Introduzione alle tecniche compositive del jazz – Libri - Scuola di ...

Claudio Vedovati 

Introduzione alle tecniche compositive del jazz – Libri 

In questa bibliografia ho indicato i testi che possono aiutare a 

studiare musicologicamente il jazz e la sua storia. La lista è lunga, 

non per disorientare nella scelta, ma per dare visibilità alla 

molteplicità degli approcci e fornire contemporaneamente una vaga 

idea di un campo di studi in continua evoluzione. Mancano le 

raccolte di testimonianze, le biografie, le autobiografie, le guide ai 

repertori, facilmente rintracciabili in altre bibliografie. 

La ricerca musicologica non è documentata solo sui libri. Anzi lo è 

solo parzialmente. Molte cose si trovano in forma di tesi 

universitaria o come saggi su riviste musicologiche specializzate: ad 

esempio, Journal of Jazz Studies (poi Annual Review of Jazz 

Studies); il Jazzforschung/Jazz Research; Black Music Research 

Journal. Le tesi universitarie sono riproducibili attraverso il servizio 

dell’UMI (University Microfilms International), mentre le riviste si 

possono consultare in alcune biblioteche universitarie italiane (ad 

esempio, quella del DAMS di Bologna). Impossibile accennare ad 

articoli usciti su riviste d’attualità musicale: rimando qui, senza 

ulteriori specificazioni, ai brevi saggi di analisi musicale di Marcello 

Piras e di Stefano Zenni pubblicati nella rubrica “Dentro le note” di 

Musica Jazz, nel corso degli anni Ottanta e Novanta. Per quanto 

riguarda le fonti musicali scritte – partiture, trascrizioni, 

orchestrazioni, ecc. – ho scelto solo alcuni lavori noti ed “esemplari”. 

Introduzione alle tecniche compositive del jazz


L’editoria italiana non è stata generosa con il jazz. La produzione 

nostrana è di bassa qualità, tranne le dovute eccezioni. Dall’estero si 

traducono preferibilmente i volumi più accattivanti dal punto di 

vista letterario, quasi sempre biografie ed autobiografie di musicisti 

più che noti. Non si traducono invece le storie del jazz, gli studi 

musicologici, le monografie critiche, i testi di teoria e di didattica, gli 

strumenti di ricerca e di consultazione come le enciclopedie, i 

dizionari, le bibliografie e le discografie. 

Non è stato sempre così. La critica italiana ha prodotto opere di 

qualità, frutto di conoscenze di prima mano: tra queste Il jazz di 

Arrigo Polillo. Negli anni Cinquanta era stata tradotta la storia del 

jazz di Marshall Stearn, negli anni Sessanta quella di Barry Ulanov e 

alla fine dello stesso decennio Einaudi proponeva Il popolo del 

blues di LeRoy Jones. A questi anni – che sono gli anni di maggiore 

visibilità della questione razziale negli Stati Uniti come delle 

movimenti terzomondisti – risale anche l’ultima grande ondata di 

traduzioni dedicate alla storia afroamericana: Roger Bastide, Eric 

Williams, Gilberto Freyre, David Brion Davis, Comer Vann 

Woodward, C.R.L. James, Eugene D. Genovese, Miguel Barnet, ecc. 

Poi, a partire dalla metà degli anni Settanta, il vuoto. Le eccezioni si 

contano sulle dita di una mano: in ambito jazzistico, i lavori di 

Gunther Schuller sul jazz classico e sullo swing certosinamente 

curati da Marcello Piras e un’edizione deludente di Stompin’ the 

Blues di Albert Murray. 

Recentemente si sono riaccese le luci sulla letteratura 

afroamericana, sulla spinta di alcuni premi Nobel (Derek Walcott, 

Introduzione alle tecniche compositive del jazz 2


Toni Morrison) e dell’influenza dei postcolonial studies anche nelle 

università italiane. 



Storie generali del jazz 

Rudi Blesh, Shining Trumpets: A History of Jazz (New York: Knopf 1976) 

James Lincoln Collier, The Making of Jazz: A Comprehensive History 

(Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co. 1978) 

Mervin Cooker-David Horn (edited by), The Cambridge Companion to 

Jazz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2003) 

Will Friedward, Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to 

Bebop and Beyond (New York: Scribners & Sons 1990) 

Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press 

1997) 

Mark Gridley, Jazz Style: History and Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 

Prentice-Hall 1978) 

Nat Hentoff-Albert J. McCarthy (edited by), Jazz: New Perspectives on 

the History of Jazz (New York: Rinehart & Co. 1959) 

LeRoy Jones, Blues People (New York: William Morrow 1967) [trad. it.: 

Il popolo del blues, Torino: Einaudi 1968] 

Bill Kirchner (edited by), The Oxford Companion to Jazz (New York: 

Oxford University Press 2000) 

Paul Oliver-Max Harrison-William Bolcom, The New Grove Gospel, 

Blues and Jazz (London, Macmillan 1986) 

