Stanley Crouch
Author
Description
The first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century. Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at 34. With the wisdom of a jazz scholar, the cultural insights of a social critic, and the narrative...
Author
Formats
Description
"The grievous loss of Stanley Crouch, one of America's most renowned intellectuals, is underscored by the posthumous appearance of these remarkable essays. With Stanley Crouch's untimely death in 2020, American literature lost "a critic without peer" (Ta-Nehisi Coates). Born in Los Angeles in 1945, Crouch-a towering stylist, fearless columnist, and without question, one of the finest jazz critics of all time-was Rabelaisian both in stature and in...
Author
Formats
Description
Stanley Crouch-MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Book Award nominee, and perennial bull in the china shop of black intelligentsia-has been writing about jazz and jazz artists for more than thirty years. His reputation for controversy is exceeded only by a universal respect for his intellect and passion. As Gary Giddons notes: "Stanley may be the only jazz writer out there with the kind of rhinoceros...
Description
Jazz is born in New Orleans at the turn of the century emerging from several forms of music including ragtime, marching bands, work songs, spirituals, creole music, funeral parade music and above all, the blues. Musicians profiled here who advanced early jazz are Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Freddie Keppard, and musicians of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Series
Description
The in-depth and intimate story of one of the most important African Americans to live in the first half of the 20th century. Tells the story of Jack Johnson, who was the first African American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports--Heavyweight Champion of the World. Includes his struggles in and out of the ring and his desire to live his life as a free man in race-obsessed America.
Description
When America enters WWII in 1941, swing becomes a symbol of democracy and entertainers like Dave Brubeck, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw take their music to the armed forces overseas. In Nazi-occupied Europe, gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt blends jazz with his own musical traditions. In New York, Billie Holiday is unofficial queen despite a growing addiction to narcotics. Duke Ellington, assisted by the gifted young arranger, Billy Strayhorn, brings...
Series
Jazz volume 0009
Description
Between 1955 and 1960, rhythm and blues and rock ' roll erode jazz' audiences but the music still enjoys tremendous creativity. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter Clifford Brown make their marks while Duke Ellington emerges stronger than ever and Miles Davis and John Coltrane make legendary albums. Louis Armstrong jeopardizes his career when he condemns the government for its failure to act on racism in Little Rock, Ark. Drummer Art Blakely and...
Description
Between 1945 and 1955, jazz splinters into different camps: cool and hot, East and West, traditional and modern. One by one, the big bands leave the road, but Duke Ellington keeps his band together, while Louis Armstrong puts together a small group, the "All-Stars." Promoter Norman Granz insists on equal treatment for every member of his integrated troupes on his Jazz at the Philharmonic Tours. Meanwhile, bebop musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie...
Description
Amid the hard times of the Depression, new dances, the Lindy Hop and Swing, caught on at the dance halls of New York even as the jobless lined the streets and drought ruined Midwest farms. Jazz, during 1929 through 1935, lifted the nation's spirit. Record sales boomed while Armstrong became a major entertainer as singer, trumpeter, band leader, radio and film performer. Ellington's elegance, compositions, brilliant band films and recordings created...
Description
By 1924 to 1928, jazz is everywhere in America and spreading abroad. For the first time, soloists and singers take center stage, transforming the music with their distinctive voices. This episode traces the careers of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Sidney Bechet, Bessie Smith, Earl Hines, Ethel Waters, Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz artist and Benny Goodman, the son of Jewish immigrants.
Description
From 1917 through 1924, the "Jazz Age" begins with speakeasies, flappers and easy money for some. The story of jazz becomes a tale of two cities, Chicago and New York, and of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, whose lives and music will span three-quarters of a century. This episode also follows the careers of jazz greats James Reese Europe, King Oliver, Willie Smith, Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and James P. Johnson.
Author
Description
A landmark graphic novel about the civil rights leader, complete in one volume.
This groundbreaking body of comics journalism collects Anderson's entire biography of the renowned civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Over a decade in the making, the saga has been praised for its vivid recreation of one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history and for its accuracy in depicting the personal and public lives
...Author
Series
Description
The legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes listeners back to the Harlem Renaissance-a time and place when jazz was king. Famed jazz critic Stanley Crouch narrates as Kareem shares thoughts on this distinctly American musical style and its profound influence. Also offering insights are such iconic figures as Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, and Maya Angelou.