[DUKE ELLINGTON] WOODWARD, Woody. Jazz Americana. Los Angeles: Trend Books, 1956.

First and only edition, signed by Duke Ellington and seven members of his orchestra. Signed on his full-page photograph ‘Duke Ellington’ and on the next page by seven leading members of his orchestra including Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams, additionally signed throughout the text by Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Jack Teagarden and ten other prominent jazz musicians. A concise history of jazz by writer and Pacific Jazz Records art director Woody Woodward. Provenance: Ross Brethour (founder of Nomadic Records; his ownership inscription to title page). Octavo (235 x 169 mm). Wire-stitched in original paper wraps.

[With:] BEECHAM, Sir Thomas (1879-1961). A Mingled Chime: An Autobiography. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1943. First edition, Duke Ellington’s Copy. Authorial inscription on the front free endpaper ‘For Duke Ellington from his admiring colleague Thomas Beecham, Aug. 10/43’. Octavo. Original blue cloth gilt, with dust-jacket. Ink-stamp of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation to front free endpaper.

[And:] HARVEY, Chas. ed. Jazz Parody: Anthology of Jazz Fiction. London: Spearman/American Jazz Society, [1948]. First edition, signed and inscribed in black ink on the front free endpaper ‘Good Luck, Duke Ellington’. Octavo. Original red linen tape-backed boards with dust-jacket.