Arrigo Polillo, Jazz (Milano: Mondadori 1975) 

Lewis Porter-Michael Ullman, Jazz: From its Origins to the Present 

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall 1993) 

Frederick Jr. Ramsey-Charles Edward Smith, Jazzmen (New York: 

Limelight 1939) 

Nat Shapiro-Nat Hentoff (edited by), The Jazz Makers: Essays on the 

Greats of Jazz (New York: Da Capo Press 1979) 

Nat Shapiro-Nat Hentoff (edited by), Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya (New York: 

Dover 1966) 

Alyn Shipton, A New History of Jazz (London: Continuum 2001) 

Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History (New York: 

W.W. Norton 1997) 

Marshall Stearns, The Story of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press 

1956) [trad. it.: La storia del jazz, Milano: Edizioni Librerie Italiane 

1957] 

Frank Tirro, Jazz: A History (New York: W.W. Norton 1977) 



Barry Ulanov, A History of Jazz in America (New York: Viking Press 

1952) [trad. it.: Storia del jazz in America, Torino: Einaudi 1965] 

Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition (New York: Oxford University 

Press 1970) 

Martin Williams (edited by), The Art of Jazz: Essays on the Nature and 

Development of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press 1959) 

Strumenti di ricerca e di consultazione 

Gary Carner, Jazz Performers: An Annotated Bibliography of Biographical 

Materials (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1990) 

Philippe Carles-André Clergeat-Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du 

jazz (Paris: Laffont 1994) [trad. it.: Dizionario di Jazz, Roma: Curcio 

1989] 

Mervyn Cooke, The Chronicle of Jazz Years by Years (London: Thames 

and Hudson 1997) 

Samuel A. Floyd (edited by), International Dictionary of Black Composers, 

2 vols. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers 1999) 

John Gray, Fire Music: A Bibliography of the New Jazz 1959-1990 

(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1991) 

Todd S. Jenkins, Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia, 2 vols. 

(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 2004) 

Barry Kernfeld (edited by), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2 vols. 

(London: Macmillan 2001) 

Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography, CD-ROM version 4.4 (West 

Vancouver: Lord Music Reference 2004) 

Brian Rust, Jazz Records, 1897-1942, 2 vols. (Chigwell, Essex: Storyville 

1982) 

Eddie S. Meadows, Jazz Reference and Research Materials: A Selected and 

Annotated Bibliography (New York: Garland 1981) 

Carl Gregor Herzog zu Mecklenburg, International Bibliography of Jazz 

Books, 2 vols. (Baden-Baden: Verlag Valentin Koerner 1983-1988) 

La critica jazzistica 

Andrew Clark (edited by), Riffs and Choruses: A New Jazz Anthology 

(London: Continuum 2001) 



Scott DeVeaux, “Constructing the Jazz Tradition” [1991] reprinted in 

Robert G. O'Meally (edited by), The Jazz Cadence of American Culture 

(New York: Columbia University Press 1998) [trad. it.: “Creare la 

tradizione: introduzione alla storiografia jazz”, in Maurizio Franco 

(a cura di), Il jazz fra passato e futuro (Lucca: LIM 2001)] 

Krin Gabbard, “The Jazz Canon and it’s Consequences” (Annual 

Review of Jazz Studies, 5/1993) [anche in: Krin Gabbard (edited by), 

Jazz Among the Discourses (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press 

1995)] 

John Gennari, "Jazz Criticism: Its Development and Ideologies" (Black 

American Literature Forum, 25/3, Fall 1991) 

Robert Gottlieb (edited by), Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, 

Reportage, and Criticism from 1917 to Now (New York: Pantheon 

Books 1996) 

Ingrid Monson, "The Problem with White Hipness: Race, Gender, and 

Cultural Conceptions in Jazz Historical Discourse" (Journal of 

American Musicological Society, 48/3, Fall 1995) 

Eric Porter, What is this Thing Called Jazz? African American Musicians as 

Artists, Critics, and Activists (Berkeley, Ca.: University of California 

Press 2002) 

Lewis Porter (edited by), Jazz: A Century of Change. Readings and New 

Essays (New York: Schirmer 1997) 

Robert Walser (edited by), Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History (New 

York: Oxford University Press 1999) 

Estetica e sociologia del jazz 

Gena Dagel Caponi (edited by), Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin', and Slam 

Dunking: A Reader in African American Expresive Culture (Anherst: 

University of Massachusetts Press 1999) 

Samule A. Floyd, “Ring Shout! Literary Studies, Historical Studies and 

Black Music Inquiry” (Black Music Research Journal, vol.11, no. 2, 

Fall 1999) 

Samuel A. Floyd, The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from 

Africa to the Unites States (New York: Oxford University Press 1995) 

Krin Gabbard (edited by), Jazz Among the Discourses (Durham, N.C.: 

Duke University Press 1995) 



