Early Music History

Best-selling author and Sundance award-winning director Questlove harnesses his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and his deep curiosity about history to examine America over the past 50 years. Choosing one essential track from each year, Questlove unpacks each song’s significance, revealing the pivotal role that American music plays around issues of race, gender, politics, and identity.

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,...

There have been few times in modern music history that an instant shift in how we listen to - and view - music has occurred. However, the launch of MTV on August 1, 1981, was certainly one such occurrence. Instantly, music fans were now “listening with their eyes” rather than relying solely on their ears.

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 ...

Ragtime Music History: The Complete Guide to the Origins, Legacy, and Essential Recordings of America’s First Popular Music is your ultimate deep dive into one of the most influential musical genres in American culture. From its syncopated origins in African American communities to its peak in the saloons, parlors, and vaudeville stages of the early 20th century, this beautifully written guide explores the evolution, key figures, cultural impact, and lasting legacy of ragtime. Discover the stories of Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Eubie Blake; learn how ragtime shaped early jazz, inspired...

For more than seven decades, John Mayall stood at the crossroads where American blues met British imagination. Bluesbreaker — John Mayall and the Birth of British Blues traces his extraordinary life from postwar Manchester to the world’s stages, revealing how one quiet craftsman became the mentor behind a generation of legends. Drawing on archival research, first-hand accounts, and meticulous chronology, this definitive biography follows Mayall’s path from a record-collecting art student to the creator of the Bluesbreakers, the band that launched Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick ...

Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles. George Martin's working-class childhood and musical influences profoundly shaped his early career in the BBC's Classical Music department and as head of the EMI Group's Parlophone Records. Out of them flowed the genius behind his seven years producing the Beatles' incredible body of work, including such albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road.

Don Redman shaped the sound of American jazz long before it had a name. From his small-town beginnings in West Virginia to his revolutionary work with Fletcher Henderson, Redman transformed improvisation into design and collective energy into musical architecture. His charts for Louis Armstrong, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and his own orchestra set the standard for swing—structured yet alive, intelligent yet joyful. Drawing on archival research, historical recordings, and the voices of his peers, Don Redman: Jazz’s First Great Arranger reveals how one man’s precision and imagination ...

You know all about Son House and Muddy Waters, but have you ever heard of Eraserhead Morgan? Lester “Proudfoot” Jackson? Hootin’ Jack Wilson? Probably not, because technically they never existed. The fact that they’re imaginary does not mean that their stories aren’t worth sharing. Obscure Early Bluesmen (Who Never Existed) helps to fill in the gaps left by music historians who refuse to acknowledge the important role played by fictional performers. Inside this book, you’ll find accounts of seventeen entertainers who, had they existed, may very well have had some impact on ...

Written by a leading authority and artist of the historical transverse flute, The Notation Is Not the Music offers invaluable insight into the issues of historically informed performance and the parameters - and limitations - of notation-dependent performance. As Barthold Kuijken illustrates, performers of historical music should consider what is written on the page as a mere steppingstone for performance.

This is the fascinating story of music. How it started with a song and became one of our most beloved arts. Learn how early composers added modal rhythm to religious chants and turned them into something greater. Discover how the printing press standardized music and helped it spread across the globe. Witness the birth of musical theater, opera, and classical music and the explosion of popular freeform music such as rhapsodies and preludes.

Inspired By Beauty: A Deep Dive into the Origins of America the Beautiful Hi there! Get ready to embark on a fascinating journey through the story of a beloved American anthem, America the Beautiful, by schoolmarm Katherine Lee Bates. Our guide, William Clark, a fellow poet and songwriter, has prepared an exciting exploration into the origins of this cherished song. Curious about the inspiration behind America the Beautiful? Join Clark as he delves into the intriguing idea that Katherine Lee Bates, the lyricist, might have borrowed from an English poet during her student days at Oxford in ...

Barrington saw the eight-year-old Mozart perform in London. He then met with Mozart and his family, and he recounts that meeting, describing Mozart's skill at sight-reading and improvisatory composition demonstrated at the meeting, as well as describing elements of the young composer's personality. He also conveys the results of his research into Mozart's other early activities and compares Mozart's precocious talents to other well-known child prodigies of his era.