Books — Recently Added

A beautiful look at the American love of the exotic –a book that's overflowing with full color-images and a wealth of tiki-styled history! This book is way more than just another fluff piece on postwar tiki culture – and instead digs deep into the US fascination with Pacific culture ... Book

The first 5 issues of the legendary Wax Poetics – the one-and-only genius publication dedicated to the art of crate-digging, aka funky soul & hip hop vinyl archeology – collected in this massive hardcover tome! Anthology Vol 1 tackles the essential chore of bringing those earliest ... Book

A really useful little book – as long as you don't pay attention to the prices! Instead, think of this one as a discography of records worth collecting – hundreds of pages, with tens of thousands of listings – all with release dates, labels, and catalog numbers! In the pre-Discog ... Book

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 ... Book

If you liked the first volume of this essential book, you'll love this revised edition – because it's almost 3 times bigger, and stuffed with great new features! The book's a lifetime labor of love for Freddy Fresh – an extensive discography that's got to be the most definitive book on ... Book

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 ... Book

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 ... Book

A really cool look at albums that never happened – planned projects that were almost produced, but which fell apart at some point in the creative process – leading to a surprisingly large legacy of lost albums by some of rock music's biggest stars! Sure, everyone knows a few of these ... Book

The story of the Wu-Tang Clan has been told often over the years – but this time around, it's told by one of the group's founding members – Lamont "U-God" Hawkins, who blends his own personal journey from the streets of Brooklyn with the rise of one of the most important hip ... Book

A well-done monograph for a show that ran at the University Of Maryland – and one that stands well enough on its own, given the amount of history and information included with the images! The book follows the spirit of the exhibition – and not only includes a timeline of creative ... Book

Ralph J Gleason might just be one of the coolest cats to ever write about music – a key part of the San Francisco scene during the postwar years – where his talents helped illuminate both the worlds of art and music during the beat generation – then really helped shine a spotlight ... Book

A refreshing look at jazz in the early years of the 21st Century – served up by Nate Chinen, who spent most of that time working as a jazz critic for the New York Times, and contributing to NPR! Chinen's been at the grass roots level, and does a great job here of noting key changes in the ... Book

Robbie Robertson has always spoken volumes with his guitar, but this well-written memoir reveals him to be quite a man of letters, too – over the course of nearly 500 pages that chart Robertson's long musical career – from early work with Ronnie Hawkins, to his time with Bob Dylan, and ... Book

Images of the Caribbean in many styles – from the striking color image on the front, to vintage black and white shots throughout the book – all at a level that really illuminates the criss-crossing cultures of the island scene! The book's got a wonderfully sharp sensibility – as ... Book

Not the first book on the groundbreaking comedy of the National Lampoon – but a very detailed document of the fantastic story of the magazine – a publication that not only shaped our sensibilities in the 70s, but also had a pretty big impact on radio, recording, and film as well! The ... Book

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 ... Book

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 ... Book

The story of one of greatest soul singers of all time, and also one who is living a fascinating journey, to say the very least – the great Al Green! The Arkansas born, Memphis soul legend tells his story to music writer Davin Seay, from his years reinventing southern soul music through his ... Book

A beautiful portrait of one of the most important jazz clubs on the west coast scene of the 70s – the legendary Keystone Korner, a name you might recognize from the dozens of great albums that were recorded at the venue! The book has a very cool approach – in that it lets the many ... Book

Dig jazz on the screen? Here's a great book to help you spend your jazz video dollars wisely – filled with reviews by All Music Guide essential writer Scott Yanow! Reviews are Yanow's life, and he really does a great job here of summing up jazz performances both on music-specific videos and ... Book