Music & Movies

This star-studded tribute traces the struggles and triumphs of the Afro-American superstars of music and film over the last century. Among the many artists featured are: Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Cab...

Richard Wesley was witness to a revolution. As both a celebrated participant and eager student of the Black Theater Movement in the late 1960s, he became part of a seismic force in American culture, breaking down barriers and helping to disrupt the...

Christopher R. Weingarten provides a thrilling account of how the Bomb Squad produced such a singular-sounding record: engineering, sampling, scratching, constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing - even occasionally stompingon vinyl that sounded too...

Soul is the most powerful expression of American music--a distinct combination of roots, migration, race, culture, and politics packaged together for your dancing pleasure. But if you thought the sounds of Motown or Stax Records died along with 8-tracks...

(REH Publications). Expand your playing and your imagination with these revolutionary intervallic lines by jazz great Joe Diorio! Topics include: designs of tonality, designs of diatonic harmonies, designs for the diminished scales, designs for dominant...

In 2004, the Academy Award-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda lionized hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina for single-handedly saving the lives of all who sought refuge in the Hotel des Milles Collines during Rwanda's genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. Because of...

By 1940 the big band sound had grown stale, and jazz musicians began to search out new sounds and styles. At the Harlem nightclub Minton's Playhouse, a small group of musicians -- John Birks, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Beau Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk,...

Get into the music with David Leander Williams as he charts the rise and fall of Indiana Avenue, the Majestic Entertainment Boulevard of Indianapolis, which produced some of the nation's most influential jazz artists. The performance venues that once line

Incurable Blues explores the life and genius of Hubert Sumlin, a highly influential guitarist who has survived cancer, alcoholism, and personal and professional tribulations to testify to the classic days of Chicago blues. Sumlin's incendiary guitar...

(Music Sales America). A brilliant and instructive treatise on the principles of jazz piano improvisation. Deals with all aspects, including a survey of piano styles from 1900 (stride piano) to the present day (contemporary jazz piano). A book which will...

Both the beginning performer and the curious listener will gain from this book, as Coker explains the major concepts of jazz, including blues, harmony, swing and the characteristic chord progressions. A self-teaching guide is included, and gives the...

If you've ever listened to music created by Cellus Hamilton, you are aware that he is much more than a rapper. His lyrics are multidimensional, revealing him to be a sort of scholarly visionary. Because music is often subject to the listener's...

Hall of Fame disc jockey Tom Joyner uses his signature brand of humor to discuss everything from business to careers to relationships as he shares the insights and lessons he's learned along the way.Now the host of a radio show that is the most popular...

"A biography that will send readers back to the music of Mavis and the Staple Singers with deepened appreciation and a renewed spirit of discovery" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)--from the acclaimed music journalist and author featured prominently in...

Skip James (1902-1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own...

These are just a few of Willie Dixon's contributions to blues, R&B, and rock'n'roll--songs performed by artists as varied as the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, ZZ Top, the Doors, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison,...