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.

A biography of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald featuring full-page color illustrations. Describes her early life as a poor orphan and how she became a singing star.

A one-hundredth birthday tribute to the late jazz artist explores his observations about humanity's discriminatory and violent behaviors as well as his efforts to forge world peace through music with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

A simple biography of the great jazz musician, Benny Goodman, and how his extraordinary musical ability was originally encouraged by his immigrant father.