Verve: The Sound of America Book

Verve: The Sound of America shows how one label changed the course of modern music and brought jazz to the world. The story of Verve Records is the story of jazz. Verve signed practically every major jazz artist of the fifties and sixties and is home to some of the greatest music ever recorded. Norman Granz, the record labels founder, also organised hugely influential, high-profile, racially integrated concerts, first at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and then at venues across America and then around the world. These Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, and the later tours, had a huge impact in America a country still suffering the injustice and cultural impoverishment of segregation. 2014 will be the 70th anniversary of the first JATP concert and this exhaustive 400-page volume is the ultimate guide to the artists, the music and the locations that made Verve great and jazz cool. Heavily illustrated with both iconic and unseen photographs, classic cover art and ephemera, and insightful timelines and infographics, this is a visually exciting history of jazz and the definitive book on Verve Records.