The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz

Do you want to know when Duke Ellington was king of The Cotton Club? Have you ever wondered how old Miles Davis was when he got his first trumpet? From birth dates to gig dates and from recordings to television specials, Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler have left no stone unturned in their quest for accurate, detailed information on the careers of 3.300 jazz musicians from around the world. We learn that Duke Ellington worked his magic at The Cotton Club from 1927 to 1931, and that on Miles Davis's thirteenth birthday, his father gave him his first trumpet. Jazz is fast moving, and this edition clearly and concisely maps out an often dizzying web of professional associations. We find, for instance, that when Miles Davis was a St. Louis teenager he encountered Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time. This meeting proved fateful, and by 1945 a nineteen-year-old Davis had left Juilliard to play with Parker on 52nd Street. Knowledge of these professional alliances, along with the countless others chronicled in this book, are central to tracing the development of significant jazz movements, such as the "cool jazz" that became one of Miles Davis's hallmarks. Arranged alphabetically according to last name, each entry of this book chronologically lists the highlights of every jazz musician's career. Highly accessible and vigorously researched, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz is, quite simply, the most comprehensive jazz encyclopedia available.

Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz, first published in the 1950s, has long been recognized as the definitive reference book on the subject. Subsequent supplements published in the 1960s and 1970s reinforced its importance, and it has been termed an `enduring reference work' and `indispensable to a knowledge of jazz, its history, its performers and its goals.' The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz is a thorough expansion and updating of Feather's book. Focusing exclusively on biographies, it contains portraits of 3,300 jazz figures and includes extensive coverage of players in Europe, Japan, Africa, and Australia, as well as the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Each biographical entry contains basic information about the jazz player involved, including details of which bands or groups the artist played with, major recordings, and chief jazz influences. This is the thorough, authoritative, up-to-date book of jazz biographies that the jazz world has long needed.