This is the autobiography by one of the wildest and most fascinating personalities of Rock music, drummer Ginger Baker. Published forty years after the peak of his popularity as member of the legendary Cream, Baker´s life story is a great piece of Rock history.

Told in great detail and spanning the period stretching from his childhood and until the mid 2000s (the Cream reunion), this is a tale of a strong man fighting his demons (drug abuse, violence and bed temper) and playing some incredible music on the way.

Baker´s life coincides with the history of British Rock of course, and his path from the early amateur Jazz bands, to professional Jazz bands to early modern Rock and Jazz-Rock (Graham Bond Organization) and later Cream, Blind Faith, Air Force… and then his involvement with African music and eventually his relocation to Africa… it´s all here.

The book is a relatively easy read, Baker´s life passing before the reader´s eyes like a documentary movie. Lot´s of typical British humor and his personal opinion about other musicians and events keep the reader glued until the very end. Highly recommended to all Classic Rock fans!

This is an exquisite book, which was originally created as the catalogue of an exhibition dedicated to the great Miles Davis, which was first presented in Paris (2009/2010) and later in Montreal (2010).

The book collects hundreds of superb photographs of Miles and his biography in seven chapters, telling his extraordinary story as outlined against the development of Jazz and as an Art Form. The elegant and fascinating graphic design (typically French) and intelligent and insightful texts (translated into English) make this a wonderful reading / aesthetic experience, not to be missed by any Miles´ fan.

Although there are several good books about Miles, his life and his music out there, this one presents a whole new experience, both visual and textual, which is unique and stunning. A must!

This is a fascinating autobiography by Polish guitarist Wieslaw Bernolak, one of the pioneers of Polish Rock. From the early 1960s, when he was a founding member of the Czerwono-Czarni (Red-Blacks), Bernolak experienced at first hand the early days of Rock And Roll under the Socialist Regime, which is a tale of "against all odds" from start to finish.

Later on Bernolak was a founding member of the excellent group Polanie, which was founded by joining several members of the Czerwono-Czarni with members from their bitter rivals Niebiesko-Czarni (Blue-Blacks). Polanie were the first Polish supergroup and their music was much more advanced that anything else at the time. The book ends in 1969, when Bernolak, like many other Poles, left his country, in his case to Sweden, to try their luck in a less stressful environment.

The memoirs are accompanied by many photographs, which add a visual aspect to the detailed story of these strange and fascinating times. People interested in the development of Rock behind the Iron Curtain will find this fascinating, but alas the book is in Polish, with limits the audience to Polish-speaking readers.

This is a first of its kind attempt to write a comprehensive book about Jazz in Poland, one of the great European Jazz centers with a fascinating history and rich tradition. Brodacki, who was there to witness the development of Jazz in his homeland since the late 1960s as a fan, amateur musician, journalist, photographer, organizer and activist, has an extensive personal experience, on which the book is largely based.

However, although well researched and presenting a plethora of facts, all in chronological order, the author is not a historian per se, lacking the objectivity and historical perspective required in such a lofty task as presented by this book. Many of the opinions presented in this book are highly personal and often plainly biased, sometimes outdated and somewhat distorted by the usual Polish small envies, cliques, internal political struggles, etc. Some important Jazz personas are misrepresented or plainly omitted, other receive an exaggerated praise and importance.

In retrospect I´m quite convinced now that a proper history of Polish Jazz can be written only by an "outsider", i.e. someone with the skills and knowledge but not a Pole.

Altogether this book remains an important pioneering effort, which hopefully will be followed by a more thorough attempt in the near future.

This is a biography of a true music legend, the great Jimi Hendrix. Writing such a book is of course an immense challenge and not one of the many books about Hendrix comes even close of telling the full story, as it should be done.

The author did collect a myriad of facts and interviewed a great many people, which is of course commendable. The book includes therefore a very detailed account of the life (and death) of the guitar hero. For those readers, who are interested in the history, this is book is therefore quite adequate and in many respects better than most of its predecessors. Those readers waiting for a serious analysis of the Hendrix musical legacy will have to wait…

As the book is reasonably well written, it was quite a pleasure to read.

