Oxford University Press: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz: Leonard Feather

2/3/13 3:22 PM

The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz

Edited by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler
ISBN13: 9780195320008
ISBN10: 019532000X

Paperback, 744 pages

Mar 2007, In Stock
Price: $49.95 (01)

Description

Reviews

Product Details

Author Information

Description
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.

Reviews
"A welcome sight for musicians, fans, and educators....Feather and Gitler's magnum opus
is a fitting capstone to a magnificent century of swing, and a prophecy book foretelling the
shapers of jazz to come."--DownBeat

Product Details
744 pages; 7 x 10;
ISBN13: 978-0-19-532000-8
ISBN10: 0-19-532000-X

About the Author(s)

Leonard Feather, one of the deans of jazz criticism, is a widely respected figure in jazz
writing. He moved to New York from England in the 1930s and made a significant career
in jazz here as a journalist, producer, lecturer, broadcaster, musician, and writer of
hundreds of jazz compositions. After founding The Encyclopedia of Jazz series in the mid
1950s, he moved to California, becoming the jazz columnist for the Los Angeles Times
and The Book of Jazz. Leonard Feather died in 1994. Ira Gitler's writing has helped
illuminate the jazz scene from 1951, when he wrote the first of countless album and CD
annotations. He was the New York editor of Downbeat in the 1960s and continues to
contribute to that publication, as well as to JazzTimes and Internet publications. His
credits as a producer include recordings and concerts, and he teaches jazz history at the
Manhattan School of Music. His books include the highly acclaimed Jazz Masters of the
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularMusic/Jazz/?view=usa&ci=9780195320008

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Oxford University Press: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz: Leonard Feather

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'40s and Swing to Bop, the latter written while hw was a Guggenheim fellow. He lives in
New York City.

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularMusic/Jazz/?view=usa&ci=9780195320008

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