Nicholas Gebhardt, Going for Jazz: Musical Practices And American 

Ideology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) 

Charley Gerard, Jazz in Black and White: Race Culture, and Identity in the 

Jazz Community (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1998) 

Ted Gioia, The Imperfect Art: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture 

(New York: Oxford University Press 1988) 

Travis A. Jackson, “Jazz Performance as Ritual: The Blues Aesthetic 

and the African Diaspora”, in Ingrid Monson (edited by), The African 

Diaspora: A Musical Perspective (New York: Garland 2000) 

Franz Kofsky, Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the Historical & 

Political Economy of Jazz (New York: Pathfinder 1998) 

Neil Leonard, Jazz and the White Americans: The Acceptance of a New Art 

Form (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1962) 

Graham Lock, Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in 

the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton (Durham, 

N.C.: Duke University Press 1999) 

Alan Lomax, "The Homogeneity of African-Afro-American Musical 

Style", in Norman E. Whitten-John F. Szwed (edited by), Afro- 

American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives (New York: Free 

Press 1970) 

Paul Lopes, The Rise of a Jazz Art World (Cambridge: Cambridge 

University Press, 2002) 

Susan McClary-Robert Walser, ”Theorizing the Body in African- 

American Music” (Black Music Research Journal, vol. 14, no 1, 

Spring 1994) 

Albert Murray, Stompin’ the Blues (New York: McGraw-Hill 1977) 

[trad. it.: Ballando i blues, Bologna: Clueb 1999] 

Robert G. O'Meally (edited by), The Jazz Cadence of American Culture 

(New York: Columbia University Press 1998) 

Luigi Onori, Jazz e Africa (Anzio: De Rubeis 1996) 

Leroy Ostransky, Jazz City: The Impact of Our Cities in the Development of 

Jazz (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall 1978) 

Burton W. Peretti, Jazz in American Culture (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee 1997) 

Ben Sidran, Black Talk (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1971) 

Christopher Small, Music in Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in 

Afro-American Music (New York: Riverrun Press 1987) 



Ortiz M. Walton, Music: Black, White and Blue: A Sociological Survey of 

the Use and Misuse of Afro-American Music (New York: William 

Morrow 1972) 

Norman C. Weinstein, A Night in Tunisia: Imagines of Africa in Jazz 

(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press 1992) 

Olly Wilson, “The Association of Movement and Music As a 

Manifestation of a Black Conceptual Approach to Music-Making” 

[1981], in Irene V. Jackson (edited by), More Than Dancing: Essays on 

Afro-American Music and Musicians (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood 

Press 1985) 

Analisi musicale e linguaggio jazzistico 

Jacques Aboucaya-Jean-Pierre Peyrebelle, Du be-bop au free jazz. Formes 

et techniques d’improvisation chez C. Parker, M. Davis et O. Coleman 

(Toulouse: Presses Universitaire du Mirail 2001) 

Philippe Baudoin, Jazz: mode d'emploi, 2 vols. (Paris: Outre Misure 

1986) 

Paul F. Berliner, Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation 

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1994) 

David Borgo,”The Play of Meaning and the Meaning of Play in Jazz” 

(Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, no. 3-4, March/April 2004) 

John Brownell, “Analytical Models of Jazz Improvisation” 

(Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, 26/1994) 

Thomas Brothers, “Solo and Cycle in African-American Jazz” (The 

Musical Quartely, 78/1994) 

Vincenzo Caporaletti, La definizione dello swing. I fondamenti estetici del 

jazz e delle musiche audiotattili (Teramo: Ideasuoni Edizioni 2000) 

Daniel Fischlin-Ajay Heble (edited by), The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, 

Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue (Middletown, Conn.: 

Wesleyan University Press 2004) 

Luke O. Gillespie, “Literacy, Orality, and the Parry-Lord ‘Formula’: 

Improvisation and the Afro-American Jazz Tradition” (International 

Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2/1991) 

Mark Haywood, “The Harmonic Role of Melody in Vertical and 

Horizontal Jazz” (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 5/1991) 

André Hodeir, Hommes et problémes du jazz (Paris: Flammarion 1954) 

[trad. it.: Uomini e problemi del jazz, Milano: Longanesi 1958] 



Vijay S. Iyer, Microstructures of Feel, Macrostructures of Sound: Embodied 

Cognition in West African and African-American Musics, (Dissertation, 

University of California 1998) 

Barry Kernfeld, How to Listen for in Jazz (New Haven, Conn.: Yale 

University Press 1995) 

Franz Krieger, “Jazz-Solopiano: Zum Stilwandel am Beispiel 

ausgewählter 'Body and Soul'--Aufnahmen von 1938-1992” 


Gerhard Kubik, “Presenza della musica africana nel jazz”, in Jean- 

Jacques Nattiez (a cura di), Enciclopedia della musica, vol. 1, “Il 

Novecento” (Torino: Einaudi 2001) 

