There's an oft-repeated quote from the great saxophonist Lester Young about the importance of telling a story when you play. Over the decades a number of musicians have also told their stories through the written word, often making significant contributions to jazz history, and sometimes popping up in other aspects of culture as well (Billie Holiday's Lady Sings The Blues was made into a movie starring Diana Ross, while Mezz Mezzrow's Really The Blues became a kind of bible for underground hipsters in the 1940s and 50s). Some exist in different, unpublished "alternate take" versions (Charles Mingus' Beneath The Underdog and Holiday's Lady Sings The Blues), while others were intended but never came to pass, such as Paul Desmond's much-talked-about-but-barely-written How Many Of You Are There In The Quartet? Like other self-penned memoirs, these books contain their fair share of embellishments, inaccuracies, and omissions, but they provide us with numerous and invaluable firsthand accounts of this music's making at the ground-level viewpoint of the artists, while giving us their subjects' voices in a different context. Read Louis Armstrong's autobiographical writings, for example, and you'll appreciate his creative flair and life-loving spirit in a new realm; take in Art Pepper's Straight Life, and you might come away thinking that the saxophonist could have done double-duty as a hardboiled novelist.
Also, as with many autobiographies by performing artists, some of these books were written with the assistance of other writers. I have not included the co-authors' names in this list, but they can be found in the links to the books themselves. I have also added the autobiographies of several people who were impresarios or otherwise chroniclers of the jazz scene such as George Wein, Valerie Wilmer, John Hammond, and Lorraine Gordon. As always, suggestions for further titles are welcome.
David Amram, Vibrations: The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram
Louis Armstrong, Swing That Music
Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life In New Orleans
Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong, In His Own Words: Selected Writings
Chet Baker, As Though I Had Wings
Danny Barker, A Life In Jazz
Charlie Barnet, Those Swinging Years
Count Basie, Good Morning Blues
Sidney Bechet, Treat It Gentle
George Benson, Benson: The Autobiography
Barney Bigard, With Louis And The Duke: The Autobiography Of A Jazz Clarinetist
Paul Bley, Stopping Time
Gary Burton, Learning To Listen
Garvin Bushell, Jazz From The Beginning
Cab Calloway, Of Minnie The Moocher And Me
Hoagy Carmichael, The Stardust Road And Sometimes I Wonder
Doc Cheatham, I Guess I'll Get The Papers And Go Home
Buck Clayton, Buck Clayton's Jazz World
Rosemary Clooney, Girl Singer: An Autobiography
Bill Coleman, Trumpet Story
Buddy Collette, Jazz Generations: A Life In American Music And Society
Eddie Condon, We Called It Music: A Generation Of Jazz
Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography
Duke Ellington, Music Is My Mistress
Peter Erskine, No Beethoven: An Autobiography And Chronicle Of Weather Report
Pops Foster, The Autobiography Of A New Orleans Jazzman
Bud Freeman, Crazeology: The Autobiography Of A Chicago Jazzman
Michael Garrick, Dusk Fire: Jazz In English Hands
Terry Gibbs, Good Vibes: A Life In Jazz
Dizzy Gillespie, To Be, Or Not... To Bop
Benny Golson, Whisper Not
Babs Gonzales, I Paid My Dues: Good Times, No Bread
Benny Goodman, The Kingdom Of Swing
Lorraine Gordon, Alive At The Village Vanguard: My Life In And Out Of Jazz Time
Charlie Haden, Conversations With Charlie Haden
John Hammond, John Hammond On Record
Lionel Hampton, Hamp
Herbie Hancock, Possibilities
Hampton Hawes, Raise Up Off Me
Jimmy Heath, I Walked With Giants
Woody Herman, The Woodchopper's Ball
Fred Hersch, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In And Out Of Jazz
Milt Hinton, Playing The Changes: Milt Hinton's Life In Stories And Photographs
Art Hodes, Hot Man
Billie Holiday, Lady Sings The Blues
Jo Jones, Rifftide: The Life And Opinions Of Papa Jo Jones
Quincy Jones, Q
Andy Kirk, Twenty Years On Wheels
Yusef Lateef, The Gentle Giant
Peggy Lee, Miss Peggy Lee: An Autobiography
Dave Liebman, What It Is: The Life Of A Jazz Artist
Wingy Manone, Trumpet On The Wing
Pat Martino, Here And Now!
Hugh Masekela, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey Of Hugh Masekela
Mezz Mezzrow, Really The Blues
Charles Mingus, Beneath The Underdog
Anita O'Day, High Times Hard Times
Chan Parker, My Life In E-Flat
Art Pepper, Straight Life
Oscar Peterson, A Jazz Odyssey
John Pizzarelli, World On A String
Pony Poindexter, The Pony Express
Valery Ponomarev, On The Flip Side Of Sound
Roy Porter, There And Back
Flora Purim, Freedom Song
Arthur Rollini, Thirty Years With The Big Bands
Marshall Royal, Marshall Royal: Jazz Survivor
Willie Ruff, A Call To Assembly
Artie Shaw, The Trouble With Cinderella
George Shearing, Lullaby Of Birdland
Horace Silver, Let's Get To The Nitty Gritty
Nina Simone, I Put A Spell On You
Willie the Lion Smith, Music On My Mind: The Memoirs Of An American Pianist
Rex Stewart, Boy Meets Horn
Horace Tapscott, Songs Of The Unsung
Billy Taylor, The Jazz Life Of Dr. Billy Taylor
Clark Terry, Clark
Mel Torme, It Wasn't All Velvet
George Wein, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music
Dickie Wells, The Night People
Randy Weston, African Rhythms
Bob Wilber, Music Was Not Enough
Valerie Wilmer, Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This: My Life In The Jazz World
Teddy Wilson, Teddy Wilson Talks Jazz
Also see:
Robert Gottlieb, editor, Reading Jazz: A Gathering Of Autobiography, Reportage, And Criticism
Christopher Harlos, "Jazz Autobiography" in Representing Jazz (edited by Krin Gabbard)
Daniel Stein, Music Is My Life: Louis Armstrong, Autobiography, And American Jazz
Daniel Stein, The Performance Of Jazz Autobiography
Previous Night Lights bibliographies:
