Composers Musicians category: 3267 books

Invisible Publishing’s Bibliophonic Series returns, this time focusing on unsung Canadian punk rock heroes NoMeansNo. NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere, will look at a band whose career has spanned three decades, 14 albums and produced an alter ego that’s become as much a part of the Canadian consciousness...

The life and influence of singer Phil Ochs Phil Ochs burst onto the American music scene just as the popularity of folk music was breaking through on the national consciousness. Along with friend and rival Bob Dylan, Ochs wrote some of the most compelling topical music of his time. In There...

Hit Woman is the story of Susan Hamilton’s wildly improbable life: from early days as a child prodigy and actor, through heady success on the concert stage, in the boardrooms of Madison Ave. and over the talkback microphones of recording studios all over the world. This personal and most intimate...

 Song for My Fathers is the story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong, most of them had played in local obscurity until Preservation Hall launched...

“Frankie & Bobby: Growing Up Zappa,” is poignant and insightful perspective on the life of one of the twentieth century’s most provocative and intriguing musicians.  Written by Frank Zappa’s younger brother, Bobby, this new “coming of age” memoir provides readers with never before told...

Notoriously reticent about his early years, violinist Jascha Heifetz famously reduced the story of his childhood to "Born in Russia. First lessons at 3. Debut in Russia at 7. Debut in Carnegie Hall at 17. That's all there is to say." Tracing his little-known upbringing, Jascha Heifetz: Early Years...

Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver! He also wrote the famous songs Living Doll (Cliff Richard) and From Russia With Love (Matt Munroe). He was unable to read music. He was a millionaire...

Poised to become a classic of jazz literature Visions of Jazz: The First Century offers seventy-nine chapters illuminating the lives of virtually all the major figures in jazz history. From Louis Armstrong's renegade-style trumpet playing to Sarah Vaughan's operatic crooning and from the swinging...

For over four decades John Martyn was a musicians musician (lauded by artists as disparate as Eric Clapton Phil Collins and Bob Marley) a superb guitarist and singer who straddled the worlds of folk jazz and rock earning an OBE and being honoured with a Life Achievement by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards...

Even before Claude Ranger disappeared in late 2000, his fate unknown, he had attained legendary status among Canada’s jazz musicians as an extraordinary drummer who repeatedly challenged the status quo on bandstands in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.   Willful, uncompromising...

Recorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane's magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. In Beyond A Love Supreme, Tony Whyton explores both the musical complexities of A Love Supreme and the album's seminal importance in...

The story of The Pogues has been as riotous as their most rabble-rousing songs. From the streets of 80s London the Celtic Punks unleashed their hellraising 20-year career and in the process became legends; mythic troubadours whose popularity endures. This Omnibus Enhanced edition of Kiss My...

Clarinetist Kenny Davern ranked among the best jazz musicians for over 50 years. The unique and instantly recognizable sound of his clarinet, coupled with a wide ranging intellect and quick sense of humor drew praise and applause and endeared him to his fans and friends. The Life and Music of Kenny...

The first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but groundbreaking singer Billie Holiday, part of Melville House’s beloved Last Interview series Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last...