A really beautiful book, and one that's quite different than most other jazz books we can think of – in that it approaches its main subject matter from many different directions, in a way that actually proves to be more illuminating overall! As the title implies, the book looks at the huge run of recordings that avant pianist Matthew Shipp has done for the Rogue Art label – and author Clifford Allen begins with a look at Shipp himself, then his New York setting, then interviews with collaborators who include Whit Dickey, William Parker, Joe Morris, and Rob Brown – before then moving on to look at the Rogue Art label, through an interview with its founder – then ending with page after page of liner notes for Shipp albums on the label – including a few that haven't been released yet! The presentation is very smart, and really opens up Shipp's creative process in a great way – and this softcover edition is 207 pages, with some black and white images. Book

A huge book on the equally-huge creative legacy of bassist William Parker – a musician who first arose in the loft jazz scene in New York during the 70s, but who's gone on to be one of its greatest surviving players, and one who's transformed the inspirations of that world into so many different modes of expression over the decades! Author Cisco Bradley really digs deep – following Parker from his southern roots to his childhood in the South Bronx, to his strong contributions to avant scenes, first in New York, then around the globe – all with a sensitivity to community and context that shows that Parker isn't just some genius musician, but both an evolving participant in creative activity, and one whose contributions have transformed the landscape as well! The book is softcover, 402 pages, and has copious notes, a discography, and even some black and white images as well. Book

Many years back, we always thought that David Byrne should have written a children's book – a volume to convey the best themes of some of the Talking Heads tunes to a younger, impressionable generation. And while that never actually happened, this beautiful edition of work released in conjunction with the American Utopia stage performance may be the next best thing – all sorts of lovely little illustrations from Maira Kalman, interspersed with text from Byrne from the performance – brought together in a volume that's as much a pleasure to flip through as the larger performance on stage. This isn't an attempt to capture the show in a book – but instead kind of a sidebar, almost a distillation of the ideas taken into a cool new format – served up in a hardcover volume, with full color illustrations throughout! Book

Writer John Corbett has given us words on a huge variety of musical styles over the years – a fair bit of them left field and avant – but this time around, he's tackling the full range of 70s rock, pop, and soul music – in a huge book that's unlike anything he's ever written before! First off, the large volume is very personal – part listening autobiography, part paean to the musical giants who shaped the decade, and part hindsight record review of all the amazing sounds that were created during the 70s! The book follows the decade with year-by-year chapters – yet it's hardly a history at all – as Corbett picks key songs and albums as touchstones for each year – partly because of their impact, but more because of the power they had for him as a listener. The albums run the gamut – from Nursery Cryme by Genesis, to Les Stances A Sophie by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, to Pink Moon by Nick Drake – and songs include "Sex Machine" by James Brown, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, and "Long Time" by Boston. 496 pages, hardcover. Book

BB King is a blues musician with a much richer story than most – one that's captured here in very vivid detail by the author, as he mixes together a wealth of historical research with quotations from interviews and other materials too – all of which really makes the long journey of BB King come alive, as he shifts from roots in the south to the Memphis scene, then California, then superstardom that made him one of the biggest blues figures of the 20th Century! There's a great flow to the book – down to earth details that really make you feel like you're following King on his rise to fame – yet the big section at notes also indicates that the author wasn't just throwing stories out there without any support, and did plenty to weave the whole thing together with an eye for the facts. Softcover edition is 481 pages, with some black and white images. Book

A book that's a piece of art in an of itself – as it's the only way these different strands of creative activity from artist Jim Dine could have come together! The approach is unusual – the book is something of a poem, but created from words that Dine wrote on various surfaces in various places over the years, which are then photographed, and assembled into a large book without any other text at all! At an initial level, the book feels like someone selecting images of scrawlings on walls, but together the images rise up as a creation of their own – both verbal and visual – in a really lovely clothbound book that comes in a heavy slipcover that's a perfect package for the contents. Book

A hugely detailed look at one of the hippest rock labels of the 80s – New Zeland's Flying Nun Records, an imprint that also had a huge impact on the rest of the world at the time! Flying Nun were key in helping guitar-based sounds get past the modes of the punk and post-punk years – not shaking off those influences, but refining them, pushing them forward, and really evolving the sound through key groups like The Clean, Chills, Verlains, Bailter Space, and Straightjacket Fits – all of whom really helped pave the way for big indie moments over here in the decade that followed. The book offers up an insane amount of information on Flying Nun – in year-by-year chapters that detail every single release, always with photos and cover art, plus more images too – in a hefty softcover volume that's almost 400 pages, and full color throughout. Book

You may not know the name of Barney Bubbles, but you're likely to have seen his artwork – important images that graced key records in the post-punk years – vinyl from Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Devo, Hawkwind, and dozens of others – all presented here in very vivid color! Bubbles actually got his start in the prog years – and this book goes way back to feature some of the gems from those years, then traces things up through the 70s, to Barney's big explosion in the latter part of the decade and beyond – a surprisingly rich history, all presented with a very strong focus on the images, including some inner record contents, mock-ups, and more! This heavy softcover edition is 240 pages in all – and full color throughout. Book

An insanely fantastic book on one of our favorite record labels of all time – the All Platinum family of labels from the New Jersey scene of the late 60s/early 70s – a precursor to the later Sugar Hill hip hop empire, and home to The Moments, Whatnauts, and countless other great groups! The book is way more than just the story of the label – as it's super-heavy, weighs as much as a stack of records – and features hundreds of pages with full color images, both of rare records and artists who recorded for All-Platinum too – all in support of chapters that approach the label and its related imprints in a range of different ways. The book not only looks at the big stars, but tackles the lesser-known acts too – and traces all the many sub-labels like Stang, Vibration, A1, Turbo, and Astroscope – then looks at the company's relationship to Chess Records too. The book features an illustrated discography of all the related labels after the main content – with color images of labels and covers – and the whole thing is 532 heavy, glossy pages – well worth the price! Book

A fascinating criss-cross of cultural moments in the UK – as the writer begins with the fact that the first James Bond film and the first Beatles single were issued on the same day in 1962 – and looks at the way both cultural juggernauts shaped identity in the years to come! John Higgs traces issues of class, sexual identity, and cultural politics as they intertwine on the larger scene in England during the 60s – beginning with pre-Bond/Beatles years, running strongly through the 60s and 70s – then tracing some surprising moments of intersection in later years too. Hardcover edition is 515 pages. Book

Chinese detective fiction, but with a fascinating twist – a series of separate, but related crime stories – all involving a single detective – presented in reverse order from the present to the past! Written that way, the story takes on a completely different perspective than in a more conventional mode – as the details as a whole are a bit more oblique, and only get greater exposure and understanding as you move backwards in time. As part of that process, the story also follows the changes in Hong Kong, moving backwards – and as with all great detective fiction set in New York, the city is as much a character of the story as the individuals within it. 490 pages, softcover. Book