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A special selection of disc guides and discographies, music history, record art books, graphic novels, and some nicely-priced remainders!
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University Of Texas Press, 2023. New Copy ... $20.99 26.95
A really well-done document of a pretty amazing time in the Chicago music scene – a huge early 90s burst of creative activity – one that gave the world a handful of famous groups, and a much bigger number of even better acts who really made the city great! Writer Bruce Adams issued ... read more Book
Duke University Press, 2013. New Copy ... $18.99 23.95
The autobiography of Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen – perhaps the most legendary Nigerian drummer alive! As told to co-author/interviewer Michael E. Veal, Tony lets us on his amazing life story in an inviting, easily readable way. Lots of great stories from throughout his life and career are ... read more Book
WW Norton, 2019. New Copy ... $6.99 39.95
Writer Nelson Algren is one of our hometown heroes, and spent most of his key years right around the corner of Dusty Groove – so we're always a bit biased when it comes to his work – but you can trust us when we say that this well-done biography is almost as fantastic as some of Algren's ... read more Book
Delmonico, 2018. New Copy ... $11.99 60.00
Dozens of interviews with key figures in the art world over the past four decades – all done by Michael Auping, in a way that really seems to quickly get to the heart of what makes the work of his subjects so special! This is hardly the usual interview book, as the volume is oversize, and ... read more Book
Duke University Press, 2011. New Copy Book ... $5.99 24.95
The best (truly – they got this book right) of Roctober gets a classy rock 'n' soul book compilation from Duke University Press – an incredible collection of interviews that were featured over the years in the great DIY magazine over the years! Interviews with musical legends who ... read more Book
Abrams, 2020. New Copy ... $6.99 24.99
The title of the book is only the beginning – as the author looks at death and music in a number of different ways – with sections on specific topics, which are then broken down into different sections focused on individual artists! Chapters include "How To Pick A Song For Your ... read more Book
Steidl (Germany), 2005. New Copy ... $8.99 40.00
Photographer Francois Marie Banier has an amazing eye, which you'll see instantly in this book – an unflinching look at the streetscapes of Paris, where he photographs human subjects in an array of modes – working, walking, sleeping, and sometimes just confronting the camera directly! ... read more Book
Delmonico, 2022. New Copy ... $39.99 49.95
An incredible book put together with the Academy of Motion Pictures film museum – and one that's much richer than anything you'd expect to find in the gift shop! The book is a beautiful balance of academic writing, history, and countless images – with an initial set of essays on black ... read more Book
Temple University Press, 2014. New Copy ... $4.99 36.00
We know trumpeter Joe Wilder from his many great jazz recordings of the 50s and 60s – some as a leader, many as a sideman – but we had no idea of the richness of his career until we stumbled upon this book – a long legacy of striving, and one that goes beyond just the world of ... read more Book
Wolke Verlag (Germany), 2022. New Copy ... $32.99 39.99
Most folks know Karl Berger as a key figure in avant jazz – a pianist, vibist, composer, and key part of the Creative Music Studio – all aspects of his life he's approached with a strongly spiritual sensibility – one that gets much more deeply extracted here in this book! Berger ... read more Book
Powerhouse Books, 2016. New Copy ... $5.99 27.50
A pretty great book about folks who almost made it in the music business, but who never quite hit the stardom they were destined for – even though a few of these figures have become legendary over the years! The book looks at rock and soul artists from the 60s and 70s, almost all of them ... read more Book
Reaktion, 2022. New Copy ... $20.99 27.99
A book that looks at the continuing dance between music and politics on the Jamaican scene – one that focuses strongly on the years of upheaval in the 70s, but continues a journey that runs through UK punk, 80s dancehall, and other sounds of the digital age! The book is way more than one of ... read more Book
Cisco Bradley —
Universal Tonality – The Life & Music Of William Parker ... Book Duke University Press, 2021. New Copy ... $21.99 30.95
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 ... read more Book
Cisco Bradley —
Williamsburg Avant Garde – Experimental Music & Sound On The Brooklyn Waterfront ... Book Duke University Press, 2023. New Copy ... $20.99 29.95
The music scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is one that's had an undeniable impact on cultural activity in recent decades – yet it's also one of those scenes that initially happened without most folks taking place – that is, it was a real artist and musician's scene, and not the kind ... read more Book
Soul Jazz (UK), 2021. New Copy ... $38.99 49.95
