Music & Movies

In the early twentieth century, New Orleans was a place of colliding identities and histories, and Louis Armstrong was a gifted young man of psychological nimbleness. A dark-skinned, impoverished child, he grew up under low expectations, Jim Crow...

By the bestselling author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll and Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, this dazzling new book of profiles is a culmination of Peter Guralnick's remarkable work, which from the start has...

By the bestselling author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll and Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, this dazzling new book of profiles is a culmination of Peter Guralnick's remarkable work, which from the start has...

A compelling biography of SoundCloud sensation and rising star XXXTENTACION -- from his candid songwriting and connection with fans to his tragic death. At the age of twenty, rapper Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy -- aka XXXTENTACION -- was gunned down during an...

Listen To This If You Love Great Music is a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in music. Featuring 100 of the best albums from the last four decades, clashmusic.com​ editor Robin Murray shares his passion for exceptional music and...

Here is Nat Hentoff's deeply felt exploration of jazz, blues, country, and gospel -- and the musicians who bring the music to life. Hentoff has not only loved music all his life, he has lived it by being friends with many of the musicians he writes about...

Francis Davis is one of this nation's savviest and most admired music and cultural critics. In this collection of essays he observes the modern jazz and pop that have reached middle age at the same moment as many of their listeners, including the author...

2011 ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research for Best History By the time of his death in 1982, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins was likely the most recorded blues artist in history. This brilliant biography illuminates the many...

From Sandy "Pepa" Denton--rap legend and outspoken star of VH1's smash-hit reality show--comes the juicy tell-all in which she talks about sex, music, life, love, fame, and so much more. The spiciest ingredient in the legendary rap group Salt-N-Pepa,...

Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Howlin' Wolf, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters--say their names out loud and you can just hear the blues. Now, acclaimed artist William Stout visualizes these artists and their music with 100 stunning portraits. This...

Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Keeping the Beat on the Street celebrates the renewed passion and pageantry among black brass bands in New Orleans. Mick Burns introduces the people who play the music and shares their insights, showing why...

It's been over ten years since Big was killed. I grieved for him for a very long time. And then, as time passed, the icy wall of grief surrounding my heart began to thaw and I began to heal. I remarried, had more children, and continued to record and...

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period. Having risen from obscurity as a precocious producer through the ranks of Jay Z's Roc-A-Fella records, by...

Coltrane's role in spearheading the last major innovative development in jazz, and how the 1960s jazz revolution reflected an intense cultural, political, and ideological ferment -- marked especially by the rise of resistance to racial discrimination...

Jimi Hendrix - Black Legacy (A Dream Deferred) is a deep exploration of Jimi Hendrix's subtle, yet ubiquitous footprint on Black culture. Often, Jimi Hendrix was seen by many to have transcended race, which is a slap in the face to his deep cultural...

Jimi Hendrix - Black Legacy (A Dream Deferred) is a deep exploration of Jimi Hendrix's subtle, yet ubiquitous footprint on Black culture. Often, Jimi Hendrix was seen by many to have transcended race, which is a slap in the face to his deep cultural...