Wendell Logan, “The Ostinato idea in Black Improvised Music” (The 

Black Perspective in Music, 2/1984) 

Henry Martin, “Jazz Harmony: A Syntactic Background” (Annual 

Review of Jazz Studies, 4, 1988) 

Portia K. Maultsby, "Africanisms in African-American Popular Music" 

in Joseph E. Holloway (edited by), Africanisms in American Culture 

(Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1990) 

Ingrid Monson, “Doubleness and Jazz Improvisation: Irony, Parody 

and Ethnomusicology” (Critical Inquiry, 20/1994) 

Ingrid Monson, Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction 


Georges Paczynski, Una histoire de la batterie de jazz. Des origines aux 

annés swing (Paris: Outre Mesure 1997) 

Joseph A. Prögler, “Searching for Swing: Participatory Discrepancies 

in the Jazz Rhythm Section” (Ethnomusicology, 39/1, 1995) 

Paul Rinzler, “Preliminary Thoughts on Analyzing Musical Interaction 

among Jazz Performers” (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 4, 1988) 

Winthrop Sargeant, Jazz Hot & Hybrid (New York: Arrow Editions 

1938) 

Gary Tomlinson, “Cultural Dialogics and Jazz: A White Historian 

Signifies” (Black Music Research Journal, vol. 11, n. 2, Fall 1991) 

Christopher Washburne, “The Clave of Jazz: A Caribbean 

Contribution to the Rhythmic Foundation of an African-American 

Music” (Black Music Research Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 1997) 

Richard A. Waterman, "African influence on the music of the 

Americas", in Sol Tax (edited by), Acculturation in the Americas 




Olly Wilson, “The Significance of the Relationship between Afro- 

American Music and West African Music” (The Black Perspective in 

Music, 2/1974) 

Olly Wilson, ”Black Music As an Art Form” (Black Music Research 

Journal, 3/1983) 

Olly Wilson, "The Influence of Jazz on the History and Development 

of Concert Music," in David N. Baker (edited by), New Perspectives on 

Jazz (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press 1990) 

Olly Wilson, "The Heterogeneous Sound Ideal in African American 

Music," in Josephine Wright (edited by), New Perspectives on Music: 

Essays in Honor of Eileen Southern (Warren, Mich.: Harmonie Park 

Press 1992) 

La nascita del jazz e il jazz di New Orleans 

Walter C. Allen-Brian Rust (revised by Laurie Wright), King Oliver 

(Chigwell, Essex: Storyville 1987) 

Tim Brooks, Lost Sounds: Black and the Birth of the Recording Industry 

1890-1919 (Urbana, University of Illinois Press 2004) 

H.O. Brunn, The Story of Original Dixieland Jazz Band (Baton Rouge: 

Louisiana State University Press 1960) 

John Chilton, Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz (New York: Oxford 


R. Collins, New Orleans Jazz: The Development of American Music From 

the Origin to the Big Bands (New York: Vantage Press 1996) 

Daniel Hardie, Exploring Early Jazz: The Origin and the Evolution of the 

New Orleans Style (Lincoln, Ne.: Universe 2001) 

Richard H. Knowles, Fallen Heroes: A History of New Orleans Brass Bands 

(New Orleans: Jazzology Press 1996) 

Karl Koenig (edited by), Jazz in Print 1855-1929: An Anthology of Early 

Source Readings in Jazz History (Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press 

2002) 

Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton 

(Berkeley: University of California Press 1973) 

Tom Lord, Clarence Williams (Chigwell, Essex: Storyville 1978) 

Donald M. Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden (Baton Rouge: Louisiana 

State University Press 1978) 



William J. Schafer, Brass Bands and the New Orleans Jazz (Baton Rouge: 

Louisiana State University Press 1977) 

Martin Williams, Jazz Masters of New Orleans (New York: Macmillan 

1967) 

Il jazz degli anni venti: opere generali 

Samuel Charters-Leonardt Kunstadt, Jazz: A History of the New York 

Scene (New York: Da Capo Press 1962) 

Richard Hadlock, Jazz Masters of the Twenties (New York: Macmillan 

1965) 

Daphne Duval Harrison, Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s (New 

Brunswick: Rutgers University 1988) 

Thomas J. Hennessy, From Jazz to Swing: Afro-American Jazz Musicians 

and Their Music 1890-1935 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press 

1994) 

Rick Kennedy, Jelly Roll, Bix and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of 

Recorded Jazz (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press 1999) 

William H. Kenney, Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History 1904-1930 (New 


Giorgio Lombardi, New Orleans, Chicago, New York (Anzio: De Rubeis 

1993) 

Roland Morris, Wait Until Dark: Jazz and the Underworld 1880-1940 

(Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green University Popular Press 1980) 

Kathy J. Ogren, The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of 

Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press1992) 

Burton W. Peretti, Creation of Jazz: Music, Race and Culture in Urban 

America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1994) 

Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (New 

York: Oxford University Press 1968) [trad. it.: Il jazz. Le origini, 

Torino: Edt 1996; Il Jazz. Il periodo classico, Torino: Edt 1996] 

Richard M. Sudhalter, Last Chorus: White Musicians and their 

Contribution to Jazz 1915-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press 

1999) 

Ted Vincent, Keep Cool: The Black Activists Who Built the Jazz Age 

(London: Pluto 1995) 



Louis Armstrong 

H. David Caffey, “The Musical Style of Louis Armstrong, 1925-1929” 

(Journal of Jazz Studies, 3, no. 1, Fall 1975) 

Gary Giddins, Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong (New York: 

Doubleday 1988) 

Stefano Zenni, Louis Armstrong (Roma: Stampa Alternativa 1996) 

Il jazz degli anni Venti: biografie e analisi musicali 

Walter C. Allen, Hendersonia: The Music of Fletcher Henderson and his 

Musicians (Highland Park, N.J.: Allen 1973) 

Gene Andrews, “Blues for You, Johnny: Johnny Dodds and his ‘Wild 

man Blues’ Recordings of 1927 and 1938” (Annual Review of Jazz 

Studies, 8, 1996) 

Scott E. Brown-Robert Hilbert, James P. Johnson: A Case of Mistake 

Identity (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press 1986) 

John Chilton, Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz (New York: Oxford 


J. Kaplan, Paul Whiteman: A Life (New York: Simon & Schuster 1986) 

Jeff Jeckovich, "The Forms and Orchestration of Five Jelly Roll Morton 

Piano Solos" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 3/1985) 

Ed Kirkeby, Ain't Misbehavin': The Story of Fats Waller (New York: 

Dodd, Mead & Co. 1975) 

Lawrence O. Koch, "Structural Aspects of King Oliver's 1923 Okeh 

Recordings" (Journal of Jazz Studies, 3, no. 2, Spring 1976) 

Paul S. Machlin, Stride: The Music of Fats Waller (New York: Macmillan 

1985) 

Peter J. Silvester, A Left Hand Like God: A History of Boogie Woogie Piano 

(New York: Da Capo Press 1988) 

Milton L. Stewart, "Earl Hines's 'Trumpet' Piano Style: The Influence of 

Louis Armstrong" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 4/1988) 

Richard M. Sudhalter-Philip R. Evans-William Dean Myatt, Bix. Man & 

Legend: The Life of Bix Beiderbecke (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington 

House 1974) 

Duke Ellington 

Kurt Dietrich, Duke’s Bones: Ellington’s Great Trombonists (Rottenburg: 

Advance Music 1995) 



Peter Gammond, Duke Ellington: His Life and His Music (New York: Da 

Capo Press 1958) 

John Edward Hasse, Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke 

Ellington (New York: Simon & Schuster 1993) 

Wolfram Knauer, “Simulated Improvisation in Duke Ellington’s 

‘Black, Brown and Beige’” (The Black Perspective in Music, 1- 

2/1990) 

David Metzer, “Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington’s ‘Black, 

Tan and Fantasy’” (Black Music Research Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, Fall 

1997) 

Ken Rattenburg, Duke Ellington: Jazz Composer (New Haven, Conn.: 

Yale University Press 1990) 

Mark Tucker, Ellington: The Early Years (Urbana: University of Illinois 

Press 1991) 

Mark Tucker (edited by), The Ellington Reader (New York: Oxford 


Mark Tucker (edited by), “Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige” 

(Black Music Research Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, Fall 1993) 

Walter Van De Leur, Something to Live For: The Music Of Billy Strayhorn 

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) 

Stefano Zenni, “The Aesthetics of Duke Ellington's Suites. The Case of 

'Togo Brava'”, (Black Music Research Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 

2001) 

Il jazz della crisi e la Swing Era: opere generali 

Stanley Dance, The World of Swing: An Oral History of Big Band Jazz 

(New York: Da Capo Press 1974) 

Lewis Erenberg, Swingin’ the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of 

American Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1998) 

Dave Oliphant, Texan Jazz (Austin: University of Texas Press 1996) 

Nathan W. Pearson, Goin' to Kansas City (Urbana: University of Illinois 

Press 1988) 

Ross Russell, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest (Berkeley: 

University of California Press 1971) 

Gunther Schuller, The Swing Era (New York: Oxford University Press 

1989) [tard. It.: Il jazz. L’era dello swing. I grandi maestri, Torino: Edt 

1999; Il jazz. L’era dello swing. Le grandi orchestre, Torino: Edt 1999] 



Arnold Shaw, 52nd Street: The Street of Jazz (New York: Da Capo Press 

1983) 

George T. Simon, The Big Bands (New York: Schirmer 1967) 

David W. Stowe, Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal 

America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1994) 

Rex Stewart, Jazz Masters of the Thirties (New York: Macmillan 1972) 

Il jazz della crisi e la Swing Era: biografie e analisi musicali 

William R. Bauer, "Billie Holiday and Betty Carter: Emotion and Style 

in the jazz Vocal Line" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 6/1993) 