A fantastic book of images from the early 80s hip hop scene in New York – put together by a photographer who was right on the scene for a number of key years – and snapped hundreds of images of performers, clubs, street scenes, graffiti artists, and all the other forces that made hip ... read more Book
V&A (UK), 2012. New Copy ... $8.99 65.00
A richly-detailed look at England's Ambassador magazine of the postwar years – a publication devoted to promoting the rise of the British cloth industry, but which had an approach that made it much more like a fashion magazine overall! The book is lovely – heavy, oversize, and ... read more Book
Primary Information, 2022. New Copy ... $16.99 20.00
The term "techno" can refer to a lot these days, but writer DeForrest Brown takes the music right back to its source – and uses the book for a heavy dip into the glory days of the music when it first emerged on the Detroit scene of the 80s! Brown's a leader of the Make Techno Black ... read more Book
Jayna Brown —
Black Utopias – Speculative Life & The Music Of Other Worlds ... Book Duke University Press, 2021. New Copy ... $18.99 26.95
A beautiful look at imagined communities in many forms – tracing a legacy through black intellectual life of the 19th century to creative production of the 20th and beyond – with a special focus on the creations of Sojourner Truth, Sun Ra, Octavia Butler, Alice Coltrane, Rebecca Cox ... read more Book
Gavin Butt —
No Machos Or Pop Stars – When The Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk ... Book Duke University Press, 2022. New Copy ... Just Sold Out!
The rise of punk is usually tied to the scene of the Sex Pistols and others up in London – but right from the start, there was plenty happening up in Leeds – a scene that gave the world Gang Of Four, The Mekons, Soft Cell, Scritti Politti, and other key acts from the end of the 70s! ... read more Book
Bolden, 2015. New Copy ... $8.99 35.00
A beautiful tribute to one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century – Duke Ellington's longtime musical partner, the mighty Billy Strayhorn! The book presents Billy's life and music in a really great format – using songs as sidebars amidst the larger text – which is then ... read more Book
Da Capo, 2020. New Copy ... $6.99 30.00
Journalist Philip Clark spent a good deal of time with piano legend Dave Brubeck in his later years – then did a really wonderful job of going backwards, and putting together all the many pieces of Dave's musical puzzle! There's no doubt that Brubeck was one of the most important jazz ... read more Book
University Of Chicago, 2019. New Copy ... $16.99 20.00
A tremendous achievement from music writer Aaron Cohen – a book that finally gets at the deeper, richer story of Chicago soul – the spirit of empowerment and pride that have always made us so honored to be part of the Windy City legacy! Cohen picks up where other soul writers have left ... read more Book
Hard Case Crime, 2020. New Copy ... $4.99 12.95
A great return to form for the Nolan character by Max Allan Collins – a master international thief who gets the chance to live again in a book that offers up perfect pulp presentation for the story! Like others in the Hard Case Crime series, the book has a way of really getting past the ... read more Book
(Spine has a remainder mark.)
Soberscove, 2020. New Copy ... $29.99 38.99
One of the most unique books we've ever gotten from John Corbett – an author who's given us some fantastic music writing over the years! This book is completely different – not written, but "salvaged" – as the contents are a lost manuscript from the early 30s – ... read more Book
Faber & Faber (UK), 2020. New Copy ... $8.99 32.00
Sitar genius Ravi Shankar was a huge figure on the American scene in the 60s – an important musician who helped get Indian music the recognition it deserved – and who went on to influence giants like The Beatles and Philip Glass in their own music as well! Yet despite these obvious and ... read more Book
Steidl (Germany), 2015. New Copy ... $8.99 60.00
Beautiful black and white photographs of contemporary Cuba – most shot at a level that really gets at the timeless quality of life in the nation after the US and west have left it behind! The images are from both urban and rural locations, and do a great job of getting past some of the ... read more Book
Fantagraphics, 2013. New Copy ... $4.99 35.00
An amazing collection of 40s and 50s jazz drawings by Gene Deitch – the complete anthology of his work for legendary jazz magazine Record Changer! Gene was an amazing artist and cartoonist, whose work helped solidify the legacies of some of the most famous cartoon characters in the American ... read more Book
Metropolis, 2013. New Copy ... $3.99 39.99
Formica may seem like an everyday surface to some – but at the time of its creation, it was a pretty revolutionary development – one that allowed household and business spaces to step free from longer-term care – giving the workers and residents lots more time to pursue their ... read more Book
Gollancz (UK), 2017. New Copy ... $6.99 11.99
Fantastic fiction from one of the all-time greats – a special selection of short stories by the legendary Philip K Dick, brought together in conjunction with the anthology series inspired by these tales! Each of these stories is the basis for a different episode of the show Electric Dreams ... read more Book
Soul Jazz (UK), 2014. New Copy ... Just Sold Out!
