Black Music

By: LeRoi Jones

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Black Music is an audiobook about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and others. It is composed of essays, reviews, interviews, liner notes, musical analyses, and personal impressions from 1959-1967. Also includes Amiri Baraka's reflections in a 2009 interview with Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly. LeRoi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka) is the author of numerous books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He was named Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2002 to 2004 by the New Jersey Commission on Humanities. His most recent book, Tales of the Out & the Gone (Akashic Books, 2007), was a New York Times Editors' Choice and winner of a PEN/Beyond Margins Award. He lives in Newark, New Jersey.

©2010 LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka (P)2014 Audible Inc.

A Must Read for Black Creatives and Jazz Lovers Alike

If you’re a Black musician, or any Black creative serious about expressing our culture in a healthy way, you must read this book. It is a great guide to inform how you approach your work. I’ve also read and listened to “Blues People,” and I’d strongly suggest you pick that one up too. For serious Black creatives, both of these are imperative.

Or, if you’re a fan of jazz music, or just curious about the history of jazz and the contributions Black creators made to American music and what we consider American creative and artistic culture, this is a great read too.

At its core, this book is about how American music became American 🤔 DEEP!!!