No European jazz musician has so enchanted the word as Django Reinhardt, the gypsy guitarist whose recording with Stephane Grappelly and the Hot Club of France have meant "The Thirties" to several generations of listeners, influencing musicians as far afield as Larry Coryell, Leon Redbone, Eddy Lang, and Charlie Christian.This is the only full-length study of Django ever published in English, an unforgettable portrait of a wild and independent figure who never learned to read or write (friends forged his autographs), exasperated those people who lived by schedules, gambled away a week's...

A simple, heartfelt wandering of life and its happenings, Un-Orthodox Boy is a collection of poems about faith and the steady, sustaining love of God. As a text, Un-Orthodox Boy seeks, in its own way, to probe at the subtle boundaries of poetry; James' poems attempt to put on display a measured offering of human feeling-the bright visions, the deep despairs, and the spaces of the heart in-between them. Throughout Un-Orthodox Boy, James' verse exhibits moments of both levity and gravity in its desire to embroider the soul in the vibrant colours of God's goodness. It attempts to craft...

Turning Final...one of the last radio calls every pilot uses on his final approach. Except of course when that runway is carved from the jungle on a Colombian hillside and never when he has 750 pounds of Bolivian cocaine in the belly of the plane. Emilio Cruz is a Mexican turned Cuban wheeler dealer Miami business man on a mission to make his ship finally come in. His semi success in semi legitimate business deals has finally helped him purchase one twelfth of a spectacular airplane. On board also is the pilot with no name and a hit man known only as 'Poco' put there by Cruz's money man. When...

"I wish my spirit to be as the wind catchers, soaring, boundless, and free." Soul Touched is a contemporary collection of insightful poetry and short stories that capture the human experience as well as the healing power of nature. This book explores how humanity is still intertwined with nature and with other people, despite the alienation of modern culture. The collection examines the ways in which life can be experienced as an exultation of joy, yet recognizes its struggles. With natural, accessible, heartfelt language and images, the reader is given a glimpse of deep and resonant issues...

It's all about love. The desire for acceptance is a powerful urge that struggles with the need to "just be me." Volume I of Confessions of an Uncle Tom by Michael James & Donald Brown begins this often painful but sometimes humorous exploration of the term "Uncle Tom" a universal concept basically meaning "sell-out." First, one has to admit the problem, dis-cover the schism's roots, then (toil) move forward to make your true contribution. As they say down home, "It ain't hard, it just ain't easy." Learn how and why Black-Americans (and you too) still struggle with this concept in a quest for...

Happiness is our true nature, our essential being. The transient happiness that we seem to derive from external experiences actually arises only from within ourself, and is experienced by us due to the temporary calming of our mind that occurs whenever any of our desires are fulfilled. So long as our mind is extroverted, attending to anything other than our own essential self-conscious being, we can never experience perfect, permanent and unqualified happiness. To experience true and eternal happiness, we must attain the experience of true self-knowledge - that is, absolutely clear...