Book

Book Collection: Music

  1. Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth, by John Szwed, helps readers understand and appreciate Holiday’s unconventional approach to singing, distinctive vocals, and controversial song choices.
  2. Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, by Oliver Wang, taps into the progression of hip-hop with constructed criticism of classic albums that elevated the game.
  3. Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, by Terry Teachout, is an engaging biography of an accomplished composer, renowned bandleader, and skillful pianist whose obsessions included music, food, and women.
  4. Flyboy in the Buttermilk, by Greg Tate, is packed with the author’s ingenious criticisms ranging from music (jazz, funk, punk-rock, and hip-hop) to book to film.
  5. Flyboy 2, by Greg Tate, features a collection of Tate’s influential and critical essays in the past 30 years.
  6. The History of Jazz, by Ted Gioia, is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the fascinating story of jazz.
  7. I Hate Myself and Want to Die, by Tom Reynolds, is depressingly hilarious because of the author’s wit, incisive, heartless, and sometimes silly criticisms.
  8. It’s About That Time, by Richard Cook, which begins with Birth of the Cool and ends with posthumous Doo Bop, is ingenious assessment of Miles’s music and life based on his albums.
  9. Jazz: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings, by Ben Ratliff, is a pleasurable read for both jazz novices and aficionados.
  10. JAY-Z: Made In America, by Michael Eric Dyson, is a concise, engaging, and thoughtful examination of JAY-Z’s lyrics.
  11. The Last Miles, by George Cole, is a 450-page analysis that covers every track from The Man With The Horn all the way up to Doo-Bop.
  12. Me, by Elton John and Alexis Petridis, is an engaging, honest, emotional, and incredibly funny memoir.
  13. Miles Beyond, by Paul Tingen, is an insightful read on Davis’s electric journey from 1967-1991.
  14. Mo’ Meta Blues, by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Ben Greenman, is a fresh, funny, fulfilling music memoir of one of hip-hop’s rare drummers.
  15. Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout, unfolds of the controversy of Armstrong’s old-fashioned way of mixing high art with low comedy and the dark side behind his clowning face.
  16. Running the Voodoo Down, by Philip Freeman, is a detailed analysis of Davis’s fusion albums.
  17. So What, by John Szwed, is a well-researched and thoughtful biography of Davis.
  18. Trịnh Công Sơn (1939 – 2001) Cuộc Đời, Âm Nhạc, Thơ, Hội Họa & Suy Tưởng is a collection of essays on the life and work of one of the greatest Vietnamese songwriters written by his closed friends and confidants around the world.