Book Review
Listen to Prestige Now, Think Later
by Patrick Burnette
Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Records, 1949-1972 Tad Richards 250 Pages ISBN: 979-8-8558-0495-9 State University of New York Press 2025 Most jazz histories end up focusing on individual musicians, understandably enough. Talk about movements in jazz all you want: dixieland, swing, be-bop, hard-bop. You will end up talking about Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver and Art Blakey. A few towering ...
Continue ReadingListening to Prestige: Chronicling Its Classic Jazz Recordings, 1949–1972
by Mike Jurkovic
Listening To Prestige Tad Richards 278 Pages ISBN: # 9798855804959 Excelsior Editions/State University of New York 2026 Hubris and romanticism are the clashing hallmarks of history and jazz, like all human endeavors, is no exception. A sinuous, serpentine, and often torturous road through the American landscape: Slavery, poverty, migration, Jim Crow, drugs, prejudiced, exploitive record execs and police departments, any history of the music could, in less skilled hands, get bogged down easily ...
Continue ReadingListening To Prestige
by Kyle Simpler
Listening To Prestige Tad Richards 278 Pages ISBN: # 9798855804959 Excelsior Editions/State University of New York 2026 Shortly after World War II ended, a young music lover named Bob Weinstock opened a record store in Times Square, New York City. The store specialized in jazz recordings, the music that Weinstock and his father loved collecting. Things took a dramatic turn one day when Alfred Lion, the owner of Blue Note Records, stopped by ...
Continue ReadingPhilly Joe Jones Biography: The Life and Legacy of a Drummer Who Transformed Modern Jazz
by David A. Orthmann
Philly Joe Jones Biography: The Life and Legacy of a Drummer Who Transformed Modern JazzMichael C. Davis140 pagesISBN: #9798269455297Self Published2025 Anyone who is seeking out anecdotes about Philly Joe Jones's relationships with a veritable who's who of jazz greats, or particulars of his life off the bandstand, might want to steer clear of Michael C. Davis's biography of the celebrated drummer, bandleader, mentor, and teacher. Employing a streamlined approach (130 pages of text; no quotes, references, endnotes, or ...
Continue ReadingLet Me Be Frank: The Extraordinary Life and Music of Frank Sinatra, Jr.
by Victor L. Schermer
Let Me Be Frank: The Extraordinary Life and Music of Frank Sinatra, Jr.Bruce Klauber and Andrea Kauffman216 Pages ISBN: # 97-1-4968-5865-8 University Press of Mississippi2025 Sid Mark, the legendary Philadelphia broadcaster who for many years hosted the iconic radio show “The Sounds of Sinatra," liked to tell a joke about the Chairman of the Board that inspired instant self-recognition among most men of the time who heard it. “A great musician dies, ...
Continue ReadingBill Anschell: Benched
by Paul Rauch
Benched Bill Anschell 158 Pages ISBN: # 9798270830021 Blow Hard Music 2025 Bill Anschell is a jny: Seattle-based pianist that has been the recipient of national acclaim for his work as a leader and sideman in jazz. He has released eleven albums as a leader or co-leader on the Origin Records label, and appeared on many more. From 1989-2002 he resided in jny: Atlanta, where he took on a syndicated radio program, ...
Continue ReadingThe Philosophy Of Jazz
by Ian Patterson
The Philosophy Of Jazz Kevin Le Gendre 105 Pages ISBN: 978 0 7123 5503 2 British Library 2025 If you had to recommend just one book on jazz history to a neophyte, which would it be? Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz (Oxford University Press, 1997) is rightly regarded as a definitive account, but at nearly 600 pages it may deter readers looking for a lighter introduction. What if ...
Continue ReadingConcerto for Cootie. The Life and Times of Cootie Williams
by Richard J Salvucci
Cootie. The Life and Times of Cootie Williams Steven C. Bowie 443 Pages ISBN: #9781496859440 University Press of Mississippi 2025 Benny Goodman, who had employed Harry James and Ziggy Elman in his nonpareil 1937 trumpet section, preferred trumpeter Cootie Williams to them, admiring his “unlimited power." Williams had come up with Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson. When he left Duke Ellington to join Goodman, it was big news, both for Ellington and for ...
Continue ReadingTom Waits and Anton Corbijn: Waits/Corbyn
by Nenad Georgievski
Waits/Corbijn Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn 272 pages 978-3791393254 Prestel Publishing2013/2025 Anton Corbijn and Tom Waits are creative forces whose respective crafts have redefined their fields. Corbijn, a Dutch photographer and filmmaker, is celebrated for his stark, atmospheric images that have captured the essence of artists such as Joy Division, U2, and Depeche Mode, among others. Beginning his work photographing musicians in the late 1970s, he would eventually progress to directing music ...
Continue ReadingThe Beatles Anthology (25th Anniversary Reissue)
by Doug Collette
The Beatles Anthology 25th Anniversary Reissue The Beatles 368 Pages ISBN: # 978-1797241487 Chronicle Books 2025 Reprinted to commemorate the quarter-century since its first publication, the 2025 edition of The Beatles Anthology (25th Anniversary Reissue) book is little different from its now hard-to-find predecessor, except in the most cosmetic sense(s). Without any notation of its distinction, this milestone edition has an outer graphic design matching that of the audio companion piece ...
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