Do you want to know when Duke Ellington was king of The Cotton Club? Have you ever wondered how old Miles Davis was when he got his first trumpet? From birth dates to gig dates and from recordings to television specials, Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler have left no stone unturned in their quest for accurate, detailed information on the careers of 3.300 jazz musicians from around the world. We learn that Duke Ellington worked his magic at The Cotton Club from 1927 to 1931, and that on Miles Davis's thirteenth birthday, his father gave him his first trumpet. Jazz is fast moving, and this edition clearly and concisely maps out an often dizzying web of professional associations. We find, for instance, that when Miles Davis was a St. Louis teenager he encountered Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time. This meeting proved fateful, and by 1945 a nineteen-year-old Davis had left Juilliard to play with Parker on 52nd Street. Knowledge of these professional alliances, along with the countless others chronicled in this book, are central to tracing the development of significant jazz movements, such as the "cool jazz" that became one of Miles Davis's hallmarks. Arranged alphabetically according to last name, each entry of this book chronologically lists the highlights of every jazz musician's career. Highly accessible and vigorously researched, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz is, quite simply, the most comprehensive jazz encyclopedia available.

The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz

Biographies & Memoirs

Feather, Leonard

Arts & Literature

Oxford University Press

The author records his personal observations of thirteen influential figures in the jazz world

From Satchmo To Miles (The Roots of Jazz)

Arts & Photography

Music

Da Capo Press

By 1940 the big band sound had grown stale, and jazz musicians began to search out new sounds and styles. At the Harlem nightclub Minton's Playhouse, a small group of musicians -- John Birks, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Beau Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk, among sounding blend of flatted fifths, unfamiliar chord lines, and accelerated offbeat rhythms. They were joined on 52nd Street by alto saxist Charles Bird Parker, and bop -- or bebop, as it was first called, from the triplet figure buh-BE-bop -- was born.Bop was aggressive, provocative, and belligerent, Its proponents wore gears and berets and refereed to the Dixieland and New Orleans diehards as moldy figs who in tureen labelled the new jazz the modern complex chord, and a new reperatory into jazz, and by the end of the forties the moldy figs were forced to concede that bop was indeed the harbinger of a new direction in American jazz.Critic Leonard Feather was one of the earliest and most persistent champions of bop. It was he who persuaded RCA Victor that the new music was worth recording. His Inside Jazz is a full-length account of its origins and development and the personalities of the musicians who created it. Numerous photographs and anecdotes bring this innovative era in jazz history to life once more.

Inside Jazz (inside Bebop)

Feather Jazz Yrs Ear

By 1940 the big band sound had grown stale, and jazz musicians began to search out new sounds and styles. At the Harlem nightclub Minton's Playhouse, a small group of musicians -- John Birks, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Beau Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk, among sounding blend of flatted fifths, unfamiliar chord lines, and accelerated offbeat rhythms. They were joined on 52nd Street by alto saxist Charles Bird Parker, and bop -- or bebop, as it was first called, from the triplet figure buh-BE-bop -- was born. Bop was aggressive, provocative, and belligerent, Its proponents wore gears and berets and refereed to the Dixieland and New Orleans diehards as moldy figs who in tureen labelled the new jazz the modern complex chord, and a new reperatory into jazz, and by the end of the forties the moldy figs were forced to concede that bop was indeed the harbinger of a new direction in American jazz. Critic Leonard Feather was one of the earliest and most persistent champions of bop. It was he who persuaded RCA Victor that the new music was worth recording. His Inside Jazz is a full-length account of bop: its origins and development and the personalities of the musicians who created it. Numerous photographs and anecdotes bring this innovative era in jazz history to life once more.

Inside Jazz

from the back cover:In Laughter From the Hip Leonard Feather and Jack Tracy present us with an hilarious collection of anecdotes of some of the lighter moments in the lives of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Joe Venuti, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Charlie Barnet, Eddie Condon, Wingy Manone, George Shearing, and a host of others. We hear tell of the time Joe Venuti led Paul Whiteman's orchestra in "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a fishing rod - clad only in a pair of long underwear! We chuckle out loud at Leonard Feather's mock-scenario à la Hollywood, The Duke Ellington Story. We know and love the music of those master musicians who make up the unforgettable cast of real-life characters in this book. Now we meet them in a delightfully different way - shooting straight from the hip and hitting us right in the funny bone.

Laughter From The Hip: The Lighter Side Of Jazz

Humor & Entertainment

Tracy, Jack

Humor

The first appearance of Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz was heralded by critics, musicians, and record collectors as a major contribution to the literature of jazz. Never before had America's native music been treated so meticulously, objectively, and comprehensively. The appearance of two later volumes, The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties and The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies (with Ira Gitler) only confirmed the initial enthusiasm and the judgement that here were basic books for any music library.This marks the first paperback publication of this book, soon to be followed by paperback editions of the other two volumes. With more than 2,000 biographies and 200 photos, it spans the history of jazz from its origins to 1959. But more than a biographical dictionary, the book also features essays on the jazz tradition, its major players and composers, the relationship between jazz and classical music (written by Gunther Schuller), a social history of jazz in America, the jazzman as critic, and a grammar of jazz language that can serve as an ideal introduction for young listeners. In addition, Leonard Feather provides a chronology, list of international critic polls, musicians birthdays and birthplaces, a bibliography, and a discography of recommended recordings. For anyone seriously--or even casually--interested in the development of jazz and blues, this classic reference work can guide you unerringly through the many dimensions of the music's wonderful history.

The Encyclopedia Of Jazz (Da Capo Paperback)

Eleven hundred biographical entries, texts on jazz and the blues, and statistical information provide insight to jazz in the 1960s

Encyclopedia Of Jazz In The 60s (Da Capo Paperback)

Surveys the field of jazz during the 1970s, and provides information about and assessments of the musicians and composers who shaped the world of jazz

Encyclopedia Of Jazz Of The 70s (Da Capo Paperback)

GITLER, Ira.

Leonard Feather's autobiography is also the story of jazz over the last half-century. Since arriving in New York from London in 1935, he has managed to distinguish himself as a producer, composer, pianist, and one of the music's most acute critics. He was one of the first to champion the innovations of bebop in the pages of Esquire and Downbeat, also an ardent campaigner against racial barriers, and a friend to dozens of musicians. There are stories here about Feather's relationship with Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Joe Williams, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and many others. Filled with information about the recording business and the tricky art of criticism, this earwitness account of a lifetime in jazz caps a career that has been dedicated to the best that American culture has to offer.

The Jazz Years: Earwitness to an Era

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