Clawing at the Limits of Cool

Clawing at the Limits of Cool
Author: Farah Jasmine Griffin,Salim Washington
Publsiher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2008-08-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0312327854

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This is the story of the heated, turbulent collaboration between Miles Davis and John Coltrane that would change the future of jazz and American history as a whole. 20 b&w photos throughout.

Clawing at the Limits of Cool

Clawing at the Limits of Cool
Author: Farah Jasmine Griffin,Salim Washington
Publsiher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008-08-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780312327859

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Describes the collaboration between Miles David and John Coltrane, focusing on their influences upon each other and the impact their music has made in the jazz world.

Harlem Nocturne

Harlem Nocturne
Author: Farah Jasmine Griffin
Publsiher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2013-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780465069972

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As World War II raged overseas, Harlem witnessed a battle of its own. Brimming with creative and political energy, the neighborhood's diverse array of artists and activists took advantage of a brief period of progressivism during the war years to launch a bold cultural offensive aimed at winning democracy for all Americans, regardless of race or gender. Ardent believers in America's promise, these men and women helped to lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement before Cold War politics and anti-Communist fervor temporarily froze their dreams at the dawn of the postwar era. In Harlem Nocturne, esteemed scholar Farah Jasmine Griffin tells the stories of three black female artists whose creative and political efforts fueled this historic movement for change: choreographer and dancer Pearl Primus, composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams, and novelist Ann Petry. Like many African Americans in the city at the time, these women weren't't native New Yorkers, but the metropolis and its vibrant cultural scene gave them the space to flourish and the freedom to express their political concerns. Pearl Primus performed nightly at the legendary Cafe Society, the first racially integrated club in New York, where she debuted dances of social protest that drew on long-buried African traditions and the dances of former slaves in the South. Williams, meanwhile, was a major figure in the emergence of bebop, collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell and premiering her groundbreaking Zodiac Suite at the legendary performance space Town Hall. And Ann Petry conveyed the struggles of working-class black women to a national audience with her acclaimed novel The Street, which sold over a million copies -- a first for a female African American author. A rich biography of three artists and the city that inspired them, Harlem Nocturne captures a period of unprecedented vitality and progress for African Americans and women, revealing a cultural movement and a historical moment whose influence endures today.

Blowin the Blues Away

Blowin    the Blues Away
Author: Travis A. Jackson
Publsiher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2012-06-12
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780520951921

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New York City has always been a mecca in the history of jazz, and in many ways the city’s jazz scene is more important now than ever before. Blowin’ the Blues Away examines how jazz has thrived in New York following its popular resurgence in the 1980s. Using interviews, in-person observation, and analysis of live and recorded events, ethnomusicologist Travis A. Jackson explores both the ways in which various participants in the New York City jazz scene interpret and evaluate performance, and the criteria on which those interpretations and evaluations are based. Through the notes and words of its most accomplished performers and most ardent fans, jazz appears not simply as a musical style, but as a cultural form intimately influenced by and influential upon American concepts of race, place, and spirituality.

If You Can t be Free be a Mystery

If You Can t be Free  be a Mystery
Author: Farah Jasmine Griffin
Publsiher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2001
Genre: Blues musicians
ISBN: 9780684868080

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The threads of Billie Holiday's mystique are unraveled in this study of a woman who needed to create art at any cost. Griffin liberates Holiday from stereotypes of black women and pries her away from the male tradition of jazz criticism while presenting Holiday's independent spirit. of photos.

Jazz and American Culture

Jazz and American Culture
Author: Michael Borshuk
Publsiher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781009420198

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This book explores jazz as a cultural lodestone and source of critical inquiry for over a century.

The Whiskey of Our Discontent

The Whiskey of Our Discontent
Author: Quraysh Ali Lansana,Georgia A. Popoff
Publsiher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9781608467648

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“[A] superb tribute . . . [an] essential collection” of essays analyzing the works of the preeminent twentieth-century poet and voice of social justice (Booklist). Winner of the Central New York Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Award Poet, educator, and social activist Gwendolyn Brooks was a singular force in American culture. The first black woman to be named United States poet laureate, Brook’s poetry, fiction, and social commentary shed light on the beauty of humanity, the distinct qualities of black life and community, and the destructive effects of racism, sexism, and class inequality. A collection of thirty essays combining critical analysis and personal reflection, The Whiskey of Our Discontent, presents essential elements of Brooks’ oeuvre—on race, gender, class, community, and poetic craft, while also examining her life as poet, reporter, mentor, sage, activist, and educator. “Gwendolyn Brooks wrote and performed her magnificent poetry for and about the Black people of Chicago, and yet it was also read with anguish, delight, and awe by white people, successive waves of immigrants, and ultimately the world.” —Bill Ayers, from the Introduction

Pointe Claw

Pointe  Claw
Author: Amber J. Keyser
Publsiher: Carolrhoda Lab& 8482
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 9781467775915

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"After eight years of separation childhood best friends are reunited. One is studying to be a professional ballerina, the other has a rare disease that is rapidly taking its toll"--