Showing results by author "Spang-a-Lang Publishing" in All Categories

Jelly Roll Morton was the diamond-toothed pianist from New Orleans who claimed, loudly and often, to be the sole inventor of jazz. Critics dismissed him. Musicians mocked him. Historians forgot him. But Morton’s music—composed with ruthless precision and built on syncopated genius—never lied. Jelly Roll Morton: The Making and Unmaking of America's First Composer of Jazz is the definitive portrait of a man both glorified and ghosted by history. Drawing from over a hundred sources, including Library of Congress recordings, out-of-print interviews, court documents, and rare session logs,...

Before Gene Krupa, the drummer was background noise. After Krupa, he was the main event. "Krupa: The Man Who Made Drums Loud Enough to Matter" traces the seismic shift sparked by a restless Polish kid from Chicago’s South Side who turned percussion into performance and rhythm into cultural currency. From his early rebellion against Catholic conservatism to the invention of the modern drum set, Krupa's journey runs through mob-run speakeasies, the seismic swing of Benny Goodman’s orchestra, and the explosive 1938 Carnegie Hall concert that changed jazz forever. The book tracks Krupa’s ...

Step behind the curtain of jazz history with Behind the Beat: The Mel Lewis Approach to Invisible Time—a powerful, unsentimental deep dive into one of the most influential drummers in modern big band music. Mel Lewis never sought the spotlight. He didn’t dazzle with solos or compete for attention. He built his legend by doing what few drummers dared: playing with restraint, taste, and unshakable time. This book tells that story in full. From his humble beginnings in Rochester to his groundbreaking partnership with Thad Jones, Lewis’s journey shaped the very architecture of postwar big...

Stan Getz was more than the saxophone's answer to velvet. He was a man whose tone could make silence ache—and whose life left scorched earth behind every melody. Stan Getz is a hauntingly intimate portrait of one of jazz’s most seductive and self-destructive figures. Drawing from eyewitness accounts, out-of-print interviews, tour diaries, and unreleased session logs, this book strips away the mythology to reveal the man behind the horn: brilliant, broken, cruel, and human. From the Bronx tenements to Parisian clubs, from the cool jazz scenes of L.A. to the fevered studios of Rio, Getz ...

Before recordings, before microphones, before jazz had a name—there was Butler “String Beans” May. Standing Up Singing is a bold, lyrical excavation of one of America’s greatest unsung performers. At just 24 years old, May had already conquered Black vaudeville, redefined piano comedy, and ignited stages from New Orleans to Chicago. He was wild, brilliant, hilarious, and unrecorded. And then—he vanished. No grave. No obituary. Just whispers. Told through the voice of a weathered jazz sideman who saw it all, this book is a rhythm-driven, soul-deep biography that swings between ...

In Beyond the Ride: The Radical Timekeeping of Tony Williams, uncover the electrifying life and relentless genius of the drummer who redefined the pulse of modern jazz. From his early days as a prodigy in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood to his meteoric rise alongside Miles Davis at just seventeen, Tony Williams didn’t just play time—he shattered it and rewrote the rules. Through intimate, unsentimental prose and the voice of a weathered jazz sideman who lived through the scene, this book chronicles Williams’s seismic impact on jazz, fusion, and the wider musical world. Readers are ...

He played like a machine gun, lived like a prizefighter, and demanded perfection from everyone—especially himself. "Buddy Rich: The Life and Fury" is the definitive biography of the most explosive drummer in history. From child vaudeville prodigy to wartime Marine, from Tommy Dorsey's iron discipline to trading eights with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich carved a path through jazz history on sheer speed, rage, and technical dominance. This unflinching book dives deep into the contradictions of a man both revered and feared—an artist who transformed the drum solo into a ...

In Philly Joe Jones: The Swagger in the Swing, dive deep into the raw, rhythmic world of a jazz drummer who shaped modern music from behind the kit—without ever chasing the spotlight. From his gritty beginnings in working-class Philadelphia to his electrifying years with Miles Davis, Jones defined a style of drumming that was equal parts precision and danger. He wasn’t just playing time; he was rewriting it. This definitive biography captures the full arc of his life: his tap-dance roots, Army service, iconic recordings, addiction battles, exiles, revivals, and quiet death with no ...

Roy Haynes was never the loudest player onstage, but his silence could swing harder than most drummers’ fills. In Roy Haynes: Precision, Pulse, and the Avoidance of Excess, readers are taken deep into the rhythmic revolution of one of jazz’s most enduring architects. From backing Charlie Parker to subbing for Elvin Jones, Haynes’s career didn’t follow trends—it created them. This biography isn’t a puffed-up tribute or mythologized portrait. It’s a sharp, groove-driven exploration of a drummer who played across nine decades, rewrote the role of the ride cymbal, and refused to ...

