Big Band & Jazz Books in Harry Brabec’s Collection

Big Band & Jazz Books

in Harry Brabec’s Collection

With Quotes from the Musicians Featured in Them

Covers of several big band and jazz books in Harry Brabec's collection

Selected books from Harry Brabec’s Library

WHEN I FINALLY DECIDED TO SELL my late husband’s collection of Big Band & Jazz books on Amazon’s Marketplace, I created several web pages showing sixty-three book covers with a description of each and a link to Amazon to help sales along. I illustrated the pages with a few quotations about some of the performers profiled in these books. Since I retired these pages when I closed my Amazon Marketplace account and decided not to republish them on my new website, I thought some music lovers would appreciate what some of the most famous musicians had to say about their lives and other musicians.

Used copies of these books are still available on Amazon, in case you find any of them of interest, but first read my Author’s Note below.

The Baby Dodds Story as told to Larry Gara (1992). “Baby taught me more than all the others—not only drum playing but drum philosophy. He was the first great drum soloist.” – Gene Krupa

Benny Goodman and the Swing Era by James Lincoln Collier (1989). “After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.” Benny Goodman           

Bix–Man & Legend, by Richard M. Sudhalter & Philip R. Evans (1974). “One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?” Bix  Beiderbecke           

Fats Waller—His Life and Times, by Joel Vance (1977). “One never knows, do one?” – Fats Waller

HAMP, An Autobiography, by Lionel Hampton (1989) . “I love music, perhaps as much as life itself, and it’s given me a great deal of happiness as well as a comfortable living.” Lionel Hampton           

Eddie Condon’s Scrapbook of Jazz, by Eddie and Hank O’Neal Condon (1973). “Krupa’s drums went through us like a triple bourbon.” Eddie Condon           

Jazz Anecdotes by Bill Crow. (1990).  “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Louis Armstrong           

Jelly’s Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton, by Howard Reich and William Gaines.  “Get up from that piano. You hurtin’ its feelings.” Jelly Roll Morton           

Louis Armstrong: Biography of a Musician, by Robert Hoskins. (1979). “Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.” Louis Armstrong           

Music Is My Mistress, by Duke Ellington & Edward Kennedy Ellington (1973). “Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.” Duke Ellington           

Of Minnie the Moocher & Me, by Cab Calloway (1976). “My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.” – Cab Calloway

POPS: Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz, by Thomas A. DeLong (1983). “Jazz is the folk music of the machine age.” Paul Whiteman            

The World of Count Basie, by Stanley Dance.  (1980). “I don’t dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.” Count Basie

World of Gene Krupa by Bruce H. Klauber (1990). “I’m sick and tired of being classed as just a noise maker. I like to think of myself as a creator of sounds!” – Gene Krupa

Author’s Note

I HAD SEVERAL of Harry’s jazz and big band books still on the shelf when I closed my Amazon Marketplace account, and I would be happy to give these books a home if anyone wants to make me a reasonable offer on any of them. Because Harry treasured his books, all are of a much higher quality than any you’ll find on Amazon. Query me by email here.

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