NCW Libraries

This joyful tribute to Louis Armstrong tells the story of the virtuoso musician and buoyant personality who introduced much of the world to jazz.

"A picture book biography of Mary Lou Williams, an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and is an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color"--

Danny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning in this success-tempered-with-tears biopic of jazz great Loring "Red" Nichols.

Biography of a poor boy from New Orleans who became a jazz musician who is beloved around the world.

What begins as one woman's search for her own artistic courage unravels into a stunning look into what jazz music can teach out about our search for the truest version of ourselves. For Decades, seasoned players on the scene have spoken in whispered tones about The Blue: a mysterious meeting place for jazz history--a place where ghost from this music's storied past spring to life for those courageous enough to enter it. When Jessie Choi's mentor Jimmy...

Know-It-All Jazz takes readers from the African-American roots and all the way to the global mix of styles and performers in today's jazz scene. Along the way, it looks at the shape, style, and instruments of the discipline, key personalities and recordings in the jazz canon, and, finally, at what might be expected next from this most diverse of musical forms. Punchy and engaging entries help readers understand the basics in under a minute, ensuring...

A landmark biography that reclaims Ella Fitzgerald as a major American artist and modernist innovator. Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) possessed one of the twentieth century's most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald's death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring...

"In 2003, music journalist Philip Clark was granted unparalleled access to jazz legend Dave Brubeck. Over the course of ten days, he shadowed the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their extended British tour, recording an epic interview with the bandleader. Brubeck opened up as never before, disclosing his unique approach to jazz; the heady days of his "classic" quartet in the 1950s-60s; hanging out with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong,...

"A Child's Introduction to Jazz explores the rich history of jazz music, including profiles of famous musicians like Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. Written by A Child's Introduction to African American History author Jabari Asim, the book includes downloadable links throughout, to allow kids to listen along to the instruments and musical flair of jazz"--