Traces the evolution of blues through the personal histories of great bluesmen including Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King.

"From the streets of Baltimore to the halls of the New Mexico Philharmonic, a musician shares his remarkable story in I'm Possible, an inspiring memoir of perseverance and possibility. Growing up, Richard Antoine White and his mother didn't have a key to a room or a house. Sometimes they had shelter, but they never had a place to call home. Still, they always had each other, and from a young age, Richard believed he could look after his mother, even...

Chronicles the life of internationally-acclaimed jazz musician Duke Ellington, from the Harlem Renaissance through his later years.

"Earth, Wind & Fire was one of the most popular and significant bands of the past century, celebrated alongside Chicago, the Commodores, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and Sly and the Family Stone. They transcended genres and fused diverse influences, from R&B to pop to jazz and beyond, earning multiple Grammy Awards--and most recently a Lifetime Achievement Award, shortly after the passing of the band's founder, Maurice White. Although many of White's...

"The long-awaited memoir of Booker T. Jones, leader of the famed Stax Records house band, architect of the Memphis soul sound, and one of the most legendary figures in music. From Booker T. Jones's earliest years in segregated Memphis, music was the driving force in his life. While he worked paper routes and played gigs in local nightclubs to pay for lessons and support his family, Jones, on the side, was also recording sessions in what became the...

Presents a comprehensive history of the Harlem Renaissance during the early decades of the twentieth century; and contains essays and an audio CD on the music, art, literature, and politics of that era.

Gucci Mane began writing his memoir in a maximum-security federal prison. Released in 2016, he emerged radically transformed. He was sober, smiling, focused, and positive -- a far cry from the Gucci Mane of years past. Born in rural Bessemer, Alabama, Radric Delantic Davis became Gucci Mane in East Atlanta, where the rap scene is as vibrant as the dope game. His name was made as a drug dealer first, rapper second. His mixtapes and street anthems helped...

"Despite the fact that most of jazz's major innovators and performers have been African American, the overwhelming majority of jazz journalists, critics, and authors have been and continue to be white men. No major mainstream jazz publication has ever had a Black editor or publisher. Ain't But a Few of Us presents over two dozen candid dialogues with Black jazz critics and journalists ranging from Greg Tate, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Robin D. G....