Way way way more than just another book of album cover images – and instead, a stunningly huge volume that offers up key images from the disco generation, plus a wealth of knowledge and information too! The book really lives up to the "encyclopedic" promise of its title – as ... read more Book
Chartwell Books (UK), 2008/2016. New Copy ... $6.99 24.99
A lavish book on the music and life of Prince – presented here in a big new volume that's been updated in the time since his untimely early passing! The book is huge – more of a coffee table volume in size, but still filled with very dense writing as well – in chapters that ... read more Book
Wolke Verlag (Germany), 2022. New Copy ... $32.99 39.99
A beautiful book – part history, part essay, and mostly photography – put together as a loving tribute to the famous Moers Festival of new music in Germany! The book is bracketed with two different timeline sections – one from 1968 to 1996, the latter from 1997 to 2021 – ... read more Book
Pantheon, 2017. New Copy ... $5.99 40.00
One of the greatest writers on singers presents his essential collection of albums from the 20th century – all served up with the kind of loving detail that's always made the prose of Will Friedwald so great! Will's written the book on Frank Sinatra – literally – and on Tony ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
EC, Mid 50s. New Copy ... $34.99 49.99
A lost chapter of the legendary EC Comics – and a fantastic magazine that's kind of a mash-up of postwar crime fiction and the gritty comics that EC was putting out in the pre-code years! In a key part of comics history, the Comics Code arrived in late 1954, and drove many of the more adult ... read more Book
Doubleday, 2015. New Copy ... $3.99 26.95
The legendary Iceberg Slim has given us plenty of his own story over the years – but this book is the first to look at the man behind the man – writer Robert Beck, who started as a pimp and became a surprisingly successful author – as well as an underground figure who inspired a ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
1984, 2019. New Copy ... $24.99 34.95
A fascinating look at a world of cinema from the last 20 years of the past century – served up in a host of rare newspaper ads that were painstakingly collected by the author! Yet Michael Gingold isn't just some guy who snipped his way through the paper for decades – as he also ... read more Book
1984, 2019. New Copy ... $14.99 34.95
A hell of a great idea for a book – a collection of newspaper ads for horror films from the 90s and 00s – served up with page after page of striking images, as well as text from the author about each film, and snippets of press reviews from the time! The book is a beautiful tribute to ... read more Book
Powerhouse Books, 2019. New Copy ... $11.99 50.00
Beautiful black and white images from the East Harlem scene of the postwar years – material shot by New York photographer Leo Goldstein to partly document the new wave of Puerto Rican immigrants in the neighborhood, as maybe one of the first efforts to establish a Nuyorican sense of identity! ... read more Book
Reaktion (UK), 2020. New Copy ... Just Sold Out!
A deep look at the music and genius of Ornette Coleman – one that offers up so many different aspects of his career that go way past the records that we know and love – including lots of details of Coleman's early life, and his ties to other non-music communities as well! Author Maria ... read more Book
Third Man, 2022. New Copy ... $27.99 39.99
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 – ... read more Book
Lannoo (Belgium), 2019. New Copy ... $8.99 45.00
The book might have a lofty goal, but it's a great one too – and is illustrated here with a big range of full color photographs from the cities that get the attention of the authors! The book has sections on New Orleans, Detroit, Port Au Prince, Belfast, Hiroshima, and Kigali – each ... read more Book
WW Norton, 2011. New Copy ... $4.99 26.95
A very well-written book – especially in comparison to the fluffy Bob Marley books that usually litter the market – and a much deeper look at the role of The Wailers, and the triangulated sense of character that hung between Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer! The book gives equal ... read more Book
Amistad, 1972. New Copy ... $6.99 17.99
An early 70s call to action from the great Dick Gregory – a figure who began his career on the comedic stage of the Civil Rights generation, but soon rose to become one of the most powerful voices for change – so much so that Gregory changed his own ambitions, and move all his ... read more Book
(Please Note – The spine has remainder marks.)
