Legends of Jazz

Description

Improvisation, swing, blue notes, glissando, scat...these and other ingredients have made jazz a unique musical genre, unmistakable and loved in every corner of the globe. Born in the United States at the end of the 19th century, jazz has its roots in Afro-American music, but has succeeded in becoming contaminated owing to contributions from different styles, fragmenting in turn into countless currents and categories. From the first New Orleans bands, passing through the absolute genius of 'Satchmo' Armstrong, this book retraces the history of jazz, lingering on the most outstanding personalities and musical excerpts that have marked this musical genre more than any other.

Bill Milkowski is a New York-based freelance writer who has contributed to several publications, including "Down Beat," "Jazz Times," "Jazziz," "Bass Player," "Guitar Player," "Modern Drummer," Absolute "Sound," and many others. He is also the author of "JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius," "Swing It! An Annotated History of Jive," and Rockers, Jazzbos & Visionaries. Milkowski was named Writer of the Year for 2004 by the Jazz Journalists Association.In addition to winning a Grammy(r) for his "52nd Street Themes," saxophonist and composer Joe Lovano has won "Down Beat" magazine's Critics and Readers Polls many times as well as Musician of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, and Triple Crowns from "Downbeat "and the Jazz Journalists Association in 2010. He attended the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which he later received an Honorary Doctorate. He holds the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance and is a founding faculty of the new Global Music Institute directed by Danilo Perez. Lovano records for Blue Note Records and has played with a long list of jazz greats. "