Jazzy Gift Ideas
Welcome back to George’s Jazz Nook!
Are you looking for a special gift for music lovers in your life? Our Board President, George Blake, has checked out some of the area’s local bookstores to find rare gems for the holiday season!
As we swing into the holiday season, our friends at local bookstores have some offerings to prepare us all for a jazzy December.
At Mac’s Backs, you can find local author Annie Zaleski’s This Is Christmas, Song by Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits. Zaleski presents an eclectic perspective that runs the gambit on Christmas from solemn to zany. The book offers insight about Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra; the book also offers insight into a 1953 hit sung by a ten-year-old about a hippopotamus.
Additionally, Mac’s is selling Dilla Time. This book, which follows the career and aesthetic of hip-hop pioneer Jay Dilla, presents accessible musicological analysis of rhythm. It also makes connections to pianist Robert Glasper’s musical path and Errol Garner playing behind the pulse on “Penthouse Serenade.”
Vincent Van Gogh once said that bookstores "remind me that there are good things in this world.”
Loganberry is offering a discount code: JAZZ24. CJO fans can use this to get 10% off any order before December 31, 2024.
If you’re looking for common ground with that punk rock fan in your life, you might consider: Weird Music That Goes on Forever: A Punk’s Guide to Loving Jazz.
For cinephiles, check out Jazz on Film. Although the book is a bit dated, it still serves as a valuable reference for jazz on the silver screen.
Hexagon Books, a bookstore specializing in world literature, offers fiction that illuminate the global impact of jazz in general – and Charlie Parker in particular. One example is The Pursuer by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, about the popularity of Bebop in Paris and bohemian life in general. Cortázar was a big jazz fan and the main character in his story is based on Charlie Parker. Additionally, Hexagon includes a number of a books by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Murakami ran a jazz bar in Tokyo before becoming a writer. His short-story collection First Person Singular features a story centering on a fictional album by Charlie Parker.
Do you have any jazzy reading recommendations? Let us know!
Looking for something else? Don’t forget to check out the CJO online shop for tees, sweatshirts, and our latest CD!
CJO “Ho-ho-ho-daddy-O” ornament
Discover Jazz in the Land tee
Stay tuned for the next installment of George’s Jazz Nook! Until then, be well.