Throughout the month of March, stop by the John T. Richardson Library to browse books and vinyl that explore the sounds and stories of jazz. A new display on the 1st floor highlights jazz biographies, new jazz releases on vinyl, and recent publications about the history and future of jazz from the DePaul University Library’s collection.
Biographies of artists from Betty Carter to Billy Strayhorn to Thelonious Monk explore jazz history, while the book The New Face of Jazz: An Intimate Look at Today’s Living Legends and the Artists of Tomorrow celebrates current voices in jazz. You may already know that Chicago has a rich jazz legacy, but books about the history of jazz in Indianapolis, St. Louis, the Twin Cities, and Detroit reveal broader Midwest connections. Love to dive deep into classic jazz recordings? The series Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz offers detailed historical, cultural and technical analysis of albums, like Dave Brubeck’s Time Out or The Recordings of Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy.
Here are a few more featured items from this month’s display:
Portrait by Samara Joy
Jazz singer Samara Joy released her debut album in 2021 and since then has been named Best New Artist by JazzTimes, received five Grammy Awards, and topped the Billboard Jazz Albums charts. Portrait is a collection of standards that have been innovatively arranged by members of her touring band, along with original compositions and lyrics by Joy and band members. They recorded in the studio, where the superstar singer’s incredible range, energy, and vocal power are on full display. Check out our copy of Portrait on vinyl, or join Samara Joy and her band in the studio with this official music video for “You Stepped Out of a Dream.”
Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards
Pulitzer Prize-winning saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill epitomizes the Chicago music scene of the 1960s and beyond. In Easily Slips Into Another World, Threadgill shares his life experiences from serving in the Vietnam War to leading and composing for his own innovative jazz ensembles, his inspirations and role models from Stravinsky to Ornette Coleman, and tales from his travels around the world from Chicago to Venezuela, the Netherlands, and India. Threadgill also describes his involvement as an original member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the jazz and experimental music collective founded on Chicago’s South Side in 1965. Listen to the experimental sounds of Air Time from Threadgill’s improvisational collective Air or Everybodys Mouth’s a Book, his first Pi release featuring eight original compositions, both available to stream along with other albums in Music Online: Jazz Music Library.
Deep Cuts by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark
Trumpeter, big band arranger, and DePaul’s own School of Music faculty member Joe Clark co-authored the comics in this collection with Kyle Higgins and an all-star cast of illustrators. Each story in Deep Cuts is set during a different period of jazz history from 1917 New Orleans to 1977 Los Angeles and tells stories of fictional musicians navigating American culture, personal struggles, and the music industry. Revel in the stories of jazz history in this Eisner Award-nominated anthology, while you enjoy the sounds of Joe Clark’s tune “I’m Just Here for the Music” from Volume 2 of Deep Cuts set in 1928 Chicago.