MUSIC BOOKS

A Chicago Tribune 2020 holiday gift guide pick

AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) was founded on the South Side of Chicago in 1968 by a group of five young Black artists. Today, it is one of the oldest continuously active American art collectives. The pronunciation—Af-FREE-co-bruh—emphasizes the second syllable, signaling the group’s central principle grounded in Black liberation: creative expression reflecting the Black experience and Black influences.
AfriCOBRA’s founding artists—Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Gerald Williams—differed in disciplines and artistic vocabularies but were brought together by the common aspiration to create work that speaks directly to Black people utilizing an identifiably Black aesthetic. This publication celebrates the fifty-year anniversary of AfriCOBRA’s founding and marks the collective’s powerful relevance today. AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People documents two exhibitions curated by Jeffreen M. Hayes, PhD: one at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and another as an official collateral event of the 58th Venice Biennale. It features more than 80 works by the original members as well as those by Sherman Beck, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Omar Lama, Carolyn Mims Lawrence and Nelson Stevens.
More than a historical overview of AfriCOBRA, this book is a response to the artists’ continuing contributions and influence, connecting their works to the contemporary moment through essays, archival photographs and ephemera, exhibition views, and contemporary photographs that celebrate the impact of this revolutionary art collective. As their name states, the artists and artworks of AfriCOBRA were as relevant in 1968 as they are today in the continued struggle for Black liberation.

In this memoir, Harlem-born trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah recounts decades of national and international touring with the Sun Ra Arkestra and charts the rise of the New York loft jazz scene, offering a fascinating portrait of advanced music in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan from the 1970s through the 1990s, including thrilling stories about the politically important Bed-Stuy venue The East and the author's tutelage under composer and long-time Archie Shepp collaborator Cal Massey. Along the way, Abdullah covers his spiritual development as a Buddhist, battles with addiction, tribulations as a father, lessons from Sun Ra and working life as an educator and cab driver.

Trumpeter and educator Ahmed Abdullah was born in Harlem in 1947. An important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, in 1972 he formed a group called Abdullah, two years before joining the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom he played for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the bands Melodic Art-Tet, The Group and NAM, and of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. Abdullah is the music director at Sistas’ Place in Brooklyn, and teaches music at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

For nearly four decades, Spike Lee has made movies that demand our attention. His extensive filmography reflects an unflinching critique of race relations in the United States, from the Student Academy Award®–winning short Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads and the ever-relevant Do the Right Thing to the more recent Oscar®-winning BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. A lifelong cinephile and film scholar, Lee draws inspiration from other artists working across a range of eras, genres and global cinemas. He has also devoted much of his career to teaching the next generation of filmmakers.
Spike Lee: Director’s Inspiration presents Lee’s personal collection of original film posters and objects, photographs, artworks and more—many of these inscribed to Lee personally by filmmakers, stars, athletes, activists, musicians and others who have inspired his work in specific ways.
Straight from the walls of Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule production studio in Brooklyn, his faculty office at NYU and his Martha’s Vineyard home, these objects offer a glimpse into what shapes Lee’s signature filmmaking approach. Spike Lee: Director’s Inspiration also includes a conversation between Lee and Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah) and brief texts by some of the many artists Lee himself has inspired.

By the start of 1966, the Rolling Stones’ position as rock gods was established. They were making serious money and splashing out on new homes and cars. Their official photographer and friend, Gered Mankowitz, was invited to shoot an “at home” session with each member of the band. “They hated the idea of unknown photographers visiting their private sanctuaries … If I did it then the press office would have a large selection of this type of image and could fulfil any magazine request without having to bother the band.”

Mankowitz kept these photographs in supermarket carrier bags stashed under his desk for several years, “getting in my way and frequently wondering why I continued to hold on to them.” This is the first time these sessions have been collated and published. The book includes both iconic and unseen photographs: Mick in a kipper tie turning on his new television and posing outside with a new Aston Martin; Keith, Lord of the Manor-style, with his blue Bentley and antique sword at his East Sussex home; Charlie grinning next to lingerie drying in the garden; Brian in obligatory silk shirt in front of a handpainted mural; Bill in the kitchen with his dog.

Goin’ Home with the Rolling Stones ’66 is a beguiling collection of images, shot with incredible skill, that offers that rare thing in Stones photography—a fresh perspective. It features an introduction by Mankowitz and a foreword from the Rolling Stones’ legendary manager, Andrew Loog Oldham.

This book features more than 150 rarely seen images documenting the rise of hip hop in the early 1980s, taken by French photographer Sophie Bramly. Bramly lived in New York during this period and became firmly embedded in the emergent scene. The book features many stunning, intimate images of a star-studded roll call of legendary hip hop figures, all of whom were only just getting known or in their ascendency. These include Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer DST, Jazzy Jay, Red Alert, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, Lisa Lee, the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys and many more.

