better known as ‘Deep Deuce’, as well as his travels with both Anna Mae Winburn and the Alphonso Trent Orchestra. Christian’s discovery by producer John Hammond led to Christian’s membership in the Benny Goodman Sextet in August of 1939. The book also chronicles Christian’s most significant radio broadcasts, live performances, and recordings for Columbia Records, and also includes facts regarding Christian’s pioneering guitar style during the early 1940’s,as his performances at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem represented the connection between swing and bebop. The biography finally uncovers details into Christian’s private life, and his untimely death during the apex of the Goodman era.
Ross, Larry
2002 0-7734-6857-9 192 pages
This study examines the migration of African American jazz musicians to other parts of the world from 1919 to the present. It provides evidence that African American jazz musicians fared better in the diaspora than they did in America where jazz and its inventors were born. Characterized as bereft of ‘culture’ in America, they were hailed as the epitome of high culture in Europe, Asia, and the Soviet Union: they fraternized with royalty in Europe while Jim Crow laws prevailed in America. The study begins with the emergence of jazz music in America, examines musicians who traveled abroad, and their lives and influences in postwar Europe, including Germany from 1925-1945, and also presents some surprising statistics on the death rates of jazz and classical musicians in the US and abroad. The study, written by an anthropologist who is also a jazz musician, provides a treatment of the cultural, historical, artistic, innovative, and aesthetic aspects of the migration of African American jazz musicians to the diaspora.
Franklin, Benjamin
2011 0-7734-1528-9 700 pages
This book details the music played on the Jazz in Retrospect program. It includes the name of every leader, identifies all musical selections, and provides recording dates. Because no tapes of the show have been preserved, the book provides invaluable documentation for jazz and radio history. This book contains thirty-five black and white photograhs and five color photographs.
Smith, Peter Dunbaugh
2015 1-4955-0351-8 236 pages
This rich and descriptive analysis of one particular neighborhood and its contributions to the formation of new, and distinctively African-American, performance ideologies by lesser known performers contributes to a greater understanding of this historical period and the body of creative work that has never been fully chronicled or acknowledged before.
Erdmann, Thomas R.
2016 1-4955-0431-X 316 pages
The author presents an informative, highly entertaining set of interviews that offer the readers a wonderful insight into the mental, physical and spiritual processes involved in the various aspects of trumpet players who serve in the wide-ranging capacity of individual soloist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, author, teacher, scholar, musical philosopher, recording engineer, band leader, and visionary. A vital work in the history of Jazz.
Erdmann, Thomas R.
2019 1-4955-0761-0 176 pages
This collection collects five interviews the author did for Saxophone Today, following its final issue in 2017. The interview subjects are: Geoffrey Deibel, (Saxophone Professor at Wichita State University), Jared Sims, (Saxophone Professor West Virginia University), Ed Calle, (Professional Saxophonist), Michael Lington, (Danish Smooth and Contemporary Jazz Musician), and Brian Utley, (Saxophone Professor Vanderbilt University).
Crescente, Anthony
2024 1-4955-1189-9 52 pages
(This is an 8 x 10 softcover book.) "Improvisational music offers a great opportunity for musicians to truly express themselves in the moment. That aspect of "In the Moment" is the crucial component. ...This method describes a way to consolidate information to allow the improviser to feel free and confident." -Anthony Crescente