Cultural Literature

The jazz decade saw the emergence of many of the great figures who defined the music for the world: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Earl Hines, Bix Beiderbecke, Fats Waller, Jack Teagarden, Fletcher Henderson--these giants set the standards for blues...

A practical and systematic method that teaches how to practice jazz piano voicings so that they become automatic and intuitive. The method progresses step-by-step from 2- to 7-voice chord structures with fourths and upper-structure triads. Each chapter...

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,...

(Berklee Labs). Melodies based on triads and melodic extensions sound more natural and musical than ones developed exclusively from scales. Triads the fundamental building blocks of harmony are a simple and effective remedy for scale dependency in...

(Berklee Guide). The purpose of this book is to explore the relationship between jazz harmony and improvisation by studying the vertical structures of chords and their function in a progression, and the horizontal or linear application of harmony to...

(Music Sales America). Inspired by Charles-Louis Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist the essential technical method for any classical player these new volumes present a modern-day equivalent for the musician seeking to play the key piano styles of the 20th...

For most of the recorded history of jazz, the piano has been the main, and usually the only, comping instrument. This text will help guitarists get a handle on the most important job they have when playing in a small group: comping. This book can be used...

(Real Book Multi-Tracks Play-Along). Today's best way to practice jazz! Accurate, easy-to-read lead sheets and professional, customizable audio tracks accessed online for 10 songs. The interactive, online audio interface includes: tempo control; looping;...

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...

From Frank Sinatra to Sun Ra, from the jazz age to middle age, with thoughts on everything in-between, Francis Davis has been writing about American music and American culture for more than twenty years. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly,...

A vital tool in understanding and appreciating jazz -- introducing the key figures, theory, and the controversies that shaped it development -- that explores how it became North America's most popular music in less than fifty years. Often called...