JAZZ
Ragtime, New Orleans jazz, swing bands, bebop.
Origins: Late 19th century.
BOOKS
- Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans by Louis Armstrong, 1952.
- Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday, 1956. ︎
- Four Lives in the Bebop Business by A. B. Spellman, 1966. ︎
- Black Music by Amiri Baraka (as LeRoi Jones), 1967. ︎
- Rags and Ragtime by David A. Jasen, 1978.
- In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz by Donald M. Marquis, 1978.
- Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women by Linda Dahl, 1984. ︎
- Lester Young by Lewis Porter, 1985.
- Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography Of Count Basie by Count Basie, Albert Murray, 1986.
- Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker by Gary Giddins, 1986.
- Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, 1989. ︎
- Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time by Phyllis Rose, 1989.
- Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices From Bessie Smith To Bebop And Beyond by Will Friedwald, 1990.
- But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer, 1994. ︎
- Jazz by Toni Morrison, 1992. ︎
- Consider “Trading Meanings: The Breath of Music in Toni Morrison's Jazz” as a companion piece.
- The Duke Ellington Reader by Mark Tucker, 1993. ︎
- King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era by Edward A. Berlin, 1995.
- Bebop: The Music and Its Players by Thomas Owens, 1995.
- History of Jazz by Ted Gioia, 1997.
- Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell by Francis Paudras, 1998.
- Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra by John F. Szwed, 1998.
- Kind Of Blue: The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece by Ashley Kahn, 2000. ︎
- Louis Armstrong, In His Own Words: Selected Writings by Louis Armstrong, ed. Thomas Brothers, 2001. ︎
- Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan by E. Taylor Atkins, 2001.
- Living with Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings by Ralph Ellison (Compiled by Robert O’Meally), 2002. ︎︎︎
- A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashley Kahn, 2002. ︎
- Check out Greg Tate’s review for some particularly lovely words about Trane and this book: “The Supreme,” Village Voice, 2002.
- In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition by Fred Moton, 2003. ︎
- Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop by Guthrie P. Ramsey, 2003.
- Another comprehensive text that starts with jazz.
- Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams by Tammy Kernodle, 2004. ︎
- The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazz Man by Pops Foster (as told to Tom Stoddard), 2005. ︎
- A Biography of Charlie Christian, Jazz Guitar's King of Swing Book by Craig R. McKinney and Wayne E. Goins, 2005.
- Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz by Stanley Crouch, 2006.
- Curator’s note: This was a tricky one to include, but it’s here because it doesn’t feel right to omit. That said, Crouch is one of the premiere jazz critics of our time and an an ornery champion of the past—this means he’s uninterested in new movements in jazz, and is the kind of guy to dismiss Prince as “vulgarian.” If you read him, consider his takes carefully.
- Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff, 2007.
- Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, 2007.
- A Power Stronger than Itself: The A.A.C.M. and American Experimental Music by George Lewis, 2007.
- Subversive Sounds: Race and Birth of New Orleans Jazz by Charles B. Hersch, 2007.
- The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music by Ben Ratliff, 2008.︎
- Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald by Tanya Lee Stone, 2008.
- Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley, 2009.
- Let Freedom Swing: Collected Writings on Jazz, Blues, and Gospel by Howard Reich, 2010.
- Duke Ellington's America by Harvey G. Cohen, 2010.
- Why Jazz Happened by Marc Myers, 2012.
- Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times by Robin D.G. Kelley, 2012.
- The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie Ramsey, 2013.
- Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout, 2013.
- Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes, 2017.
- Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music by Gerald Horne, 2019.
ARTICLES
- Library of Congress’ Entry for Scott Joplin (1868-1917).
- Library of Congress’ Entry on History of Ragtime.
- “Bud's Bubble” by Francis Davis, The Atlantic, January 1996.
- “Black Jazz in the Digital Age” by Greg Tate. Presented at the Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium, 2006. ︎
- “A New Standard: Kamasi Washington’s Modern Jazz Revolution” by Ian Cohen, Pitchfork, June 2015.
- “Esperanza Spalding: Insubordinate by Nature” by Alex Frank, Pitchfork, March 2016.