Chasing the Eight Bar Rest isn’t a celebration—it’s a confession. It’s the sound of a sideman remembering the years he spent chasing two things: the perfect solo and the next fix. Set during the raw, unruly zenith of American jazz, this memoir takes you inside the rehearsal rooms, flophouses, emergency rooms, and after-hours clubs that defined a generation of players who burned fast and lived between sets, nodding off while the world clapped. This is the real jazz age—not the cleaned-up version. This is Bird strung out backstage. This is a trumpet wrapped in pawn tickets. This is ...

Philly Joe Jones was more than a drummer—he was the pulse that powered an entire movement. In Papa Jo: The Hi-Hat Prophet Who Swung the Future, dive deep into the explosive, elegant, and often volatile life of one of jazz’s most influential and underappreciated timekeepers. As the rhythmic engine of the Miles Davis Quintet and a defining architect of hard bop, Jones reshaped modern drumming with a signature blend of swagger, structure, and swing. From his tap-dance beginnings in Philadelphia’s street corners to the smoke-filled studios of New York, from addiction and exile to an ...

Ghost Notes: The Life and Death of Kansas City Frank unearths one of jazz history’s most mysterious and overlooked figures—Frank Melrose, the gifted sideman who played in the shadows of legends like Jelly Roll Morton, Billie Holiday, and Bix Beiderbecke. While his brothers built music empires, Frank chased down smoke-filled stages, cut bootleg recordings, and lived out a raw, itinerant life that ended violently and anonymously in 1941. Born into a family that shaped the early recording industry, Melrose rejected commerce for pure expression. Under the misleading pseudonym “Kansas City...

Art Blakey didn’t just play the drums—he commanded them like artillery. Hard Bop General: The Rhythm Doctrine of Art Blakey is a thunderous biography written in the voice of a 1950s Black jazz drummer who lived the life, not just watched it. This is not a sanitized museum piece. It’s a front-row seat to the chaos, genius, and ferocity of one of jazz’s most uncompromising bandleaders. From the smoke-filled clubs of Pittsburgh to the world stages of Paris and Tokyo, Blakey turned the drum kit into a pulpit and trained an army of jazz greats along the way. Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, ...

Louie Bellson wasn’t just a drummer—he was a system. A visionary timekeeper who rewrote the rules from the back of the bandstand, Bellson shaped the sound of American jazz from behind twin bass drums and a quietly radical mind. Precision and Power: The Drumming Gospel of Louie Bellson is the definitive biography of one of the most structurally important drummers of the 20th century—unheralded by the mainstream but revered by the masters. From his teenage design of the double bass drum kit to his groundbreaking work with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, Bellson fused precision, ...

Sid Catlett was never the loudest name in jazz, but he was the pulse behind the greatest to ever play it. Big Sid: The Bridge Between Beats is a deep, unsentimental dive into the life and legacy of one of jazz drumming’s most influential yet overlooked figures. From the streets of Indianapolis to Carnegie Hall, Sid Catlett shaped the language of swing and laid the rhythmic foundation for bebop—not by dominating the stage, but by making every band around him sound better. This richly detailed biography cuts through the clichés and mythologizing to reveal Catlett’s role behind Louis ...

Klook: The Blueprint of Bop is the definitive portrait of Kenny Clarke—the quiet revolutionary who redefined jazz drumming from the back of the bandstand. Known simply as “Klook,” Clarke wasn’t just another timekeeper. He was the architect behind bebop’s rhythmic evolution, shifting time from the bass drum to the ride cymbal, and dropping bass bombs that exploded the role of the drummer in modern music. From the smoky clubs of Pittsburgh to the after-hours crucible of Minton’s Playhouse, Clarke forged a new language alongside Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker....

Shelly Manne was never the loudest name in jazz, but he was the pulse behind its most essential transformations. From smoky Bronx clubs to the glinting studios of Hollywood, Shelly Manne: The Pulse of the Pacific uncovers the life and legacy of one of modern music’s most quietly revolutionary drummers. This definitive biography explores how Manne redefined what it meant to be a jazz drummer—anchoring bold experiments in West Coast jazz while becoming an invisible architect behind countless film scores, from The Pink Panther to Peter Gunn. Backed by Miles, Monk, and Kenton, and revered ...