Morroe Berger-Edward Berger-James Patrick, Benny Carter: A Life in 

American Music (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press 1982) 

Frank Büchmann-Møller, You Got to Be Original, Man!: The Music of 

Lester Young (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1990) 

Frank Büchmann-Møller, You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester 

Young (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press 1990) 

John Chilton, Billie's Blues: The Billie Holiday Story (New York: Da Capo 

Press 1975) 

John Chilton, The Song of the Hawk: The Life and Recordings of Coleman 

Hawkins (London: Quartet Books 1990) 

James Lester, Too Marvelous For Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum 


Lewis Porter, Lester Young (Boston: Twayne Publ. 1985) 

Lewis Porter (edited by), A Lester Young Reader (Washington, D.C.: 

Smithsonian Institution Press 1991) 

Howard Spring, "The Use of Formulas in the Improvisations of Charlie 

Christian" (Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, 22/1990) 

Il jazz moderno: opere generali 

Clora Bryant et al., Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles 1930's- 

1950's (Berkeley: University of California Press 1998) 

Scott DeVeaux, The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History 

(Berkeley: University of California Press 1997) 

Leonard Feather, Inside Bebop (New York: J.J. Robbins 1949) 

Ted Gioia, West Cost Jazz: The Modern Jazz in California 1945-1960 (New 




Ira Gittler, Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 

40's (New York: Oxford University Press 1986) 

Ira Gittler, Jazz Masters of the Forties (New York: Macmillan 1966) 

Joe Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the Fifties (New York: Macmillan 1965) 

Robert Gordon, Jazz West Coast: The Los Angeles Jazz Scene of the 1950's 

(New York: Quartet Books 1986) 

Kenny Mathieson, Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz 

1945-1965 (Edinburgh: Canongate 2002) 

Kenny Mathieson, Cookin’: Hard Bop and Soul 1954-1965 (Edinburgh: 

Canongate 2002) 

Dave Oliphant (edited by), The Bebop Revolution in Words and Music 

(Austin: University of Texas Press 1992) 

Thomas Owens, Bebop: The Music and Its Players (New York: Oxford 


Jon Panish, The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in Postwar 

American Culture (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press 1997) 

Jeff Pressing, "Pitch-Class Set-Structures in Contemporary Jazz" 


David H. Rosenthal, Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965 (New 


Steven Strunk, “The Harmony of Early Bop: A Layered Approach” 

(Journal of Jazz Studies, 6, no. 1, Fall/Winter 1979) 

Steven Strunk, "Bebop Melodic Lines: Tonal Characteristics" (Annual 

Review of Jazz Studies, 3/1985) 

Alain Tercinet, West Coast Jazz (Marseille: Parenthèses 1986) 

J. Kent Williams, “Archetypal Schemata in Jazz Themes of the Bebop 

Era” (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 4/1988) 

Charlie Parker 

Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of 

Charlie Parker (Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green State University 

Press 1988) 

Henry Martin, Charlie Parker and the Thematic Improvisation (Metuchen, 

N.J.: Scarecrow Press 1996) 

Thomas Owens, Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation, 2 vols. 

(UMI-University Microfilms International 1974) 



Scott Sandvik, "Polyharmony, Polymeter, and Motivic Development in 

Charlie Parker's 'Klact-oveeseds-tene' (Take 1) Solo" 


Carl Woideck, Charlie Parker: His Music and Life (Ann Arbor: The 

University of Michigan Press 1996) 

Thelonious Monk 

Rob van der Bliek (edited by), The Thelonious Monk Reader (New York: 


Leslie Gourse, Straight No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk 

(New York:Schirmer 1998) 

Mark S. Haywood, "Rhythmic Readings in Thelonious Monk" (Annual 

Review of Jazz Studies, 7/1994-95) 

Peter Hollerback, "The Sound of Surprise: The Politics of Thought and 

Action in the Music of Thelonious Monk" (International Jazz 

Archives Journal, 1, no. 3, Fall 1995) 

Lawrence O. Koch, "Thelonious Monk: Compositional Techniques" 

(Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 2/1983) 

James Kurzdorfer, “Outrageous Clusters: Dissonant Semitonal Cells in 

the Music of Thelonious Monk” (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 8, 

1996) 

Mark Tucker (edited by), “New Perspectives on Thelonious Monk” 

(Black Music Research Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, Fall 1999) 

Miles Davis 

Ian Carr, Miles Davis (London: Grafton 1982) [tard. it.: Miles Davis, 

Milano: Arcana 1982] 

Jack Chambers, Milestones: The Music and the Times of Miles Davis, 2 

vols. (New York: William Morrow 1983-85) 

Randall Reyman, "An Analysis of Melodic Improvisational Practices of 

Miles Davis" (Jazz Research Papers, 7/1987) 

Eddie S. Meadows, "The Miles Davis-Wayne Shorter Connection: 

