Legends of Jazz

by Bill Milkowski, Joe Lovano (Preface by)

Overview

Arguably America's most profound cultural contribution, jazz has evolved for over a hundred years since its birth in the ethnic gumbo of New Orleans at the dawn of the 20th century. This elegant volume presents a portrait gallery of 50 eminent musical legends, from Jelly Roll Morton, perhaps the inventor of the art form, to contemporary axman Joe Lovano, who contributes a foreword. Each figure is featured in handsome vintage photographs and a pithy, revealing biography.

Portraits include:

Louis Armstrong  *  Sidney Bechet  *  Bix Beiderbecke  *  Duke Ellington  *  Fats Waller 
• Benny Goodman  *  Billie Holliday  *  Charlie Parker  *  Dizzy Gillespie  *  Thelonious Monk  *  Sarah Vaughn 
• Miles Davis  *  John Coltrane  *   Chet Baker  *  Wynton Marsalis  *  and many more!   

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788854421288
Publisher:	White Star Publishers
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

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® 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.