I had the immense pleasure of writing the foreword to this book as well as adding a few details from my memory banks and a few reviews of Jon Hiseman´s albums – a sort of "thank you" note to Jon, who made my life happier and more interesting with his music. Jon´s contribution to the revolutionary British Jazz and Progressive Rock is vast and invaluable, and this great book tells, for the first time and in great detail, how and why things happened the way they did over the years. It presents an amazing story of Jon´s life as a musician, full of facts and anecdotes, successes and failures, which together produce a fascinating read. But it also is much more than just one man´s history – it is a history of the entire British musical scene during some of its most glorious years. The book is an absolute must to anybody interested in Prog, British Jazz and music history in general and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Anybody interested in reading my foreword can do so in the "Writings" section on this site.

This beautiful book collects just a few of the myriad of phenomenal Jazz photographs by the great Polish photographer Marek Karewicz, who is undoubtedly one of the Masters of his trade worldwide. Karewicz has been an integral part of the Polish Jazz scene since its inception and his photographs are probably the most important archive of the scene, in parallel of course with the recordings. He also photographed all the visiting musicians, who played concerts in Poland, especially during the Jazz Jamboree annual festival, which basically means all the Jazz Masters. As a photographer, Karewicz not only has a great "eye" but also the "soul" and understanding of the music, adding many dimensions to his Art, which are unique, profound and esthetically sublime. He was also a great designer and is responsible for 2000 album covers. H exhibited his work all over the world. Each of the 150 photographs in this book is accompanied by a short personal commentary by Karewicz. This book is a great tribute to his work, but any Jazz fan in the world should find it simply irresistible, not to mention people who love the Art of photography. His poor health didn´t prevent him from signing a copy of his book for me, which I´ll treasure as long as I live. Thank you Marek for your Gift and the enormous pleasure inspired by it and the privilege of knowing you!

This book is a brilliant account of the Record Industry form the late 1970s and up to 2008, focusing on the Major (Universal, Sony BMG, Warner & EMI) record labels´ demise in the age of digital media. The book is excellently researched and brings endless quotes from the industry´s leading personalities and experts, backed by facts and figures, all showing how greed, stupidity and narrow-mindedness ruined the goose that laid the golden eggs for decades. Internal wars, personality clashes, scandalous salaries and ego trips are all there, as are many fascinating stories about the invention of the CD, Napster, iTunes and a myriad other terms relevant to the story. Although many of the basic facts are well known, collecting them together in a coherent, step-by-step history / analysis is an eye-opener, even for people well acquainted with the background, like myself. Once I started reading this book I just couldn´t stop, swallowing it page by page in a marathon reading session, something which didn´t happen to me in a long time. I´m not sure I agree with the author about the last chapter of his book, which states that although the Record Industry is dead the Music Industry is alive and kicking. He also doesn´t touch the subject of the influence of the Digital Age upon Music (the Art of) itself, but perhaps that is something another book will cover, although it might be still too early for this. In any case this is a must read for anybody interested in the "behind the scenes" of the Record Industry, Business in general and social implications of change.

This is a new, expanded version of the earlier book by the same author: "Niemen O Sobie", which presents the life of Poland´s most important Rock personality, vocalist / composer Czeslaw Niemen.

Based on extensive interviews with the author, spanning the period between late 1960s and until Niemen´s death in 2004, the book is a unique document, somewhere between a biography and an autobiography. Additional interviews with Niemen´s family, musicians he worked with and other people all add many fascinating facets about Niemen´s life and music.

Of course every Niemen fan (able to read Polish) will find this book indispensible and highly exciting, but it is worth reading even by people who don´t know much about Niemen, since his life story is full of drama and human emotions. Brilliant stuff!

This is a fascinating history of the Polish Blues-Rock group Blackout, one of the pivotal and most important, but short lived groups on the Polish 1960s scene, which later developed in the group Breakout, which dominated the Polish Rock scene in the 1970s.

Meticulously researched and including many photographs, the group tells the history of the group between late 1965 and early 1968, when it morphed into Breakout. Personal clashes between the founder / leader Tadeusz Nalepa and lead singer Stan Borys, as well as the presence of lead singer Mira Kubasinska, created a tense atmosphere, but nevertheless the group had little competition on the Polish scene and enjoyed wide popularity and success in the radio charts.

Every musician involved with the group is interviewed in depth, telling (to the best of their ability after many years) their "side" of the story. A CD with ultra-rare live performance by the group in 1966 is included.

This is a great piece of the Polish Rock history, which should be of interest to all the fans of the early days of that fascinating period.

