Books by Brian Morton

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings is firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful - often wittily trenchant - criticism. This is something rather different: Brian Morton (who taught American history at UEA) has picked out the 1000 best recordings that all jazz fans should have and shows how they tell the history of the music and with it the history of the twentieth century. He has completely revised his and Richard Cook's entries and reassessed each artist's entry for this book. The result is an endlessly browsable companion that will prove required reading for aficionados and jazz novices alike.'It's the kind of book that you'll yank off the shelf to look up a quick fact and still be reading two hours later' Fortune'Part jazz history, part jazz Karma Sutra with Cook and Morton as the knowledgeable, urbane, wise and witty guides ... This is one of the great books of recorded jazz; the other guides don't come close' Irish Times

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies, chamber music, ballets and operas, the latter including "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" 1934, which was suppressed as too divorced from the proletariat', but revived as "Katerina Izmaylova" 1963.

365 short texts written close to midnight each day for a year; often amusing, sometimes melancholy, wholly personal but always challenging, thoughtprovoking and witty. Brian Morton is a Scottish writer and the author of several biographies including Miles Davis, Prince, Edgar Allen Poe and was co-author with the late Richard Cook of The Penguin Guide to Jazz

Presents the life of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), from his early years during the American Civil War, through his academic and political career and US' involvement in the First World War, to Wilson's role at Versailles, including the construction of his 14 Points, his principles for the reformation of Europe, and the consequences of Versailles.