Pierre Boulez's first piano pieces date from his youth, prior to his studies in Paris with Messiaen, and his subsequent meteoric rise to international acclaim as the leader of the musical avant-garde during the 1950s. His most recent published work is a...

One of Oprah Daily's 20 Favorite Books of 2021 • Selected as one of Pitchfork's Best Music Books of the Year“One of the best books of its kind in decades.” —The Wall Street JournalAn epic achievement and a huge delight, the entire history of popular...

Franz Xaver Hauser (1794–1870), born near Prague in Czechoslovakia, combined his career of singing and teaching with a consuming interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.Hauser was a colleague of Felix Mendelssohn, Moritz Hauptmann, Robert...

Book by Palmer, Tony

Before "Fred and Ginger," there was "Fred and Adele," a show-business partnership and cultural sensation like no other. In our celebrity-saturated era, it's hard to comprehend what a genuine phenomenon these two siblings from Omaha were. At the height of...

What Charlie Parker was to the saxophone, Bud Powell (1924–1966) was to the piano: No jazz pianist can rival his brilliance. But his life was filled with tragedy, including years of electroshock therapy in psychiatric institutions, illnesses, physical...

New York Times bestselling author and Nashville legend Loretta Lynn tells the story of her rise from deep poverty in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, to the top of the male-dominated country music industry.Reissued for the 40th Anniversary of the Oscar-winning,...

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is the world's most frequently performed operatic composer, yet he is only beginning to receive serious scholarly attention. In Giacomo Puccini and His World, an international roster of music specialists, several writing on...

The premier of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna on May 7, 1824, was the most significant artistic event of the year—and the work remains one of the most precedent-shattering and influential compositions in the history of music. Described in vibrant...

Concentrating on the traditional performance piece Gahu, Tufts University professor David Locke gives step-by-step instructions in principles of West African rhythm.

Skip James (1902–1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own...

Black musical forms profoundly influenced the work of American poet and leading literary figure Lorenzo Thomas, and he wrote about them with keen insight---and obvious pleasure. This book, begun by Thomas before his death in 2005, collects more than a...

"The definitive work on Bechet. This is one of those rare books that once started you have difficulty putting down."--Jazz JournalFifty years after hearing Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) in 1923, Duke Ellington recalled, "I have never forgotten the power and...

If Benny Goodman was the "King of Swing," then Fletcher Henderson was the power behind the throne. Now Jeffrey Magee offers a fascinating account of Henderson's musical career, throwing new light on the emergence of modern jazz and the world that created...

Few people know jazz as well as Gene Lees. As a musician, songwriter, former editor of Down Beat, and creator of the acclaimed Jazzletter, he has steeped himself in the music for decades. And no one writes about jazz better than Lees. He is widely...

Making the Scene in the Garden State explores New Jersey’s rich musical heritage through stories about the musicians, listeners and fans who came together to create sounds from across the American popular music spectrum. The book includes chapters on the...

Interviews, articles, reviews, and trivia chronicle rock icon Neil Young's career--from his start with Buffalo Springfield through his years of fame with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, to his mainstream reemergence. Personal trials such as his sons'...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Ozzi's reporting is strong, balanced and well told...a worthy successor to its obvious inspiration, Michael Azerrad's 2001 examination of the '80s indie underground, Our Band Could Be Your Life."--New...