New Zealand National Baha'i Reference Library Search for 'an:1006'

The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White

Orange County, CA Redwood Publishing 2023 .
195 pages ; 23 cm , Regardless of our race, sex, ethnicity, color, religion or philosophical beliefs, music is a universal tie that binds us as human beings. Every note a nod to history, every tune a step on the trajectory toward a more compassionate understanding of each other. The world of jazz music during the 1950s and 60s was an industry that reflected the struggles of the Civil Rights Era. And when a White musician enters the big stages and “sounds Black,” attempting to unify the culture of society, it can teeter on cultural treason. From spending nearly three decades as a bandmate and friend to Dizzy Gillespie and four decades as collaborator and “brother” to saxophone great, James Moody; to turning down offers from Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and the Tonight Show band with Johnny Carson; to teaching hundreds of students in the rhythmic principles of music, professional jazz pianist, Mike Longo dedicated his seventy-year music career to having his ears set on the beat and his sights set on shaping greater unity for humankind. The Rhythm of Unity takes you into a world that is no longer “Black and White,” but one where the scientific rhythms and spiritual truths of music run deep, driving to counter cultural division. Crafted from the stories Mike left behind before his passing and insightful perspective from his wife, Dorothy, this is the story of a man who fought all odds to become a driving force in using music as an uncompromised vehicle for unity, education and awareness. 978-1-956470-74-1

To Be or Not... To Bop: Dizzy Gillespie with Al Fraser

By John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie.
Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 2009 .
xix, 552 pages, 56 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm , This autobiography of American jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie tells of his life and music, but also casts light not only into the golden era of American jazz, but also into the lives of African Americans during the middle part of the 20th century 9780816665471 (pb alk. paper)

Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkár

Los Angeles Kalimat Press 1987 .
xviii, 390 p. 0-933770-16-2

Singers to the King

n.p. Aubade 1985 .
13 p.

Hazel Scott: A Woman, a Piano, and a Commitment to Justice

By Susan Engle.
Wilmette, Illinois Belwood Press 2021 .
177 p. illus , Hazel Scott was a champion for civil and women’s rights. Born in Trinidad in 1920, she moved with her family to the United States in 1924, where she played her first professional recital at age 5 and was accepted as a private student to study piano at The Juilliard School, a private performing arts conservatory in New York City, at age 8. By the time she was thirteen, she was being booked for performances as “Little Miss Hazel Scott—Child Wonder Pianist,” and soon afterward became an accomplished singer as well. In 1938, she was cast in her first Broadway musical—Sing Out the News. Shortly afterward, she recorded her first solo album—Swinging the Classics: Piano Solos in Swing Style with Drums—and appeared in her first film, Something to Shout About. As her musical and film career grew, she made headlines by standing up for the rights of women and African Americans, and she refused to play for segregated audiences. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the March on Washington in August, 1963, Hazel led a march in Paris, where she was living, in front of the American Embassy. She learned about the Bahá’í Faith from Dizzy Gillespie and became a Bahá’í on December 1, 1968. She passed away in 1981. 978-1-61851-194-2