Ocean State Libraries

If not for a stint in reform school, young Louis Armstrong might never have become a musician. It was a teacher at the Colored Waifs Home who gave him a cornet, promoted him to band leader, and saw talent in the tough kid from the even tougher New Orleans neighborhood called Storyville. But it was Louis Armstrong's own passion and genius that pushed jazz into new and exciting realms with his amazing, improvisational trumpet playing. His seventy-year...

"A biography of African American musician Melba Doretta Liston, a virtuoso musician who played the trombone and composed and arranged music for many of the great jazz musicians of the twentieth century. Includes afterword, discography, and sources"--

"J is for Jazz is a riotous romp through the alphabet featuring the history and living creativity of this special music!"--

"Ella Fitzgerald went from a poor girl living on the streets to the one of the greatest Jazz singers of her time and ours. This title will take readers through the grand life of Ella and show them that nothing can hold you back if you have a dream and determination. Complete with a timeline and wonderful historical photographs"--Publisher's website.

"A picture book biography of Mary Lou Williams, an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and is an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color"--

"Presents information about Ella Fitzgerald, from her youth mired in tragedy to her rise to stardom as one of the top jazz singers of all time." --