Cultural Literature

The blues have contained the very essence of the jazz sound since the 1920s. A player who masters the sound and feel of the blues will play other jazz tunes in a manner that will inspire the listener. Contains 11 different blues melodies and is a natural...

For all instrumentalists and vocalists. Great primer for learning basic skills in major and minor keys. Advanced players will want to work on double-timing, playing outside, and side-slipping in all keys at comfortable tempos. The CDs contain 30 extended...

Cole Porter was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. Jazz players have embraced his compositions for their natural melodies, comfortable harmonies, and clever lyrics. Presented here is the most extensive play-along collection...

Here is a great way to expand your blues playing in every key! Slow tempos for all levels of ability. Try playing some of the tougher keys without looking at the music and see just how fast your ear takes over. You'll find yourself gaining confidence...

Sit back and let this exciting New York rhythm section take you on an exhilarating ride through these timeless jazz session favorites. Sultry ballads, exciting bossas, and finger snappin' swing tunes at comfortable tempos makes this a welcome addition to...

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...

In this remarkable book, Douglas Wolk brings to life an October evening in 1962, at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem - an evening at the height of Cold War tensions. In great detail, Wolk pieces together what took place (and what was recorded) that night,...

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...

The 100th-anniversary special edition of Jailed for Freedom, the essential history and first-person account of the courageous and militant suffragists who fought for their right to vote. First published in 1920, Jailed for Freedom is the courageous, true...