Bramly knew that hip hop was becoming a cultural force rather than just a musical fashion, and spent many hours photographing the four essential elements of this new world: the emcees, the deejays, the graffiti artists and the break dancers. Here you will see legendary graffiti artists captured at work and play, such as Keith Haring, Dondi, Futura, Phase One, Zephyr and Lady Pink, and break dancers including members of Magnificent Force, Dynamic Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew.

Bramly’s photographs also chronicle the desolate cityscapes from which hip hop emerged; the energy of the fans who first embraced hip hop; and the crucial players behind the scenes (Bill Laswell, Bernard Zekri, Rick Rubin, Fun Gallery co-owner Patti Astor).

Finally, this book also includes a bonus section documenting the rise of hip hop in Europe. Bramly returned to France in 1984 to find herself once again at the center of a new cultural phenomenon, helping bring the first US hip hop artists to Europe, including Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, Rocksteady Crew and many more.

Compiled by famed nostalgia enthusiast Jonny Trunk (owner of record label Trunk Records, and author of The Music Library, Own Label and Wobbly Sounds), and with a foreword by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, Wrappers Delight is crammed with more than 500 examples of British candy-wrapper designs from the 1960s to the 1980s—the first and only overview of Britain’s drinks and confectionery industry during this period.

The book catalogs the amazing collection of a man named John Townsend, who collected candy cigarette boxes, wax gum papers, potato-chip bags, soda cans, rock labels, stamps, transfers, coupons, recipe cards, tickets, odd boxes, badges, cards, stickers and much more. All these items have been carefully documented, presented in alphabetical order by manufacturer and reproduced here in the highest quality. Among the confections and manufacturers to be found here are Cider Barrel, Cresta, Tip Top, Pacemakers, Lollygobblechocbomb, Kung Fueys, Fizz Bang, UFO sweet cigarettes and other TV tie-ins, Furry Friends and Fingammies.

This book will come as a delightful revelation (or a happy reminder) for graphic designers and nostalgia aficionados everywhere.

The first retrospective volume on the photography of the internationally acclaimed Nigerian filmmaker, photographer and music video director Andrew Dosunmu, Monograph looks back at 20 years of previously unpublished and sumptuously colorful portraiture and more, including stills from music videos and the 2022 Netflix film Beauty.

Dosunmu has published his photography with iconic music and fashion magazines such as The Face, Vibe, Fader, Vogue Hommes, Paper and Interview, and has been commissioned by international brands such as Nike and Adidas. Throughout his career, Dosunmu has developed a prolific personal body of work that until now has never been published, though it has been sought after by private collectors and museums. The images compiled in Monograph portray uniquely stylish individuals in Dakar, Mumbai and Cartaghena. United by Dosunmu’s acute instinct for color into a compelling aesthetic vision, these portraits celebrate global culture with tremendous sensuality. The book includes a conversation between Dosunmu and Arthur Jafa.

Andrew Dosunmu is a Nigerian photographer and filmmaker who came to prominence in the US with music videos for various acclaimed artists. He is the director of Hot Irons, Restless City, Mother of George, Where Is Kyra? and Beauty, all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Dosunmu lives between New York City and Lagos, Nigeria.

Covering 30 years of sculptures, paintings, works on paper, large-scale wall drawings, installations and site-specific works, this book presents the art of Gary Simmons, one of the most respected artists of his generation. Since the late 1980s, Simmons has played a key role in situating questions of race, class and gender identity within art discourse. He is notable for combining pop-cultural imagery with conceptual artistic strategies to expose and analyze histories of racism inscribed in US visual culture. Over the course of his career, Simmons has revealed traces of these histories in the fields of sports, cinema, literature, music, and architecture and urbanism while drawing on popular genres such as hip-hop, horror and science fiction. His approach is cool and unflinching in its interrogation of historical and cultural narratives, yet the results consistently deliver a strong emotional charge. This publication offers readers the opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the complex, profoundly moving work of this influential artist.

Gary Simmons was born in 1964 in New York City, where he was raised. Today he lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a BFA in 1988 from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and an MFA in 1990 from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia; he also studied at Hunter College, New York. He has received numerous awards, including the Studio Museum in Harlem Joyce Alexander Wein Prize (2013), the George Gund Foundation USA Gund Fellowship (2007) and the National Endowment for the Arts Interarts Grant (1990).

Since the 1970s, the medium of video has been closely associated with subcultural and countercultural movements. Art and music videos in particular have showed great subversive potential, as artists and musicians use the medium to explore and transgress social norms and gender stereotypes. The essays in this publication consider artistic strategies in the context of the history of punk and its offshoots, combining scholarly opinions from the fields of art history, queer theory, media studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies and cultural studies alongside field reports from the practice of alternative archives and visual essays.