Rittor (Japan), 2019. New Copy ... $38.99 42.99
An even-better volume of this amazing publication – a true treasure trove for fans of all things funky – and one of the coolest books of rare records we've ever seen! The Japanese book is a dictionary of rare groove classics from the 60s and 70s – listing hundreds of rare albums ... read more Book
Duke University Press, 2022. New Copy ... $15.99 21.95
Maybe the best book so far in the recent run of work from musician/author David Grubbs – a volume that follows a similar pattern to the previous longform works The Voice In The Headphones and Now That The Audience Is Assembled – but one that has a very different vibe overall! The ... read more Book
Little Brown, 2020. New Copy ... $8.99 30.00
Peter Guralnick has written some mighty big, career-defining books on key figures in music – but from the start, we've always loved his shorter pieces the best – the kind of work we first fell in love with in books like Sweet Soul Music and Lost Highway! And if you dig his shorter ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, 2012. New Copy ... $6.99 19.95
A fascinating look at the world of Mexican music in the 20th Century – put together in collaboration with Arhoolie Records, the label that's done plenty to reissue the music over the years! The book begins with the huge archive of recordings by the label's founder, Chris Strachwitz – ... read more Book
Reel Art, 2021. New Copy ... $22.99 59.95
A totally cool book – and one that goes way past the familiar Led Zep images you may know from their classic records of the 70s – as this hefty volume is filled with strange an unusual covers for records that contain music by the band – rare imports, unusual pressings, and a huge ... read more Book
Ele-King (Japan), 2020. New Copy ... $24.99 32.99
A really insane guide to video game music – one that features album and CD releases, but also music that only saw issue within the games too – hence the "beyond the discs" in the title! The book follows a similar format to other Japanese disc guides – and the contents ... read more Book
Yale University Press, 2007. New Copy ... $8.99 45.00
Forty years of work from a very cool project at Yale – one that engages architecture and design students in works of social activism – as they create new modes of shelter in a variety of ways! The project first began in 1967, and since that time, every year has seen a student project ... read more Book
Thomas Dunne, 2019. New Copy ... $6.99 29.99
The late 60s Woodstock years and late 70s punk era always seem to get their due in press – but this might well be the first great book to really get at that special moment between those two generations – a time when so much musical creativity was taking place, even though it wasn't as ... read more Book
Willard Jenkins, ed —
Ain't But A Few Of Us – Black Music Writers Tell Their Story ... Book Duke University Press, 2022. New Copy ... $19.99 27.99
An essential look at black voices within music criticism – one that features articles from the 60s up to the present, plus individual sections that look at important black musical writers and publications that supported their work! Editor Willard Jenkins presents the whole thing almost like ... read more Book
Gingko Press, 2014. New Copy ... $8.99 29.95
Beautiful work from artist Ian Johnson – portraits of famous jazz, funk, and soul artists from the 50s through the 70s – served up in a mix of pencil and color, often with a very unique style! The cover image only hints at the pages within – which are often more detailed and ... read more Book
Faber & Faber (UK), 2020. New Copy ... $6.99 25.95
An insanely deep look at the rise of the "new romantics" on the British music scene at the end of the 70s – a book that's bigger than most we've seen on more "classic" rock figures and moments – and which really takes its project seriously! The book starts way ... read more Book
Thomas Dunne, 2018. New Copy ... $8.99 29.99
Drummer Kenney Jones finally gets his time in the spotlight – a fantastic force on the drumkit, and maybe one of the few who could replace the late Keith Moon in The Who – not to mention a core element in the great sound of both The Faces and Small Faces, plus some of the early Rod ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
Du Books (Japan), 2021. New Copy ... $24.99 34.99
A book with "new age" in the title – but one that offers up a lot more than just a listing of big 80s albums on the Windham Hill label! Instead, author Tsunao Kadwaki digs deep into a rich well of acoustic, ambient, electronic, and meditative sounds – first beginning in the ... read more Book
Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth/Delmonico, 2018. New Copy ... $15.99 60.00
A huge overview of the work of artist Laurie Simmons – a photographer who's best known for working in miniature and conflicting spatial scales – but one who's also presented here with a variety of projects from across her career! The big/little shots are in great array here – as ... read more Book
St Martins, 2018. New Copy ... $5.99 18.99
Jorma Kaukonen may not have the catchiest name in rock music, but his guitar playing is the stuff of legend – first a driving force in the young Jefferson Airplane, then getting even great showcase in his own Hot Tuna – both the kind of groups from which classic rock record collections ... read more Book
Duke University Press, 2022. New Copy ... $18.99 25.99
