April is Jazz Appreciation Month

Check out these books about the extraordinary heritage and history of a uniquely American musical form, and its importance to our culture.

The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to the 21st Century by Joachim-Ernst Berendt
The most encyclopedic interpretive history of jazz available in one volume.

Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux
Thoroughly researched and carefully documented, yet written in an entertaining and enjoyable narrative style, this book tells the story of jazz in its full cultural, musical, political, social, economic, and historical context.

The Jazz Loft Project by Sam Stephenson
While Eugene Smith was living in New York City’s wholesale flower district from 1957-1965, he captured the nocturnal jazz scene at his loft through thousands of photographs and 4,000 hours of audiotape featuring the music and words of more than 300 musicians. This landmark book offers a unique glimpse into both the jazz scene as well as life on the streets of the flower district.

Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington
Explores the early symbiotic relationship between Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and how these two mavericks went on to rewrite the rules of jazz.

Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life by Wynton Marsalis
In this beautiful book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and composer Wynton Marsalis explores jazz and how an understanding of it can lead to deeper, more original ways of being, living, and relating–for individuals, communities, and nations.

Hotter than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture by Krin Gabbard
A stunning cultural history of the trumpet from its origins in ancient Egypt to its role in royal courts and on battlefields, and ultimately to its stunning appropriation by great jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis.

- Lisa S.