This fascinating book is the first biography of the European Jazz icon, Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert. Born in Krakow, Poland on June 7, 1946 Seifert was a completely unique phenomenon, a musical Genius and a wonderful person and his life´s story, tragically cut short by cancer at the ridiculous age of 32 (he died February 14, 1979 in Buffalo, USA) is an epic of Hollywood proportions. Like the young Icarus, Seifert soared through the sky with his music, but his destiny was for his lofty plans to remain unfulfilled.

Seifert´s contribution to Polish Jazz as a leader of his own quartet (late 1960s) and a member of the Tomasz Stanko quintet (early 1970s) is colossal. He was a pivot figure in the transition of Polish Jazz from the early phase dominated by American Jazz tradition into the new European Jazz, emancipated from the restriction imposed upon the music by earlier concepts.

His international (first European and later also American) career in the mid to late 1970s, which was his most illustrious, although heavily disrupted by his illness in the last three years of his life, is one of the highlights of European Jazz, of which he became one of the brightest stars.

The author meticulously collected a vast amount of facts, documents, letters, photographs, articles, record reviews, interviews and other biographical data and wove them into a lucid, chronological story, which is easily readable and highly educational. She avoids commentary (or keeps it to the minimum) on matters which had political, sociological or other implications, keeping the text on subject at all times.

The musical criticism in this book is limited to quotes from other musicians or articles / reviews quoted. There is no serious musical analysis present, neither from the musicological nor historical point of view, which is perhaps for the good of the book as it stands. Such highly professional writing might have turned the book into a much more difficult reading experience, reducing the potential readership to a selected group of specialists. This book is intended for a wide audience, for people who knew him personally (like myself), people familiar with his music and especially for the young generation of Jazz musicians and fans, who definitely should be aware of this great man´s heritage.

The fact that the book was published in polish unfortunately limits the accessibility to readers familiar with that language, but I do hope this will be remedied at some point, as it definitely deserves to be available to all Jazz fans around the globe.

Thank you Aneta for your hard work, inspiration and dedication needed to complete this project!

This beautiful book tells the story of Love Records, the small Finnish record label Love Records, which was active in the 1960s / 1970s and released some of the best, most interesting and most beautiful music on this planet.

Beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, this book is a tribute of love to the label´s unique status and achievement. In retrospect Love Records were one of several labels, which changed the fate of music by allowing unknown and uncompromising musicians to record and release their music, which would later influence generations of young musicians. The disregard of commercial considerations and the complete artistic freedom which the label offered its artists was symbolic and prophetic, as it eventually brought the label to its financial collapse.

This book is a superb tribute paid to the label´s creative output and one can only wish that other labels of similar importance and fate will be attributed in similar way one day.

More than any other Jazz icon, John Coltrane continues to fascinate writers / researchers / critics and the music listeners, now 45 years after his tragically untimely death. Quite a few books about Coltrane, his life and his music were written and published over time, but this new book by NYT Jazz critic Ben Ratliff is one of the best.

Having the benefit of a longer historical perspective (than other authors) and the open-mindedness (he is also a Rock critic) required for understanding music, Ratliff examines again what he calls the legendary "Coltrane sound", trying to describe its essence and aesthetic influence. In part two of the book he tries to analyze the influence of Coltrane´s music upon other Jazz musicians over time as well as Culture in general.

The book is excellently written and proposes many highly intellectual issues, which deserve to be contemplated in depth. It is intelligent and provoking as well as highly educational even for people, who have already consumed many books about Coltrane. The only slight point of criticism would be (as with almost everything written in the US) the complete omission of Coltrane´s influence on European Jazz in particular and European music in general, which in fact was even more dramatic than the influence in the US soil.

Altogether this is an instant classic, which deservers to be a part of any serious music library. Kudos Ben!

This is a stunning book, which collects hundreds of mostly black & white photographs of The Rolling Stones by the Danish photographer Bent Rej, taken between March 1965 and May 1966. These extraordinary photographs tell the story of the group at the formative time, when their popularity was rising like a rocket and had no rivals other that The Beatles.

The old phrase that "a picture tells a thousand words" is true in this case more than ever. The text accompanying the photographs in factual and very informative, but of course the images are much more important. This is a superb example of marvelous Rock photography of the highest quality, which is characterized not only by the technical quality of the photographs, but more importantly by the keen eye of the Artist, able to catch the right moment, with the right lighting effect and the dramatic dynamics frozen in a split second.

This is an absolute must to every Rolling Stones fan and Rock photography connoisseur.