The birth of hip hop on the streets and in the clubs of New York City has been well documented over the years – but once the music got going, the airwaves of the city were an equally important force in spreading the music – and this well-done book is the first time that anyone's really ... read more Book
Powerhouse Books, 2012. New Copy ... $11.99 50.00
Photographer Panos Kokkinias has a fantastic sense of space and color – one that's well-illustrated in the image chosen for the cover of the book – and which gets expanded tremendously with each new page! The book offers both interior and exterior shots – the latter of which also ... read more Book
HoZac, 2022. New Copy ... $28.99
A tremendous look at a very cool label – one that was a key part of the San Francisco scene during the start of the 80s – and one of the city's few indies, in comparison to the wealth of record companies down in LA! The story of the label is as much the story of its founder Howie Klein ... read more Book
Damiani, 2017. New Copy ... $6.99 35.00
Cars, in New York City, and nothing else at all – just page after page of cars parked on the street – presented in a fascinating array of full color images! Some cars get a whole page to themselves, some are arrayed in grids – old cars, new cars, fancy cars, and beat up cars ... read more Book
Abrams, 2004. New Copy ... $15.99 75.00
Maybe the largest book we've ever seen to focus on the artwork of Robert Rauschenberg – a huge volume that's overflowing with full color images – and which traces a lineage of creative activity that's much longer than we would have guessed! The book's divided up into chapters on so ... read more Book
P-Vine (Japan), 2014. New Copy ... $24.99 32.99
A Japanese book about Krautrock, but one that's laid out like a discography – so that you can understand it even if you can't read the language! All the artist and album information is in English (or German) – and every entry has a vivid full color photo, so that you can hundreds and ... read more Book
Blank Forms, 2021. New Copy ... $15.99 20.00
A much-needed look at a crucial chapter in the career of trumpeter Don Cherry – his overseas time on the European scene, where Don experimented with new organic music forms, alternatives to mainstream society, and a much larger cultural milieu than jazz! Cherry's organic music period has ... read more Book
Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. New Copy ... $18.99 60.00
We're not normally ones to ooh and ah over hotels – but they do tend to be some of our favorite semi-public spaces in big cities, and this wonderful book looks at a time when lodging was really stepping up to the next level – as firms like Schultze & Weaver were redesigning hotels ... read more Book
Da Capo, 2017. New Copy ... $8.99 27.00
Mark Lanegan has received plenty of nods for the sophisticated lyrics he's brought to his music over the years – including work in both Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age, where he clearly set a standard that was above most of his contemporaries! John Cale agrees, and gives Mark ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
Norton, 2016. New Copy ... $6.99 27.95
Italy was hit hard in the postwar years – as you've no doubt seen in the urban landscapes of neo-realist directors from the time – but the city of Rome was one of the first places to really bounce back, and was ablaze with new cultural activity during the 50s! The story of that scene ... read more Book
MIT Press, 2021. New Copy ... $28.99 39.95
A fantastic look at a legendary radio station – and one that, as such, may well also go justice to the overall power of radio in the 70s – as WBCN did a heck of a lot more than just play music over the airwaves! This richly detailed book follows the rise of the important radio station ... read more Book
Almighty & Insane Books, 2022. New Copy ... $16.99 20.00
A wonderful look at a lost, secret side of the house music scene in Chicago – rare flyers and posters that were used to draw people into the sort of underground events that really helped the music blossom in the Windy City – maybe the only lasting document of musical moments that built ... read more Book
Random House, 2018. New Copy ... $6.99 32.00
From our perspective in the 21st Century, the film career of director David Lynch is the stuff of legend – long and loudly hailed – yet for the man himself, the road to success was a long one – and even along the way, Lynch struggled with countless creative difficulties and ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
Grand Central, 2020. New Copy ... $6.99 28.00
Patsy Cline left our planet all too soon – lost in a plane crash in 1963 – but in the last few years of her life, she provided some great support and friendship to the young Loretta Lynn – then fresh on the scene in Nashville, which has always been a pretty tough town for a ... read more Book
Modern Library, 2009. New Copy ... $6.99 17.00
An inspirational tome from trumpet great and Jazz At Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis, with co-author and historian Geoffrey C. Ward – delivering the positive message of America's definitive music! Marsalis draws from lessons learned from a lifetime in jazz music and details ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
P-Vine (Japan), 2019. New Copy ... $24.99 32.99
One of the most unusual disc guides we've ever seen – a book that coins its own genre of music, Walearic – then finds a whole host of vintage records that fall under that new category! The book is filled with listings of rare records from Japan – music in many styles, and which ... read more Book