Authors include: Kathrin Dreckmann, Marina Grzinic, Jack Halberstam, Josefine Hetterich, Angela McRobbie, Jennifer Ramme, Peter Rehberg, Marion Schulze, Elfi Vomberg and Katharina Wiedlack.

Soul Jazz Records' new release Black Fire! New Spirits! Explores deep, radical and spiritual jazz in the USA in the period between 1957-75. In the 1960s and into the 1970s, jazz music in the USA was in an almost constant state of revolution, with the music and lives of African-American artists radicalised by the advent of the civil rights movement, Black Power, and a new spiritual awakening. For over 20 years now Soul Jazz Records have been exploring this rich area of deep and spiritual jazz music with an array of albums such as Freedom, Rhythm and Sound, Universal Sounds of America, New Thing, Soul Jazz Love Strata East and more. Soul Jazz Records have also released a steady stream of reissues of lost and classic deep jazz releases over the years from artists such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Reid, Pharaoh Sanders and others.

This new album features groundbreaking and revolutionary artists such as Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, The Last Poets and Yusef Lateef as well as many rare and deep lost tracks from lesser known artists such as Creative Artists Ensemble, Granchan Moncur, Lloyd McNeill, Tyrone Washington and others. The album coincides with the recent book 'Black Fire! New Spirits! Images of A Revolution: Radical Jazz in the USA 1960-75', published by Soul Jazz Books.

This magnificent volume features a remarkable collection of largely unseen photographs of the Beat Generation by renowned Magnum photographer Burt Glinn. This amazing, untouched treasure trove of images was discovered when Reel Art Press was working with Burt Glinn’s widow, Elena, on a larger retrospective of Glinn’s work. Archived with the negatives was a short essay by Jack Kerouac entitled "And This Is The Beat Nightlife of New York," which is published here alongside the photographs. The book features black-and-white shots, and also—uniquely, for images of this era—more than 70 in color. An extremely rare find, these photographs capture the raw energy of the Beat Generation in a way that has never been seen before in print.

The photographs were shot between 1957 and 1960 in New York and San Francisco and feature nearly everyone involved in the scene, including writers and artists such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick and many more. Glinn was celebrated for his extraordinary talent as a social documentary photographer, and during his time with the Beats his camera captured the spirit of the counterculture—writers, musicians and artists meeting in cafes, bars and parties pursuing a truth and future the mainstream would and could not acknowledge.

This exquisite tome is an intimate and fresh insight into the lives of the legendary and influential bohemians and a celebration of Glinn’s inimitable talent.

This 350+ page flexibound book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original seven-inch record cover sleeve designs—visual artifacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century. The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the thousands of new bands—punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly punk and more—that emerged at the end of the 1970s.
This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music—everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.
Punk 45! is introduced and coedited by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England’s Dreaming, and features a new introduction by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.

Here is an intimate look at one of music’s greatest legends, as he turns 80, by an iconic photojournalist. From the delirium of early Beatlemania to the heady days of 1970s‑era Wings to his quiet rural life in the early 1990s,Paul follows the pop genius through the years with more than 100 rare photographs. Now available in a trade edition following last year’s sold out Collector’s Edition.

The first comprehensive book on the surreal, queer and humorous photographic art of Jimmy DeSana, a central figure in New York's art and music scenes of the 1970s and '80s

 This is the first overview of the work of Jimmy DeSana, a pioneering yet underrecognized figure in New York's downtown art, music and film scenes during the 1970s and 1980s. The book situates DeSana's work and life within the countercultural and queer contexts in the American South as well as New York, through his involvement in mail art, punk and No Wave music and film, and artist collectives and publications.

 DeSana's first major project was 101 Nudes, made in Atlanta during the city's gay liberation movement. After moving to New York in 1973, DeSana became immersed in queer networks, collaborating with General Idea and Ray Johnson on zines and mail art, and documenting the genderqueer street performances of Stephen Varble.
By the mid-1970s, DeSana was a fixture in New York's No Wave music and film scenes, serving as portraitist for much of the period's central figures and producing album covers for Talking Heads, James Chance and others. His book Submission, made with William S. Burroughs, humorously staged scenes out of a S&M manual that explored the body as object and the performance of desire. DeSana was also an early adopter of color photography, creating his best-known series, Suburban, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This body of work explores relationships between gender, sexuality and consumer capitalism in often humorous, surreal ways. After DeSana became sick as a result of contracting HIV, he turned to abstraction, using experimental photographic techniques to continue to push against photographic norms.

