Profiles twenty-six of the jazz greats of all time, from Count Basie to Louis Armstrong, through a review of their work, their life stories, and their greatest hits by one of today's top jazz performers. A is for "almighty" Louis Armstrong, whose amazingartistry unfolds in an accumulative poem shaped like the letter he stands for. As for sax master Sonny Rollins, whose "robust style radiates roundness," could there be a better tribute than a poetic rondeau? In an extraordinary feat, Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz composer Wynton Marsalis harmonizes his love and knowledge of jazz's most celebrated artists with an astounding diversity of poetic forms-from simple blues (Count Basie) to a complex pantoum (Charlie Parker), from a tender sonnet (Sarah Vaughan) to a performance poem snapping the rhythms of Art Blakey to life.

Classic portraits of jazz greats spanning the late 1940's to the early 60's, as they performed in the clubs of New York and Paris.

A collection of essays originally appearing principally in the New Yorker.

Supplemental CD-ROM contents: Includes music by Stan Getz, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw and others.

Ninety of the top international jazz musicians share their culinary secrets in a unique collection of recipes from the world's greatest improvisational artists. Original.

With a camera as his backstage pass, Herman Leonard has photographed the giants of jazz in their golden age, movie stars on set and on their travels to exotic places, the fashion world of Paris in the 1960s, and the inner sanctums of his beloved New Orle

A collection of articles on and interviews with jazz greats Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, and others. Howard Reich has reported on jazz for the Chicago Tribune for almost four decades, and in this time, he has met musicians both celebrated and obscure. From his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald, to profiles of the early masters like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday, this book illustrates Reich’s deep understanding of the performances, recordings, and cultural legacies of these jazz masters. This book, comprising Reich’s award-winning Chicago Tribune articles, shows readers his unmatched critical insight and unrivaled access to the diverse range of jazz musicians the world over, including the little-known artists who, while never in the national spotlight, were nonetheless instrumental to the evolution of jazz. Divided thematically, Portraits in Jazz is a journey from the time of jazz music’s originators, great singers, and early masters through to its courageous standouts, game changers, and regional influencers from Chicago to Cuba and across the globe. Reich, himself a piano performance major at Northwestern University, says in the introduction that studying theory and history are essential to understanding jazz’s inner-workings. But these portraits weren’t created as academic theses or history-book lessons. They are on-the-spot, in the heat of the moment questions of its greatest practitioners, articles and essays in the here and now, taking readers one step closer to the meaning of sound.

All of the jazz profiles Whitney Balliett wrote for the New Yorker

The Blue Note Years presents for the first time many of Francis Wolff's previously unpublished photographs, capturing such jazz legends as John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Clifford Brown, and Ornette Coleman, among others. 195 duotone photos.

18 profiles of lively contributors to jazz and popular music.