Continuity and Change" Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, 20/1988) 

Paul Tingen, Miles Beyond: The Electric Explorations of Miles Davis 1967- 

1991 (New York: Billboard, 2003) 



Robert Walser, "’Out of Notes’: Signification, Interpretation, and the 

Problem of Miles Davis" [1993], in Krin Gabbard (edited by), Jazz 

Among the Discourses, (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press 1995) 

Il jazz moderno: biografie e analisi musicali 

François Billard, Lennie Tristano (Montpellier: Éditions du Limon 1988) 

Jonathan Finkleman, "Charlie Christian, Bebop, and the Recordings at 

Minton's" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 6/1993) 

Alan Groves-Alyn Shipton, The Glass Enclosure: The Life of Bud Powell 

(Oxford: Bayou Press 1993) 

Eddie S. Meadows, "Prolegomenon to the Music of Horace Silver" 


Thomas Owens, "The Fugal Pieces of the Modern Jazz Quartet" 

(Journal of Jazz Studies, 4, no. 1, Fall 1976) 

Gunther Schuller, "Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic 

Improvisation" (The Jazz Review, 1, no. 1, November 1958); 

reprinted in Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller (New 


Alyn Shipton, Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie (New York: 


Milton L. Stewart, "Structural Development in the Jazz 

Improvisational Technique of Clifford Brown" (Jazzforschung/Jazz 

Research, 6-7/1974-75) 

Milton L. Stewart, "Some Characteristics of Clifford Brown's 

Improvisations Style" (Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, 11/1979) 

Il jazz dagli anni Sessanta ad oggi: opere generali 

Steven Block, "Pitch-class Transformation in Free Jazz" (Music Theory 

Spectrum, 12, no. 2, Fall 1990) 

Michael Budds, Jazz in the Sixties: The Expansion of Musical Research and 

Techniques (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press 1978) 

Giampiero Cane, Canto nero. Il free jazz degli anni Sessanta (Rimini- 

Vicenza: Guaraldi 1973) 



Phillippe Carles-Jean-Louis Comolli, Free Jazz/Black Power (Paris: 

Éditions Champ Libre 1971) [trad. it.: Free Jazz-Black Power, Torino: 

Einaudi 1973] 

Roger T. Dean, New Structures in Jazz and Improvised Music Since 1960 

(Buckingham: Open University Press 1992) 

Gary Giddins, Rhythm-A-Ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation in the 80's 


Mike Heffley, Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe’s Reinvention of Jazz 

(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press 2005) 

Ekkehard Jost, Free Jazz (New York: Da Capo Press 1975) 

Franz Kofsky, Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music (New York: 

Pathfinder Press 1970) [ristampato come John Coltrane and the Jazz 

Revolution of the 1960s, New York: William Morrow 1998] 

John Litweiler, The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 (New York: 

William Morrow 1984) 

Stuart Nicholson, Jazz Rock: A History (New York: Schirmer 1998) 

Eric Nisenson, Blue: The Murder of Jazz (New York: St. Martin’s Press 

1997) 

Scott Saul, Freedom is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and The Making Of The Sixties 

(Harvard, Mass.: Harvard University Press 2003) 

David G. Such, Avant-garde Jazz Musicians: Performing “Out There” 

(Iowa City: University of Iowa Press 1993) 

Martin Williams, Jazz Masters in Transition 1957-1969 (New York: 

Macmillan 1970) 

Valerie Wilmer, As Serious As Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz 

(London: Quartet Books 1977) 

Charles Mingus 

Brian Priestley, Mingus: A Critical Biography (London: Paladin Books 

1985) 

Stefano Zenni, “Mingus in California, 1942-1949” (Quaderni di Siena 

Jazz, 1/1994) 

Stefano Zenni, Charles Mingus. Polifonie dell’universo sonoro 

afroamericano (Roma: Stampa Alternativa 2002) 



Ornette Coleman 

Steven Block, "Organized Sound: Pitch-Class Relations in the Music of 

Ornette Coleman" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 6/1993) 

Eric Charry, "Freedom and Form in Ornette Coleman's Early Atlantic 

Recordings" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 9/1997-1998) 

Michael Cogswell, "Melodic Organization in Two Solos by Ornette 

Coleman" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 7/1994-95) 

John Litweiler, Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life (New York: Da Capo 

Press 1994) 

Lewis Porter, “The ‘Blues Connotation’ in Ornette Coleman’s Music 

and Some General Thoughts on the Relation of Blues to Jazz” 

(Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 7/1994-95) 

John Coltrane 

Bill Cole, John Coltrane (New York: Schirmer 1976) 

David Demsey, “Chromatic Third Relation in the Music of John 

Coltrane” (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 5/1991) 

David Liebman, "John Coltrane's Meditations Suite: A Study in 

Symmetry" (Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 8/1996) 

Marcello Piras, John Coltrane (Roma: Stampa Alternativa 1993) 

