Avenue Breakdown uncovers the rich yet often overlooked legacy of Black music in Shreveport, Louisiana—a city better known for country tunes and the Louisiana Hayride. This compelling history shines a s ...

Glenn Miller was already famous when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was one of the most popular and successful bands of the big band era. While the bands of the Dorsey ...

Whistle Stop traces the remarkable life of trumpeter and composer Kenny Dorham (1924–1972), whose journey from rural Texas to the forefront of modern jazz mirrors the broader story of Black resilience a ...

What defines a “musical work”? Traditionally, this question has been dominated by Western art music and its reliance on prescriptive scores. Yet, with the rise of recording technologies and the growing inf ...

Booker T. Pittman (1909-1969) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who played with greats like Louis Armstrong and Count Basie in the 1920s and 1930s. The maternal grandson of Booker T. Washington, ...

James P. Johnson (1894–1955) is one of the most important figures in twentieth-century American music. However, few people other than scholars and serious fans know of his life and work. Rare jazz aficionados k ...

Duke Ellington’s Symphonic Visions, the culmination of a decade-long study of Ellington’s compositions for the symphony orchestra by author Luca Bragalini, is the first book entirely dedicated to Ellington’s s ...

Jazz legend Cootie Williams left home to start his career as a professional musician at the age of fifteen. In 1940, after eleven years as one of the major soloists with the Duke Ellington orchestra, ...

As an American singer, conductor, composer, and actor, Frank Sinatra, Jr. (1944–2016), had a long and successful music career and was recognized for his many contributions to American popular song. Yet, h ...

Don Byas (1913–1972) may be lesser known than the counterparts he played with—Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others—but he was an enigma. He never stayed with a band for long, and e ...