Gift Certificates How to Order

Music Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

1 2 3 >>>     sort list by title | publication date The Wire Primers A Guide to Modern Music An essential handbook to the most advanced modern music from the Bible of experimental sounds. Since it was founded in 1982, The Wire magazine has covered a vast range of alternative, experimental, underground and non-mainstream music. Now some of... This Is Our Music Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture Iain Anderson This Is Our Music, declared saxophonist Ornette Coleman's 1960 album title. But whose music was it? At various times during the 1950s and 1960s, musicians, critics, fans, politicians, and entrepreneurs claimed jazz as a national art form, an... Sparks-Tastic Twenty-One Nights with Sparks in London Tosh Berman In 2008, Tosh Berman — author and publisher of TamTam Books — got on a plane with a single motive: "Sparks Spectacular." No Regrets The Life of Edith Piaf Carolyn Burke The iconic French singer comes to life in this enthralling, definitive biography, which captures Edith Piaf's immense charisma along with the time and place that gave rise to her unprecedented international career. Raised by turns in a brothel... How Music Works David Byrne How Music Works is David Byrne's remarkable and buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about. In it he explores how profoundly music is shaped by its time and place, and he explains how the advent of recording technology... Blue Note Records The Biography Richard Cook Blue Note Records is the first full history of the most noted label in jazz. Cook lingers with record-collector zeal in analyzing everything from Sidney Bechet's 78s to Norah Jones' recent chart-topper. Insightful scenes... Traveling the Spaceways Sun Ra, the Astro Black and other Solar Myths John Corbett, Anthony Elms, Terri Kapsalis Sun Ra (1914-93) - self-proclaimed visionary extraterrestrial of the "Angel Race," prophetic jazz band leader and composer, and lyrical proponent of Afro-futurism - was one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century music. Though many of his... R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country R. Crumb Anyone who knows R. Crumb's work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to-... Blues and the Poetic Spirit Paul Garon Paul Garon knows the blues, from the music itself to the poetry and psychology that are the impetus of its creation. The author of biographies of such blues icons as Peetie Wheatstraw and Memphis Minnie, Garon focuses on the social and political... I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp An Autobiography Richard Hell The sharp, lyrical, and no-holds-barred autobiography of the iconoclastic writer and musician Richard Hell, charting the childhood, coming of age, and misadventures of an artist in an indelible era of rock and roll... Tom Waits on Tom Waits Interviews and Encounters Paul Maher Jr. Tom Waits, even with his barnyard growl and urban hipster yawp, may just be what the Daily Telegraph calls him: "the greatest entertainer on Planet Earth." Over a span of almost four decades, he has transformed his music and persona, not to suit the... The House That Trane Built The Story of Impulse Records Ashley Kahn "A jazz-lover's delight."—Ray Olson, Booklist Noted jazz author Ashley Kahn brings to life the behind-the-scenes story of Impulse Records, one of the most significant record labels in the history of popular music. "Kahn mingles engaging stories... A Love Supreme The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album Ashley Kahn Few albums in the canon of popular music have had the influence, resonance, and endurance of John Coltrane's 1965 classic A Love Supreme-a record that proved jazz was a fitting medium for spiritual exploration and for the expression of the sublime... Thelonious Monk The Life and Times of an American Original Robin D.G. Kelley Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth... 1 2 3 >>>