Music & Movies

From renowned diplomat and musician András Simonyi -- whom Stephen Colbert calls "the only ambassador I know who can shred a mean guitar!" -- comes a timely and revealing memoir about growing up behind the Iron Curtain and longing for freedom while...

(Guitar Recorded Versions). All 8 songs from the 1974 recording by this bluesy psychedelic British guitarist. Includes: About to Begin * Bridge of Sighs * Day of the Eagle * The Fool and Me * In This Place * Lady Love * Little Bit of Sympathy * Too...

(Ukulele). 18 blues guitar classics specially arranged for the ukulele, with riffs and backup rhythms, in standard notation and tab. Includes: Drunken Hearted Man * Honeymoon Blues * I Believe I'll Dust My Broom * I'm a Steady Rollin' Man (Steady Rollin'...

Launched by legendary music industry executive Art Rupe in the mid-1940s, the Los Angeles-based Specialty Records emerged as one of the most important independent labels for African-American music in the twentieth century. Recognizing that competing with...

Gary Giddins, winner of the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award, has a following that includes not only jazz enthusiasts but also pop music fans of every stripe. Writing here in a lyrical and celebratory style all his own, Giddins dazzlingly shows us...

In a companion to his collections Riding on a Blue Note and Faces in the Crowd, Gary Giddins has assembled a mosaic of pieces that provide an essential guide to the jazz world. Moving with ease from sweeping surveys of jazz history to precise, vivid...

A chronicle of the rise and development of a unique musical form. Inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame under its original title Walking to New Orleans, this fascinating history focuses on the music of major R&B artists and the crucial...

Marz Banx, the legendary MC, is lamenting what it means to be in the rap game at the age of forty. Feeling like the game has passed him by and becoming more focused on his daughter, Jazz, he decides to interview for a job as a college professor in...

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a monument to racial harmony in blighted south Memphis during the civil rights movement. Their success soon pits the siblings against each other, and the brother...

This iconic 282 page spiral-bound book, with a wealth of patterns, licks, and ideas, has been popular among jazz players for a long time. Page after page of material, it is often referred to as a jazz version of Slominski's classic book The Thesaurus of...

As Nat Hentoff says, Hearing Bix for the first time was like waking up to the first day of spring. Bix has always inspired such acclaim, for he was an unmatched master of the cornet. Ralph Berton was privileged enough to have been a fan -- and younger...

This collection of over 50 years of writing about the South and its music by Stanley Booth, one of the undisputedly great chroniclers of the subject, is a classic, essential read. Booth's close contacts with many of the musicians he writes about provide...

"...that rare thing, a piece of careful scholarship that is also superby entertaining...Starr, who is president of Oberlin College and has been associated with the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, is also a professional jazz musician, and...

Cool syncopation, funky riffs and smooth, stylish tunes - from dynamic to nostalgic, Pam Wedgwood's series has it all. Really Easy Jazzin' About is a vibrant collection of original pieces in a range of contemporary styles, tailor-made for the absolute...

A PERFECT COMPANION READ TO THE SHOWTIME DOCUMENTARY, WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MENSelected as a Best Book of the Year by Esquire"Couldn't put it down." - Charlamagne Tha God"Mesmerizing." - Raekwon da Chef"Insightful, moving, necessary." - Shea...