On The Bookshelf
JAZZ MEMORIES: A Book of Days | Michael Elhers
This book has been designed by Stephen Kruse in the date book format, with blank spaces to record appointments, notes, ideas, etc. or just to enjoy the facts about each artist featured on selected birthdays, festival openings, and other events on both sides of the pond in jazz history. The names are recognizable to adicionados, enthusiasts and for any first year student of jazz who has delved into the history of the genre.
The introduction gives hor and praise to not only the musicians but to everyone connected to the making of this project. This includes radio stations, critics, columnists, poets and writers. All text and notes have been written by Michael Ehlers.
The photographs of the musicians that fill this book are memories taken by Jerry Stoll, unless otherwise noted. His sensitive portraits capture not just the images of the musicians but also the spirit of their music.
The book is dedicated to Tommy Flanagan, a pianist’s pianist, and to the memory of John Henry Hammond (1910~1987), a jazz saint.
On The Bookshelf
Jazz In The Movies: A Guide to Jazz Musicians 1917~1977 by David Meeker is the result of ten years research into the arena of jazz and the film industry. Norman Granz, who penned the introduction, writes of David as one of the small, dedicated, diligent, extremely hard-working, enthusiastic group of people that the world luckily possesses.
The idea for the book came to Meeker some twenty years before its writing after waiting for a prolonged and disappointing time of news reels, travelogues and the like to watch a film titled The Three Little Bops and to finally hear the sweet sounds of Shorty Rogers. Then he thought why has there been no jazz filmography produced. So, he set about the daunting task of compiling 2,500 movies and this is the outcome.
The book lists each film title alphabetically, together with its nationality, year of production, director, running time, a short critique and details of all jazz artists, band personnel and musical items where known.
On The Bookshelf
I Should Care: The Sammy Cahn Story
I Should Care: The Sammy Cahn Story is an autobiography by the acclaimed lyricist Sammy Cahn. Published in 1974 by Arbor House, the book is written from Cahn’s own perspective, offering his insights into his life and career, along with anecdotes, photographs, and lyrics of his well-known songs.
The title itself is a nod to one of his famous songs, which first appeared in the 1944 MGM film Thrill of a Romance. The Academy Award winner for Three Coins In The Fountain, High Hopes, All The Way and Call Me Irresponsible, star performer in his own Broadway musical Words & Music.
This Lower East Side New York City boy who made more than good now tells his whole loving story – personal, public and professional.
I Should Care ~ The Sammy Cahn Story: 1974 | Sammy Cahn
Arbor House Publishing Co.
On The Bookshelf
Seeing Jazz: Artists & Writers On Jazz
Within these 144 pages, Seeing Jazz is a showcase of 77 paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, and photographs, accompanied by literary selections, that express the many moods of jazz. This is jazz, art, and literature in concert.
In this museum of artists are, but not limited to, include Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, James Phillips, Miles Davis, Gjon Mili, Jacob Lawrence, Stuart Davis, Ann Tanksley, Archibald Motley, Ed Love, Gordon Parks, JeanMichel Basquiat, Henri Matisse, William Claxton, Stuart Davis, Ed Love, and Man Ray,
A representation of authors include Julio Cortazar, Ntozake Shange, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison. The Foreword was written by trumpeter Calrk Terry, the Afterword by bassist Milt Hinton. The introduction is by Columbia University jazz scholar Robert O’Meally.
Whether it is improvisation, spontaneity, fusion, freedom or innovation, jazz has always been about more than music, and the ideas and moods of jazz have ruffled the minds of creatives throughout every category of the arts.
Seeing Jazz: 1997 | Marquette Folley-Cooper, Deborah Macanic, Janice McNeil
Chronicle Books | Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
On The Bookshelf
The Jazz Poetry Anthology
Since the turn of the century, poets have responded to jazz in all its musical and cultural overtones. The poems here cover the range of jazz itself: from early blues to free jazz and experimental music. Among the 132 poets included are James Baldwin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Mina Loy, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Carol Bergé, Sterling A. Brown, Alice Fulton, and Carl Sandburg.
The poems give the reader a sense of jazz imagery through the history of the music, yet have been lost to so many jazz enthusiasts and aficionados of the 20th century. Many of the names in this publication will be familiar but most one will discover anew.
Each poet has heard, felt the emotion of and experienced the music from a different perspective, writing in that voice. This makes for a pleasurable journey through time for the reader, especially those familiar with the music and the musicians.
This anthology represents the broad appreciation for jazz as poetic inspiration, not only from the Beat movement but from writers across the decades and around the world.
The Jazz Poetry Anthology: 1991 | Sasha Feinstein & Yusef Komunyakaa
Indiana University Press