"Silence. That was the response at Cafe Society the first time Billie Holiday performed a song called "Strange Fruit." In the 1930s, Billie was known as a performer of jazz and blues music, but his song wasn't either of those things, . It was a song about injustice, and it would change her life forever. Discover how two outsiders- Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants- combined their...

Did you know that jazz music has its roots in Africa and Europe? It came from a kind of music called ragtime. Find out more in Jazz, one of the titles in the My Favorite Music series.

A complete account of the triumphs and difficulties of the brilliant and high-tempered Nina Simone, whose distinctive voice and music occupy a singular place in the canon of American song. One of eight children in a proud North Carolina black family, the prodigiously talented child was trained in classical piano through the charity of a local white woman, then devastatingly rejected by the Curtis Institute of Music--a dream deferred that would forever...

"One evening in 1924, Katharine "Kay" Swift--the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and a serious pianist who longs for recognition--attends a concert. The piece: Rhapsody in Blue. The composer: a brilliant, elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin. Kay is transfixed, helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George's talent, charm, and swagger. Their ten-year love affair, complicated by her conflicted loyalty...

Playboy-the magazine, the empire, the lifestyle-is one of the world's best-known brands. Since the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first, obviously, is the celebration of nubile, female flesh. The second, readers may be surprised to learn, is Playboy's involvement in the music scene. The Playboy experience was never just about sex but about lifestyle. Music-particularly the finest jazz, a personal...

"The early years of Sarah Vaughan's career coincided with the waning of the swing era, and this biography shows how the change both fuelled and limited her career." - The New Yorker "Queen of Bebop explores the hard choices of many a jazz singer when rock 'n roll began stealing audience focus, relying on a variety of performers to shed light on Vaughan's mindset. A welcome and well-researched accounting of Vaughan's life story. " - NPR.org "Necessary...