Songs of the Unsung : The Musical and Social Journey of Horace Tapscott [Hardcover] Review

SONGS OF THE UNSUNG: THE MUSICAL & SOCIAL JOURNEY OF HORACE TAPSCOTT is an engaging read. Not only is the book the autobiography of Los Angeles pianist and bandleader Horace Tapscott, it is an informative history of West Coast jazz and Los Angeles black arts.

Tapscott worked with writer Steve Isoardi for several years through the 1990s. They first connected for the Isoardi-led book CENTRAL AVENUE SOUNDS. Read both of these books as well as THE DARK TREE for the hidden hitory of West Coast community arts. Horace Tapscott was a major musical pioneer for over 40 years, read details of his amazing story here.

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Raise Up Off Me: A Portrait of Hampton Hawes [Paperback] Review

If you like jazz, get your hands on this book and read it! Its humor, honesty, attention to detail, and readability put other autobiographies (mingus, miles) to shame.
Hawes was the bluesiest of the beboppers and could rightly be called the unrecognized father of hard bop.Unfortunately, he also had a herion habit that crippled his career.For more on that, read the book.Some of his recordings are still in print.Give them a listen, and then start calling DeCapo Press to get them to reprint this jazz literature classic!END

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Product Description:
Hampton Hawes [1928-1977] was one of jazz's greatest pianists. Among his peers from California the self-taught Hawes was second only to Oscar Peterson. At the time of his celebration as New Star of the Year by downbeat magazine (1956), Hawes was already struggling with a heroin addiction that would lead to his arrest and imprisonment, and the interruption of a brilliant career. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy granted Hawes an Executive Pardon. In eloquent and humorous language Hampton Hawes tells of a life of suffering and redemption that reads like an improbable novel. Gary Giddins has called it a major contribution to the literature of jazz. This book includes a complete discography and eight pages of photographs.

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