Each of this season’s five books has been carefully selected by the book club’s facilitator, Dr. Gerald Early, Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies, Director of the Center for Humanities, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Washington University. The recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award and a General Electric Foundation Award, Early is currently Editor of The Common Reader, a journal of Washington University.
Jazz St. Louis Book Club meets on select dates at Nancy’s Jazz Lounge. Located inside Jazz St. Louis adjacent to the Bistro, Nancy’s Jazz Lounge is a no-reservations-needed bar and lounge.
November 11, 2024 | The Battle of the Five Spot: Ornette Coleman and the New York Jazz Field by David Lee
The Battle of the Five Spot is an engaging look at a milestone of jazz history. When California saxophonist Ornette Coleman brought his quartet to New York’s Five Spot Café, the music ignited a storm of controversy, and spurred a struggle between old and new styles of jazz that has never quite subsided. David Lee explores the debate around Coleman’s innovation in terms of its relationships to social change and issues of power within arts communities.
December 9, 2024 | King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era by Edward A. Berlin
This new and expanded edition of the 1994 King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era is more than a third larger than the first and goes far beyond the original publication in uncovering new details of the composer’s life and insights into his music. It explores Joplin’s early, pre-ragtime career as a quartet singer, a period of his life that was previously unknown. The book also surveys the nature of ragtime before Joplin entered the ragtime scene and how he changed the style.
February 10, 2025 | Sissieretta Jones: “The Greatest Singer of Her Race,” 1868-1933 by Maureen D. Lee
Sissieretta Jones: “The Greatest Singer of Her Race,” 1868-1933 provides a comprehensive, moving portrait of Jones and a vivid overview of the exciting world in which she performed. Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones was a distinguished African American soprano during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jones served as a role model for other African American women as she confronted the social difficulties African American performers endured during the rise of Jim Crow segregation.
March 10, 2025 | Lee Morgan: His Life, Music, and Culture by Tom Perchard
This is the first biography of the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938-72). This book draws on many original interviews with Morgan’s colleagues and friends, as well as extensive archival research and critical engagement with the music itself. By his early twenties Morgan had played on four continents and dozens of albums. While what should have been Morgan’s most successful years were hampered by a heroin addiction, the ascendant black liberation movement of the late sixties gave the musician a new, political impulse, and he returned to the jazz scene to become a vociferous campaigner for black musicians’ rights and representation.
April 14, 2025 | Upright Bass: the Musical Life and Legacy of Jamil Nasser by Muneer Nasser
In this informative as-told-to memoir, Nasser highlights the musical career of his father, jazz bassist Jamil Nasser (1932–2010). Nasser spent nearly seven years interviewing his father and many of his fellow musicians and friends, and he weaves those conversations into a narrative dotted with articles and music reviews of the time. Upright Bass chronicles his evolution from a young bassist on Beale Street, the musical epicenter of Memphis, to a top-flight bassist on the New York jazz scene.
May 12, 2025 | The International Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Ladies Jazz Band from Piney Woods Country Life School by D. Antoinette Handy
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a popular women’s jazz band of the 1940s, has earned a reputation as the ‘best all-women’s swing band ever to perform.’ This revised and updated edition provides fascinating reading for jazz enthusiasts and students of American history, music, and women’s history. It is the most comprehensive and objective history of the band to date. Handy documents all sides of the band’s controversial story and interviews members of the band. She updates the careers of band members who remained in the music business. Accompanied by an extensive bibliography and many photographs.
While the books can be purchased anywhere, the official retail partner of the book club is Left Bank Books (LBB). The books will be offered at a 20% discount through LBB the month before and the month of the meeting, unless otherwise noted. All books can be purchased at their Central West End Location or on the LBB website.
Jazz St. Louis Book Club is of no cost to you and open to anyone willing to show up, participate, and have a good time! Light refreshments will be provided at the conclusion of each book club meeting. While we encourage everyone to participate each month, there is no requirement that you commit to read each book and attend all the club meetings. Questions can be emailed to Adaron “Pops” Jackson, Director of Education and Community Engagement, at [email protected].