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Biographies/Autobiographies/Oral
Histories |
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Miles
Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr. Trumpet
player Carr covers Davis' career in great detail, from
his early days playing with Diz and Bird, through his
great quintets with Trane, Hancock, Shorter, and Williams,
the work with Gil Evans, Kind of Blue, his early
electronic experiments, semi-retirement, and his triumphant
return with Tutu. Avidly seperating fact from
myth, Carr presents a balanced and human portrait of
one of jazz' all-time greats. |
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Really
the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow. Story of
the white jazz clarinetist who fell in love with black
culture. The book calls upon alienated white American
youth to explore and find expression in the music called
jazz, and probably served to influence Jack Kerouac and
the Beats. A classic of jazz literature told in the language
of the streets. |
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Mister
Jelly Roll by Alan Lomax. Based on
transcriptions of interviews Lomax did with Jelly Roll
Morton at the Library of Congress, this book traces Morton's
career from his early days playing in the sporting houses
of Storyville through his rise to fame as leader of the
Red Hot Peppers and his subsequent decline during the
depression. Though a bit limited by Lomax' less-than-perfect
understanding of jazz music and its history, it is an
important document of the early days of jazz in New Orleans
and Chicago. |
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Lester
Leaps In by Douglas H. Daniels. Daniels
has interviewed members of Young's family and his surviving
colleagues for new information on the great tenor man.
The result is a more revealing and intimate portrait than
many might have thought possible on this enigmatic and
undeniably influential figure in jazz music. |
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Tonight
at Noon by Sue Mingus. The great composer
and bassist as seen through the eyes of
his wife. It is a compassionate book that takes Mingus'
faults into account as well as his triumphs, and it is
clear that Sue Mingus loved her husband and has sought
to carry on his musical legacy. |
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Lady
Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday. There
are many jazz fans who wish Holiday had not written
this brutally honest, often unflattering autobiography.
They miss the point: Holiday's principal offering is
her music, but here she pours out her frustrations and
feelings that could not be expressed otherwise. |
