Includes excerpts from Jazz Archive interviews by Monk Rowe for the Hamilton College Jazz Archive (dedicated as the Fillius Jazz Archive in 2013).

The history of jazz from its beginnings to its present day.

Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book.

A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation The music we call “jazz” arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the “blues,” which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US—and Black American—contribution to global arts and culture. Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era’s most virulent economic—and racist—exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration.

Gene Lees, author of the highly acclaimed Singers and the Song, offers, in Meet Me at Jim and Andy's, another tightly integrated collection of essays about post-War American music. This time he focuses on major jazz instrumentalists and bandleaders. Jim and Andy's, on 48th Street just west of Sixth Avenue, was one of four New York musicians' haunts in the 1960s--the others being Joe Harbor's Spotlight, Charlie's, and Junior's. "For almost every musician I knew," Lees writes, "[it was] a home-away-from-home, restaurant, watering hole, telephone answering service, informal savings (and loan) bank, and storage place for musical instruments." In a vivid series of portraits, we meet its clientele, an unforgettable gallery of individualists who happen to have been major artists--among them Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Billy Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Paul Desmond. We share their laughter and meet their friends, such as the late actress Judy Holliday, their wives, even their children (as in the tragic story of Frank Rosolino). We learn about their loves, loyalties, infidelities, and struggles with fame and, sometimes alcohol and drug addiction. The magnificent pianist Bill Evans, describing to Lees his heroin addiction, says, "It's like death and transfiguration. Every day you wake in pain like death, and then you go out and score, and that is transfiguration. Each day becomes all of life in microcosm." Himself a noted songwriter, Lees writes about these musicians with vividness and intimacy. Far from being the inarticulate jazz musicians of legend, they turn out to be eloquent indeed, and the inventors of a colorful slang that has passed into the American language. And of course there was the music. A perceptive critic with enormous respect for the music he writes about, Lees notes the importance and special appeal of each artist's work, as in this comment about Artie Shaw's clarinet: "A fish, it has been said, is unaware of water, and Shaw's music so permeated the very air that it was only too easy to overlook just how good a player and how inventive and significant an improviser he was."

Introduce a new generation of music enthusiasts to 17 legendary jazz artists who have enriched the world with their incredible talents. Dr. McCurdy's illuminating stories about the lives, times, and music of these great jazz musicians span the entire 20th century, from early New Orleans Jazz through the Golden Age of Swing plus the avant-garde and jazz fusion eras. Includes units on Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Clifford Brown, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, and Herbie Hancock. Now students can listen to examples of each legend's recordings to fully understand the beauty of jazz music! The enhanced CD contains listening tracks as well as a fully reproducible PDF of the entire book. Recommended for grades four and up.

With evocative black-and-white illustrations and moving prose, readers are introduced to jazz-music legend and civil-rights activist Nina Simone. A stunning picture-book biography of the High Priestess of Soul and one of the greatest voices of the 20th century. Shared as a lullaby to her daughter, a soulful song recounts Simone's career, the trials she faced as an African American woman, and the stand she took during the Civil Rights Movement. This poignant picture book offers a melodic tale that is both a historic account of an iconic figure and an extraordinary look at how far we've come and how far we still need to go for social justice and equality. A timeless and timely message aptly appropriate for today's social and political climates. ♦ "A good introduction to Simone’s life, from her early love of music to her rise to the status of legend" —Kirkus Reviews, starred review ♦ "Strikingly illustrated" —Booklist, starred review ♦ "Hauntingly beautiful illustrations" —Foreword Reviews, starred review "Stirring and powerful. . . " —BookPage