Rocking and Rolling Picture Book Biographies

This lyrical picture-book biography of John Coltrane focuses on his childhood and how he interpreted sounds before he made his music.

Celebrates the 1936 debut of the Benny Goodman quartet with Teddy Wilson in Chicago, considered to be the first widely seen integrated jazz performance.

A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician and composer who, along with his orchestra, created music that was beyond category.

Ever since she was a young girl, Lil Hardin played music with a beat. She jammed at home, at church, and even at her first job in a music store. At a time when women's only place in jazz was at the microphone, Lil earned a spot playing piano in Chicago's hottest band.

Elizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere from the sunny...

The story of the young Art Tatum, who became one of the all-time greats of jazz piano.

As a young girl growing up in Havana, Celia Cruz is determined to become a successful salsa singer. Relying on the help and support of her parents, teachers, and friends, Celia works her way to the top, eventually making it big by becoming the lead singer in a famous Cuban band.

Introduces the musical style of jazz known as be bop as played by legendary African-American saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Louis Armstrong has been called the most important improviser in the history of jazz. Although his New Orleans neighborhood was poor in nearly everything else, it was rich in superb music. Young Louis took it all in, especially the cornet blowing of Joe "King" Oliver. But after a run in with the police, 11-year-old Louis was sent away to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys where he became a disciplined musician in the school's revered marching band....