Biography

During the years of my childhood, growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands, my grandmother who migrated to St. Thomas from Antigua would often return to visit her homeland taking along with her the entire household. These occasional trips developed a...

This is the only jazz history written by a musician that is not strictly autobiographical. Rex Stewart, who played trumpet and cornet with Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, knew personally all the giants of jazz in the 1930s and thus his judgments...

Experience the inspiration and joy of creation and performance in Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life, an intimate portrait of a unique artist and his audience. Set in the studio, on the stage, and in great cities and small towns across the country,...

Jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and bassoonist Garvin Bushell (1902-1991) performed with many of the twentieth century's greatest jazz musicians--from Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, and Cab Calloway to Eric Dolphy, Gil Evans, and John Coltrane--during...

As a songwriter, James Weldon Johnson is best known for "Life Every Voice," which he wrote with his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson. However, during the early 1900s he was part of one of the most popular and successful songwriting teams in America. Johnson,...

As a songwriter, James Weldon Johnson is best known for "Life Every Voice," which he wrote with his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson. However, during the early 1900s he was part of one of the most popular and successful songwriting teams in America. Johnson,...

If ancestry contributes to the character of a man, one can well understand the charisma, the fortitude, and the adventurous spirit of President Theodore Roosevelt. Built upon five American generations of his maternal Scots bloodline--the Bullochs of...

The Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business--a legend of popular music whose influence and appeal reaches audiences to this day--gets the graphic novel treatment. Born in the South during the height of segregation, James...

Available in book form for the first time, the FBI's secret dossier on the legendary and controversial writer. Decades before Black Lives Matter returned James Baldwin to prominence, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI considered the Harlem-born author the most...

In Jailbreak Out of History, revolutionary Amazon theorist Butch Lee shows how the anticolonial struggles of New Afrikan/Black women were central to the unfolding of 19th century amerika, both during and "after" slavery.The book's title essay, "The...

In the spring of 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking down baseball's decades-old color barrier and changing the face of the game forever. In this intimate portrait, Robinson's widow, Rachel, tells her husband's...

Jackie Robinson's story is not only a compelling drama of heroism, but also as a template of the African American freedom struggle. A towering athletic talent, Robinson's greater impact was on preparing the way for the civil rights reform wave following...

The extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson is illuminated as never before in this full-scale biography by Arnold Rampersad, who was chosen by Jack's widow, Rachel, to tell her husband's story, and was given unprecedented access to his private papers. We...

The emergence of Jack Teagarden as an important jazz stylist was a significant feature of the '20s jazz scene. He brought a maturity to the sound of the trombone and until late in his life played with a laconic grace that few, if any, on his instrument...

Its the Memory of an Old-Fashioned Christmas had been in the works for six years. Every year, around Christmastime, Ms. Swift reminisced about the good days when families, neighbors, and villagers had one thing in commoncelebrate Christmas by going to a...

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at life in the rap world, from the woman at the heart of the Nas/Jay-Z feud--one of the biggest beefs in hip-hop. Carmen Bryan is no stranger to the rap world. Not only did she work at Def Jam and Capitol Records but...