Historically Significant Jazz Recordings:

Check out www.themusicresource.com.  Follow the links to the 100 Historically Significant Recordings page.  This lists many of the quintessential jazz recordings - mostly from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Book Reviews:

Becoming Billie Holiday

Author:  Carole Boston Weatherford

Artwork:  Floyd Cooper

Publisher and date:  Wordsong, 2008

Reviewed by John Erisman, IJS webmaster, January 2009

If you enjoy reading about jazz and its history, you can’t go wrong with this recently-released story of Billie Holiday.  Billie is sure to be on any jazz-lover’s short list of influential jazz vocalists for her unique and distinctive style and interpretations of standards.

This book provides a fascinating and eminently-readable look at Billie’s life, and lets us in on the emotional struggles as she fights against societal racism, how she breaks into the world of jazz and achieves stardom, and how she deals with her personal demons.  It is written (and marvelously illustrated, by the way) in the author's unique free-verse poetic style.

You can get details and ordering information at http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Billie-Holiday-Carole-Weatherford/dp/159078507X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233943749&sr=1-1