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 “The lively description and compelling imagery...makes one feel like a witness to the events.”  —Ron Carter, from the foreword

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The first famous double-bass stylist in jazz, George Murphy “Pops” Foster enjoyed a career that spanned gigs with greats from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. This autobiography, first published in 1971 and now lovingly reissued with a generous collection of rare photographs, was created from 70 hours of interviews with this beloved and influential musician. Foster recounts his seven-decade career with uncanny attention to detail and charming candor, providing an uncensored look at the society in which jazz developed and breathing life into legends such as Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Sydney Bechet. As he takes us on his journey from plantation to riverboat, New Orleans to New York City, Foster paints an indelible panorama of the jazzman’s life while setting the record straight on many crucial points of jazz history. As Pops himself said, “This book is gonna straighten a lot of things out.”

In addition to Pops’s own words, The Autobiography of Pops Foster also includes an introduction by classical bass master Bertram Turetzky, a new foreword by jazz legend Ron Carter, in-depth essays by jazz historian Ross Russell, and discographies for exploring Foster’s work and traditional New Orleans jazz.

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A jazz aficionado and avid collector, the late Tom Stoddard also wrote Jazz on the Barbary Coast and Ceramic Coin Banks: Value & Identification Guide (with Loretta Stoddard).

[Backbeat Books logo, ISBN 0-87930-809-5, $17.95]