recommended reading

Bebop: The Music and Its Players by Tom Owen

Early Jazz: Its Roots and Early Development by Gunther Schuller  

Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song by Judith Tick

Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker by Chuck Haddix

The Ellington Century by David Schiff   

Good Morning Blues: the Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray

Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965 by David H. Rosenthal

The History of the Blues by Francis Davis 

The History of Jazz by Ted Gioia

John Coltrane: His Life and Music by Lewis Porter

Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young by Douglas H. Daniels

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu

Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus by Gene Santoro 

Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr

Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life by John Litweiler

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout

Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History by Edward A. Berlin

Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy

Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams by Tammy L. Kernodle

The Swing Era by Gunther Schuller 

Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond by Doug Ramsey   

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley

Visions of Jazz: The First Century by Gary Giddins