Absolutely the quintessential book on Jazz, and the photographs are unbelievable. I loved this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing. If you love Jazz, you'll love this book. And if you don't love Jazz, you'll still love this book. It is absolutely gorgeous!!

This book is mostly a photography book of Jazz Musicians but there are also lots of wonderful stories. Many of the musicians will be familiar to even a casual fan. The photographs really capture the mystery of the musicians. I really enjoyed reading about the musicians as well about photographs. The photographer did a really good job of setting the time and place for the photographs. This book will make a great gift. Enjoy

As you would expect with this title, there’s a LOT of black and white photos of men—and two women—with instruments, along with some biographic material on each. They’re mostly grainy and dark, and if this was strictly a photography book it wouldn’t be very impressive. As history, however, it works better.
My most enjoyable chapter was on jazz violins. Also the drummers. But it takes someone who is a lot more of a jazz fan than I to appreciate this to its fullest.

The combination of Veryl Oakland‘s unique, personal photographs of jazz greats and the stories of how those photos came about elevates this book far above being the average collection of photos. In addition to countless excellent performance shots, there are some truly unique posed photos as well.. Another strength is the mix of artists, from household names, to individuals surely unknown to the average Joe.
The copy I read was digital from NetGalley, but this book needs to be enjoyed as a full-sized, physical, hardcover copy

"So, this is the thrust of my book, an attempt to personalize— through both the lens and the pen—some of the world's greatest creators of modern music. To pay my respects to them. And to honor them." I share with the author the experience of suddenly stumbling upon a jazz radio station and having an amazing new world open for me. In the 1960s he started hanging out with his camera at jazz festivals and other venues. He also photographed the musicians in their homes. In each case the photos were spontaneous and no flashbulbs were used. The result was a collection of gorgeous black and white photographs many of which have never been published before. The pictures are organized by artist and each group of photos is accompanied by a brief description of the photo shoot and some biographical information.

While I like jazz I'm not all that well-informed about it. Some of the artists included in the book are so famous that even I had heard of them, like Dexter Gordon, Phil Woods, Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk and Wynton Marsalis. However, the real treat for me was the introduction to artists with whom I was not familiar. I turned the book into my own little jazz tutorial. I discovered that I could ask my Amazon Echo to play songs by these artists, for example Roland Kirk (who was great, by the way), so I had musical accompaniment to my reading. I highly recommend this approach. From the introduction by Quincy Jones: "This timeless treasure serves as a window into the past to illuminate our future, both musically and culturally..."

I have a PDF of the book and I found it somewhat challenging to read in that format, however the hardcover of this book would be a real pleasure to own. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book goes to the Jazz Foundation of America which provides jazz and blues musicians with assistance.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.