This book explores the lives, words, and music of vocalists past and present to portray the diverse and stimulating world of the jazz singer. Singing Jazz examines the ups and downs of a tough profession: the learning process, be it on the road or in school; the problems of building a repertoire, finding work, travelling, performing in often difficult circumstances; and the struggle for recognition in the world of popular music, where talent and dedication are sometimes not enough. Authors Bruce Crowther and Mike Pinfold revisit the lives and stylistic innovations of great performers in jazz...

Phil Davis, a cop in a small Texas town investigates a brutal triple homicide. Jack Ryker, enforcer for a Texas crime boss, sees a report on the murders and believes the victims are his wife and young children. He resolves to hunt down the killer. Barbara Nichols, the TV reporter covering the case sees it as her ticket to the big time. The lives of these three, Davis, Ryker and Nichols, intertwine as Phil Davis, more hindered than helped by a devious FBI agent, pursues the killer south through Texas. As Ryker wreaks havoc among the criminals with whom he has long been a feared associate,...

The Colors Of Your Life is a play about racial and sexual discrimination in the USA in the 1960s and the present day, seen through the dramatic lives and often terrifying experiences of its two characters, May and Shirley, who are grandmother and granddaughter. The play can be performed with or without songs especially written by Ed Anderson. Without songs, it is an absorbing account of life for Black women in America, then and now. With songs, it remains a powerful statement, the songs adding to the account traced in the text. The play is for a cast of two and can be presented with the...

Hollywood homicide detective, Toshiko Tanaka, investigating the sadistic killing of a bit-part player in old-time movies finds similarities with killings at Rialto Pictures a half century ago. Harry Kenning, who retired from making Western movies fifty years ago, returns to Hollywood with his old movie sidekick, Billy Ross, to visit some of the people they knew back then. More murders happen, and Toshiko and Harry team up in an unlikely partnership to try to solve today's murders. Along the way, they encounter Lee Castle, Harry's old rival, now internationally famous, Raoul Hernandez,...

Texas cop Phil Davis investigates the victim of a road accident who bears scars inflicted over decades. Discovering that similarly scarred men have recently died, Phil digs deeper. Seeking to unearth a dangerous undercover group of political extremists, FBI agent Luis Valdez makes a connection to the scarred men and the long-ago death of a young woman. While Phil and Luis tie together the two investigations, psychiatrist Rozalina Ericson pursues her own agenda through an old man who has served 25 years for the young woman's death. And then there is Quinn, ruthless, unstoppable, an all-purpose...