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016. New Copy ... $6.99 19.99
A great contrast to some of the more straight-ahead James Brown biographies on the market – as writer James McBride takes a circuitous path to look at the genius of The Godfather – not the shining stars of the bigger highlights in his career, but the lost corners and more distant ... read more Book
Peter Owens (UK), 2015. New Copy ... $4.99 26.95
A really cool look at a label that was maybe one of the hippest things the Beatles ever did – the short-lived Zapple imprint – which was part of their main Apple label, but dedicated to more experimental work from a variety of musicians and writers! The imprint is perhaps best ... read more Book
University Of Minnesota Press, 2022. New Copy ... $22.99 29.99
An incredible book from Nicole Mitchell – an artist that most know for her work as a jazz musician on flute, and a range of other musical projects – yet one who's developed into a cultural force far beyond music, as you'll see in this really groundbreaking literary project! The book ... read more Book
Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2023. New Copy ... $36.99 40.99
A long-overdue document of the artistic activity of Roscoe Mitchell – best known to most as a key member of both the AACM and Art Ensemble Of Chicago as a jazz musician, but a surprisingly accomplished painter too! Mitchell's artistic career is captured here in both distant chapters – ... read more Book
Wolke Verlag (Germany), 2022. New Copy ... $49.99 58.99
A stunningly beautiful book, and one that's a very fitting tribute to the legendary jazz label that it covers – Germany's FMP Music, easily one of the most important avant jazz labels of all time! The book is huge – oversize, and hundreds of pages – and it's filled with as many ... read more Book
Reel Art (UK), 2019. New Copy ... $20.99 59.95
The French new wave – or nouvelle vague – was not just a revolution in cinema, but also in the way that cinema was presented – a new generation of scenes and shots that led to a newly modern level of movie poster too – represented in beautiful ways in this very hefty book! ... read more Book
Du Books (Japan), 2023. New Copy ... $22.99 29.99
A Japanese book, but one with a very deep dive into urban soul from the 70s onward – mostly American and European records that together represent a whole new wave of cool, sophisticated R&B! This isn't the deep soul of the 60s – although many of the singers still have a wonderful ... read more Book
University Of Minnesota Press, 1968. New Copy ... $4.99 18.95
A fascinating slice of work from the legendary Johnny Otis – the longtime LA bandleader who had such a strong role in the worlds of jazz, soul, and R&B – and who also turns out to be a hell of a writer too! The book is Otis' answer to the Watts riots of 1965 – a mixture of ... read more Book
Soul Jazz (UK), 2020. New Copy ... $40.99 49.99
A beautiful book of ultra-rare album cover art – Cuban records from the 50s through the 90s – a fair bit of which were never available here in the US market! The book follows similar projects by Stuart Baker under the Soul Jazz imprint – but this one is maybe even more essential, ... read more Book
Fantagraphics, 2022. New Copy ... $52.99 75.00
A massive look at the art behind the music of the great Sun Ra – a selection of images that are almost as important as his sonic creations – given that so many of his records were issued in very small pressings, and often had covers that were handmade! As collectors know, so many of ... read more Book
Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2021. New Copy ... $42.99 50.00
An incredible package – one that brings together four rare publications by Sun Ra – printed words that are every bit as groundbreaking as his music – and which together represent the farther-flung corners of his vast cultural enterprise! The set represents each of the texts in ... read more Book
Alien Buddha, 2022. New Copy ... $9.99
Compelling photographic portraits snapped during the pandemic – done at a distance, as most of the faces here were presented to the photographer via Facebook Messenger – but also given a very organic component, as the camera shot the images through a real-world filter – often a ... read more Book
Soul Jazz (UK), 2011. New Copy ... $35.99 39.99
A magnificent document of a very unique cultural moment – the voguing ballroom world of the New York scene at the end of the 80s! The book is filled with beautiful vintage photographs that really get at the complexity of the ballroom scene – the cross-gender, cross-class, cross-fashion ... read more Book
Laurence King (UK), 2003. New Copy ... $6.99 19.95
A smallish book, but one that's overflowing with great images – material from the 20s through the 60s that show a huge development in graphic design on the American scene – modern images for a modern generation – served up here in a host of vintage ads, magazine covers, posters, ... read more Book
Liveright, 2015. New Copy ... $4.99 27.95
A hefty book on the great Otis Redding – one of the best soul singers of all time, even though he left this planet all too soon! Redding's career on record was less than a decade long, but marked by a huge amount of work – not just time in the studio, with the legendary Stax Records ... read more Book
(Spine has a small remainder mark.)