Following her best-selling TASCHEN monograph, Linda McCartney’s Polaroid Diaries brings together highlights from her vast archive. Taken from the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, the portraits, still lifes, landscapes and interior compositions affirm her bold eye for pattern, color, or simply an elegant fall of light. Through these candid instant pictures, we discover an intimate testimony to McCartney as an experimental artist and photographer.

CERAMICS ONE-NOTE WHISTLE

4X4X2"

The Udu drum is a ceramics instrument of Nigerian origins. This piece produces a low vibrating tone when struck. Hand made at BKLYN CLAY in Brooklyn, NY by artist Day Brierre. 

9 x 6.5 x 6.5"

The Udu drum is a ceramics instrument of Nigerian origins. This piece produces a low vibrating tone when struck.

12x6x6.5"

The iconic black-and-white photographs of Hamburg-born photographer Frank Habicht (born 1938) reflect the spirit of the Swinging Sixties in London. In the 1960s, the conservative postwar years in England gave way to a period of upheaval, with a younger generation dreaming of an unconstrained life, one full of free love, peace and harmony. On the streets of the British capital, Habicht began photographing the profound social and political changes that were underway.

Habicht, who has lived in New Zealand since 1981, has produced photographs for many international magazines and newspapers, such as the Guardian, Die Welt, Camera Magazine and Twen. His photographs were recently exhibited at the Barbican in London, and he has made portraits of music and film greats such as Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Jane Birkin, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Redgrave.

Frank Habicht: As It Was collects Habicht’s photos from the 1960s in an opulent book. A unique collection of images of the swinging, groovy, hippie and psychedelic ‘60s in London, it offers an eye-opening contribution to the history of a country that is currently undergoing yet more social transformation.

Mick Rock. The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973 Book.  Published by Taschen. 

A unique tribute from the official photographer of David Bowie and creative partner, Mick Rock, compiled in 2015, with the artists blessing.

In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowie’s Stardust alter ego: a glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of 70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the biggest stars.

A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singers inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singers photographer and videographer.

This collection brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. With a lenticular cover of different headshots, it celebrates David Bowie and his fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.

Produced in collaboration with the band, who gave unprecedented access to their archives in London and New York, this is a book to get you infinite satisfaction. More than 450 richly illustrated pages chart the remarkable scope of the Stones’ almost 60-year history and mesmerizing on- and off-stage presence—featuring the work of legendary photographers David Bailey, Herb Ritts, Peter Beard, Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, Albert Watson, Annie Leibovitz, Ethan Russell, Gered Mankowitz, Cecil Beaton, Anton Corbijn, and many more.

This is the official 50th-anniversary celebration of Woodstock, by the festival's co-creator and co-founder, Michael Lang. A large illustrated edition, it includes hundreds of photographs and documents accompanied by Lang's fascinating memories and insights into the most famous and influential festival of all time, with images of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Richie Havens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald and the Grateful Dead. The ephemera from Lang's largely unseen archive include the original designs and plans for the event, correspondence, set-lists, information on artists' fees and much more. This wealth of information is accompanied by the best photographs of the event by famous and unknown photographers such as Ralph Ackerman, John Dominis, Bill Eppridge, Dan Garson, Barry Z. Levine, Elliott Landy, Lee Marshall and Baron Wolman, and notably featuring the archive of Henry Diltz. Diltz was the only official photographer at Woodstock and was there for two weeks, from an empty field of cows to first construction, crowds arriving and the aftermath. He also captured onstage performances and behind-the-scenes moments with the many artists involved. Woodstock is an exuberant volume that conveys the vision, hard work and elusive magic that made up "three days of peace and music."

The French New Wave of the 1950s and 1960s is one of the most important movements in the history of film. Its fresh energy and vision changed the cinematic landscape, and its style has had a seminal impact on pop culture. The poster artists tasked with selling these Nouvelle Vague films to the masses—in France and internationally—helped to create this style, and in so doing found themselves at the forefront of a revolution in art, graphic design and photography.

French New Wave: A Revolution in Design celebrates explosive and groundbreaking poster art that accompanied French New Wave films like The 400 Blows (1959), Jules and Jim (1962) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Featuring posters from over 20 countries, the imagery is accompanied by biographies of more than 100 artists, photographers and designers involved—the first time many of those responsible for promoting and portraying this movement have been properly recognized.

This publication spotlights the poster designers who defined the look of the French New Wave. Artists presented in this volume include Jean-Michel Folon, Boris Grinsson, Waldemar Swierzy, Christian Broutin, Tomasz Ruminski, Hans Hillman, Georges Allard, René Ferracci, Bruno Rehak, Zdenek Ziegler, Miroslav Vystrcil, Peter Strausfeld, Maciej Hibner, Andrzej Krajewski, Maciej Zbikowski, Josef Vylet’al, Sandro Simeoni, Averardo Ciriello, Marcello Colizzi and many more.