Lewis Porter, John Coltrane: His Life and Music (Ann Arbor: University 

of Michigan Press 1998) 

J.C. Thomas, Chasin' the Trane: The Music and the Mystique of John 

Coltrane (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday 1975) 

Il jazz dagli anni Sessanta ad oggi: biografie e analisi musicali 

Roger Jannotta, "'God Bless the Child': An Analysis of an 

Unaccompanied Bass Clarinet Solo by Eric Dolphy" 


Robert Larson, "An Analysis of Bill Evans' Early Piano Style as Seen in 

the Portrait in Jazz version of 'Blue in Green'" Jazz Research Papers, 

9/1989) 

Peter Pettinger, Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings (New Haven, Conn.: 

Yale University Press 1998) 

Paul Rinzler, "McCoy Tyner: Style and Syntax" (Annual Review of Jazz 

Studies, 2/1983) 



Vladimir Simosko-Barry Tepperman, Eric Dolphy (New York: Da Capo 

Press 1971) 

John F. Szwed, Space Is the Space: The Life and the Times of Sun Ra (New 

York: Da Capo Press 1997) 

David Vayo, "Weather Report and the Expansion of Jazz Form" 

(Contemporary Music Forum, 3/1991) 

Lynette Westendorf, "Cecil Taylor: Indent-'Second Layer'" 

(Perspectives of New Music, 33, nos. 1-2, Winter-Summer 1995) 

Anthony Braxton 

Mike Heffley, The Music of Anthony Braxton (New York: Excelsior 1996) 

Graham Lock, Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Metareality of 

Creative Music (New York: Da Capo Press 1979) 

Ronald M. Radano, New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton's Cultural 

Critique (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1993) 

Teoria musicale 

David Baker, Jazz Improvisation: A Comprehensive Study for All Players 

(Chicago: Maher 1969) 

Bill Dobbins, Jazz Arranging and Composing: A Linear Approach 

(Rottenburg: Advance Music 1986) 

Jerry Cooker, Improvising Jazz (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall 

1964) 

Franco D’Andrea-Attilio Zanchi, Enciclopedia comparata delle scale e degli 

accordi (Milano: Carish 1982) 

Russ Garcia, The Professional Arranger Composer (New York: Criterion 

1954) 

Alan Jaffe, Jazz Theory (Dubuque, IA: W.C. Brown 1983) [ripubblicato 

come Jazz Harmony (Rottenburg: Advance Music 1996)] 

Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Petaluma, Ca.: Sher Music 1990) 

Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Petaluma, Ca.: Sher Music 1996) 

David Liebman, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody 


John Mehegan, Jazz Improvisation, 4 vols. (New York: Watson-Guptill 

1959-1965) 



Ron Miller, Modal Jazz Composition & Harmony (Rottenburg: Advance 

Music 1992) 

Sammy Nestico, The Complete Arranger (Milano: Ed. Piccolo 

Conservatorio Nuova Milano Musica) 

Scott D. Reeves, Creative Jazz Improvisation (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 

Prentice-Hall 1989) 

George Russell, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for 

Improvisation (New York: Concept Publ. Comp. 1959) 

William Russo, Composing for the Jazz Orchestra (Chicago: University of 

Chicago Press 1961) 

Dereck Sébastian, Le son du jazz, 7 vols. (Paris: Alain Pierson 1984) 

Don Sebesky, The Contemporary Arranger (Sherman Oak, Ca.: Alfred 

Publ. Comp. 1979) 

Jacques Siron, Le partiture intérieure. Jazz, musique improvisées (Paris: 

Outre Misure 1992) 

Mike Steinel, Building a Jazz Vocabulary: A Resource for Learning 

Jazz Improvisation (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard 1995) 

Fred Sturm, Changing Over Time: The Evolution of Jazz Arranging 


Alcuni esempi di fonti musicali 

A Collection of 26 Ornette Coleman Compositions (New York: MJQ Music 

1968) 

Jamey Aebersold-Ken Slone (trans. by), Charlie Parker Omnibook 

(Hollywood: Almo Publ. 1978) 

David Baker, The Jazz Style of Clifford Brown (Hialeah, Fl.: Studio P/R 

1982) 

James Dapogny, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton: The Collected Piano Music 

(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press-Schirmer 1982) 

Steve Lajoie, Gil Evans & Miles Davis: Historic Collaborations 1947-1952 


Sue Mingus (edited by), Charles Mingus: More Than A Fake Book (New 

York: Jazz Workshop 1991) 

The Real Book (Boston: Berklee College of Music 1974-75) [trascrizioni 

illegali fatte dagli studenti] 

Riccardo Scivales (trans. by), Harlem Stride Piano Solos (Katonah, N.Y.: 

Okay Music 1990) 



The Bill Evans Trio – Volume 1-3 (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard 2003-2004) 

The Music of John Coltrane (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard 1991)

Introduzione alle tecniche compositive del jazz – Libri - Scuola di ...

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