This is a great book by Polish musicologist / educator / activist Andrzej Schmidt, which presents a detailed and well researched history of Jazz from its earliest days (and even its genealogy), which for a Polish reader unable to read publications in English is the most comprehensive source of information on the subject.

Well written and accompanied by many examples of musical notation as well as relevant photographs, this book presents a wealth of knowledge rarely available from other sources. The strength of the book lies especially in the early period of the Jazz history, which occupies the majority of the book, and less so with more recent developments, but in truth there are very many books published about modern Jazz and relatively very few about the early days of Jazz, which makes this book even more important.

If not for the language barrier, this book could be a classic textbook on the subject worldwide.

I´ve read a fair share of Jazz biographies in my life, probably more than most people, but reading this one was a unique experience altogether. The life of Polish Jazz legend, trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, could easily serve as inspiration for a Dostoyevsky novel or a Polanski film, not to mention a Greek play. "Living on edge", or Desperado, is Stanko´s motto, both as a musician / composer and a human being. Today, aged 70, Stanko´s personal life might have taken a turn towards relative tranquility, but his creative powers remain as tumultuous as ever.

The story of Stanko´s life and musical career, told in his own words, is a fascinating testimony of struggle; struggle against injustice of a corrupt social reality created by political dictatorship, struggle against personal demons, weaknesses and fears, struggle against the indifference of this world towards Art in general… and above all struggle with the price one has to pay for taking an artistic stand and persistently doing, what one´s inner-self dictates.

Stanko´s story is also a fascinating document about the relationship between drug addiction and creativity, the struggle to stay alive and create – both physically and metaphysically. In a wider perspective, his life story is also the story of the Polish Jazz scene after WWII – the birth of the modern Jazz and Free Jazz movements, its existence under the Socialist regime and the metamorphosis it underwent following the collapse of the old system, with the new social and economic realities.

The factual information contained herein included no revelations as far as I´m concerned, but my knowledge and personal involvement with the Polish Jazz scene is hardly common. Surely, for a less informed reader there is a wealth of facts here, which is staggering. For me, the experience of reading this book was similar to reminiscing stories I´ve heard since my childhood; a warm, fuzzy feeling of familiarity.

But the pleasure derived from reading Stanko´s own words, including his idioms, curses and deeply personal opinions is the real deal. Technically the book is a transcript of a series of conversations between Stanko and the Polish journalist Rafal Ksiezyk, who asks him a long set of leading questions and Stanko´s answers tell the story. It´s obvious that Ksiezyk did an excellent job researching Stanko´s life and his questions are both intelligent and inquisitive enough to keep the story developing smoothly, albeit not avoiding unpleasant and difficult issues and agendas.

The book also includes an informative section with a chronology and discography as well as numerous photographs.

Any way one looks at this book, it is a masterly done piece of biography, which keeps the reader on his toes at all times. Alas, available only in Polish, this book cries out for a translation into English, as Stanko´s fan base stretches today far beyond his homeland.

This is a collection of conversations between the author and the renowned Polish Jazz pianist / composer Adam Makowicz, which constitute a biography of Makowicz but also his credo as to the music he prefers to play and his musical goals and aspirations.

Makowicz talks about his childhood in Silesia, his early musical education and later his move to Krakow, Warsaw and eventually the USA, where he lives now. People familiar with the Polish Jazz scene will find his memories fascinating, as Makowicz was often at the epicenter of the turbulent local scene in the 1960s and 1970s, playing in some of the first-class ensembles along such great musician like Michal Urbaniak, Tomasz Stanko and many others.

He also presents the story of his emigration to the USA and his way to success there, being in fact the only Polish Jazz musician, who managed to become successfully assimilated into the US scene.

Overall it is a fascinating read and another piece of the Polish Jazz history, which deserves to be told and interests many Jazz lovers around the world. Of course the fact that the book is in Polish makes its accessibility quite limited

This is an autobiography by one of Rock´s best know musicians, Ron Wood. In his own words Ronnie tell the story of his journey in the excessive world of Rock ´N´ Roll, from the early days with Jeff Beck, The Faces and then for the last thirty years as a Rolling Stone.

There are plenty of facts and the storyline is presented coherently, which is rarely the case with Rock autobiographies. Every reader will probably find something for himself as this is a first hand story about the history of Rock told by a man who was there if the front trenches.

Quite an enjoyable read!