Books

Dr. Caldwell necessarily regards her useful chronology as “a work in progress,” for the subject is ever expanding. There is substantial information here about jazz … Read More “African American Music: A Chronology, 1619-1995 by Hansonia L. Caldwell”

Averill, an academic and former Haitian music columnist for The Beat Magazine, has written a sociopolitical, chronological study, spanning the years 1915-1995, with key chapters … Read More “A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The Prey: Popular Music And Power In Haiti by Gage Averill”

Playing the Changes differs from the bulk of modernist texts by focusing attention on the ways in which modernism and postmodernism have shaped Afro-American culture. … Read More “Playing the Changes: from Afro-Modernism to the Jazz Impulse by Craig Hansen Werner”

Mark Vail is a cheerleading fan of the B-3 and its mandatory Leslie speakers. He walks us through more than you might ever wish to … Read More “The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B by Mark Vail”

The breezy, amusing dialogues in this slim tome give insight into the character and personalities of 26 great writers of the American songbook. The machers … Read More “They’re Playing Our Song: Conversations with America’s Classic Songwriters by Max Wilk”

Glasser has written a thorough history of Puerto Rican music in New York for the time period in question. She examines the history of Puerto … Read More “My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities 1917-1940 by Ruth Glasser”

Bill Moody’s third Evan Hunter mystery is a finely-crafted novel in which the suspense and the jazz mix easily and naturally. Pianist and amateur sleuth … Read More “The Sound of the Trumpet by Bill Moody”

Lavishly illustrated, this deluxe, LP-size production will be welcomed by Bennett’s legions of fans. It’s rare for an essentially pop artist to be endorsed by … Read More “Tony Bennett by Matthew Hoffman”

Although it has long been known that jazz-that despised “Nigger music”-as well as all other evidence of decadent “cultural Bolshevist-Jewry” were strictly verboten in Nazi … Read More “Hitler’s Airwaves: The Inside Story Of Nazi Radio Broadcasting And Propaganda Swing by Horst J.P. Bergmeier & Rainer E. Lotz”