Title Highlight: Encyclopedia of Jazz

Encyclopedia of Jazz

1 vol.: Chronology, Photos, Illustrations, snippets of scores

This book is a good introduction to that most American form of music, jazz. It contains a surprising amount of material in one volume. There are traditional encyclopedia A-Z entries in the biographical section of the book, but there is much more. The first entries in the book are comments on jazz written by jazz greats Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and producer John Hammond. There is also an historical survey of jazz from 1900 until 1960, an “anatomy of Jazz” section that describes the musical structures found in the genre, a listing of the “giants of jazz” arranged by instrument, the reach of jazz outside of the United States and several other topics. For further information (and listening) it also has recommended jazz records broken down by category. There are numerous photos of famous musicians as well as parts of scores illustrating different jazz forms. If you are interested in finding out more information on jazz, this book would be a great place to start.