Alyn Shipton

Introduces the keyboard family of instruments, electronic music, and the role of the conductor.

Text and pictures introduce the brass family of instruments, such as trumpets, trombones, tubas, and their relatives.

Text and pictures introduce the woodwind family of instruments, such as flutes, saxophones, oboes, bassoons, and their relatives.

Few musical genres inspire the passionate devotion of jazz. Its mystique goes far beyond the melodies and rhythms, with its key players and singers discussed by aficionados with a respect that borders on reverence. Some books on jazz offer little more than theory or dry facts, thereby relinquishing the 'essence' of the music. This book is different. One of the most influential and internationally known writers on the subject describes, through vivid...

"I began listening to music before I could walk. Our family gramophone was the old-fashioned kind that played a stack of 78 rpm records. The first ran for around three and a half minutes, then another dropped onto the turntable, and so on. Five discs gave my mother some uninterrupted time for housework, while I sat listening to the music. Then I was quite happy to do the same thing all over again. And again. When my father came home from his final...