- “Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus” by Hilton Als, Pitchfork, April 2016. ︎
- “Thelonious Monk: So Plain Only the Deaf Can Hear” by Carvell Wallace, Pitchfork, April 2016.
- “The Surprisingly Quiet Ella Fitzgerald” by Lauren Hard, NYTimes, June 2016.
- “Transfiguration and Transcendence: The Music of Alice Coltrane” by Andy Beta, Pitchfork, January 2017.
- “The Casual Excellence of Ella Fitzgerald” by Emily J. Lordi, PBS, April 2017. ︎
- “Duke Ellington Really Just Wanted to Be a Writer” by Brent Hayes Edwards, Lithub, August 2017. ︎
- “Inside Alice Coltrane’s Stunning, Spiritual Musical Quest” by Tyler Wilcox, Pitchfork, July 2018.
- “Louis Armstrong’s Life in Letters, Music and Art” by Giovanni Russonello, Nathan Bajar, NYTimes, November 2018.
- “Opinion | How Lester Young Altered the Course of Music” by John Edward Hasse, Wall Street Journal March 2019.
- “Debunking Green Book: Jazz Greats on What It Was Really Like to Tour During Jim Crow” by Natalie Weiner, Pitchfork, June 2019.
- “The Joy Of Ella Fitzgerald's Accessible Elegance” by Holly Gleason, NPR, September 2019.
- “Art Blakey: How The Jazz Messenger Shaped The Future Of Jazz” by Charles Waring, uDiscoverMusic, October 2019.
- “Overlooked No More: Valaida Snow, Charismatic ‘Queen of the Trumpet’” by Giovanni Russonello, NYTimes, February 2020.
- “A Guide to Soul Jazz, Which Used Black Music History to Speak to the Present and to Build the Future” by Ashawnta Jackson, Bandcamp, June 2020.
- “The Hidden History of Lena Horne and "Stormy Weather"” by Aramide Tinubu, ZORA Mag, July 2020. ︎
FILM & SERIES
- Alice Coltrane’s Black Journal segment, dir. St. Clair Bourne, 1970. 17 mins. ︎
- The Last of the Blue Devils, dir. Bruce Ricker, 1979. 1h 30m.
- Ornette: Made in America, dir. Shirley Clarke, 1985. 1h 25m.
- Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, dir. Charlotte Zwerin, 1988. 1h 33m.
- A Great Day in Harlem, dir. Jean Bach, 1994. 1 hour. ︎
- Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz, dir. Julian Benedikt, Andreas Morell, 1997. 2 hours.
- Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog, dir. Don McGlynn, 1998. 1h 18m.
- Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, dir. Ian McCrudden, 2007. 1h 33m.
- 1959, the Year that Changed Jazz, dir. Paul Bernays, 2009. 1h.
- The Girls in the Band, dir. Judy Chaikin, 2011. 1h 27m. ︎
- Chasing Trane, dir. John Scheinfeld, 2017. 1h 39m. Available on Netflix.
- Quincy, dir. Rashida Jones, Alan Hicks, 2018. 2h 4m. Available on Netflix.
- Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, dir. Stanley Nelson Jr., 2019. 1h 55m. Available on Netflix. ︎
- Bolden, dir. Daniel Pritzker, 2019. 1h 48m.
- Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, dir. Leslie Woodhead, 2020, 1h 30m.
PODCASTS & RADIO
- “Revisiting Louis Armstrong in the Context of Civil Rights” by NPR, November 2006, 8 minutes.
- “Wes Montgomery: 'The Unmistakable Jazz Guitar'” by NPR, September 2007. 53 mins.
- “The Enduring Musical Influence Of Electric Guitarist Charlie Christian” by NPR, July 2016. 6 mins.
- “The Vast Voice Of Sarah Vaughan” by WBUR, July 2017, 47 minutes.
- “What Made Wes Montgomery a Legend,” prod. By Jennie Cataldo, PRI, April 2018. 11 mins.
- “The 2010s: A Jazz Revival In Black Music” by NPR, November 2019. 36 mins.