Dale Zine, 2022. New Copy ... $14.99 19.99
A really cool idea for a book – one that's filled with hundreds of logos of vintage record labels – all in full color, and all presented without any other text at all! If you love flipping through rare records as much as us – especially 45s – you'll find plenty to love here ... read more Book
Laurence King, 2015. New Copy ... $12.99 40.00
A book on children's books that's as lovely as the topic that it covers – full color, and presented with these vivid pages that offer up all sorts of reproductions of the contents of the books themselves! The approach is wonderful – as the books covered stretch back to the start of the ... read more Book
Los Angeles County Museum Of Art/Delmonico, 2018. New Copy ... $8.99 60.00
A really cool book, and one that looks at the phenomenon of 3D in two different ways – hence the title! The book comes with two sets of viewers – one with thick, clear magnifying lenses, to be used with old stereographic photographs – the other with one red and one blue lens, to ... read more Book
Soul Jazz (UK), 2013/2022. New Copy ... $37.99 49.95
A really wonderful little book – way more than the usual record cover package, and instead a helpful tome that's full of historical details too! Punk 45 features life-sized replicas of a range of key punk 45s – pick sleeve singles and rare indie pressings, mixed with initial releases ... read more Book
Marion Boyars Publishers (UK), 2002. New Copy ... Just Sold Out!
A history of popular Brazilian music from Claus Schriener – a nice and very far reaching reference as well as a more personal view of the diverse, amazing wealth of great music to come from the country over many years! Schriener blends portraits of Brazil's most iconic musical figures as ... read more Book
Dey St, 2016. New Copy ... $4.99 27.99
A detailed look at one of the most famous rock and roll concerts of all time – the ill-fated Rolling Stones 1969 performance at Altamont race track, in which the group made the mistake of inviting Hells Angels to handle security! The Angels were bullies, and famously stabbed a concert-goer ... read more Book
(The spine has a small remainder mark.)
Powerhouse Books, 2013. New Copy ... $6.99 40.00
The title's no lie, as the book is exactly what is promised – a surprisingly cool photo book that documents the laundromats of New York City – conveniently divided up into different chapters for each borough, with the real address of each location as well! Every image has the same ... read more Book
Jihad/Blank Forms, 2022. New Copy ... $26.99 35.00
A beautiful recreation of this legendary and short-lived publication – a key voice from the black underground of the late 60s – and one that was a very different look at jazz than the mainstream world of Downbeat! Amiri Baraka was one of the founders and editors, and issued the ... read more Book
University Of Chicago, 2022. New Copy ... $27.99 32.50
Writer Paul Steinbeck has already given us a great book on the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – but this time around, he looks at the larger scene from which they came, the groundbreaking AACM moment in jazz, which emerged in Chicago in the late 60s! Steinbeck provides some cultural and historical ... read more Book
John Szwed —
Space Is The Place – The Lives Of Sun Ra ... Book Duke University Press, 1997. New Copy ... $17.99 24.99
A wonderful biography of one of the most colorful and significant figures in modern music. There's no need for us to go into the impact Sun Ra's music has made in the realm of the sort of records our pages are filled with – in spite of the mainstream musical audience's ignorance of his vast ... read more Book
Horace Tapscott —
Songs Of The Unsung – The Musical & Social Journey Of Horace Tapscott ... Book Duke University Press, 2001. New Copy ... $17.99 24.95
A long-overdue moment of exposure for pianist Horace Tapscott – one of the greatest creative forces in west coast jazz in the 60s, 70s, and 80s – but an artist whose genius was often kept away from the limelight! That hardly seemed to matter to Tapscott, though – as his legacy is ... read more Book
