Black Music: Essays

"Baraka writes with the passion and lyricism that can only come from a jazz critic who is uncompromisingly invested in the social and aesthetic dimensions of the music." --WBGO (Newark Public Radio)

In 2007, Akashic Books ushered Amiri Baraka back into the forefront of America's literary consciousness with the short story collection Tales of the Out & the Gone. Now, this reissue of Black Music--long out of print--features a highly provocative and profoundly insightful collection of essays on jazz criticism, the creative process, and the development of a new way forward for black artists.

Black Music is a book about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and others. This rich and vital collection is comprised of essays, reviews, interviews, liner notes, musical analyses, and personal impressions from 1959-1967.