Here's an old-school version of what our editor calls a "link dump": a legacy media dump.

—The Jazz Fiction Anthology: Recently, I've had my nose in a way cool book called The Jazz Fiction Anthology (Sascha Feinstein and David Rife, editors). Some of these pieces I've read before (I think I was in junior high when I read James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"), but many were new to me. The editors also include authors from beyond the U.S. — Julio Cortazar and Xu Xi for example.

What is jazz fiction? There are at least as many answers to that as there are authors included in this anthology (29). In fact, David Rife offered 500 answers/authors in a 2008 book called Jazz Fiction: A History and Comprehensive Reader's Guide. Jazz fiction can read like bebop sounds; it can tell stories of jazz musicians; it can riff a story from a song title. Find out for yourself.

—The Jazz Ear: Ben Ratliff's The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music is now in paperback. The New York Times writer conducted interviews with a handful of post-bop pioneers (Wayne Shorter, Andrew Hill), a few stone cold legends (Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, Ornette Coleman) and some younger movers and shakers (Maria Schneider, Pat Metheny).

His concept is simple: listening to music, any kind, with musicians. He asked for five or six songs from each artist to prompt a couple hours of listening and conversation. The series originally ran in the Times, and it was always cool to see how musicians reacted. As I'm trying to keep this old school, you'd do well to line up the vinyl discs chosen and spin them as they come around in the book.

 

—A New Monk Biography: We all know the stories and myths: a child-like genius, bouts of depression, success late in life. But Robin D.G. Kelley has written a different sort of Thelonious Monk biography, one which me from the first line of the prelude: "Benetta Smith — known affectionately as 'Teeny' — loved to visit her Aunt Nellie and Uncle Thelonious." We assume Monk was someone's uncle/parent/brother-in-law/cousin, but "Uncle" Thelonious is not what comes to mind when we think of the jazz giant.

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is Kelley's detailed and riveting portrayal of Monk the human being: a family man, a frustrated jazz musician trying to make a living, a victim of bipolar disorder when society didn't understand such things. This is a must-read for every jazz fan, as well as those who want to know more about the music and the people who made it. Quite honestly, the stories about the Harlem venue Minton's Playhouse changed how I listen to bebop.

—Collections Of Cover Art: I've also been lugging around two album cover books in my backpack on the Metro: Freedom, Rhythm and Sound from Soul Jazz Records, and Wax Poetics' Cover Story: Album Cover Art. They will both have you craving the return of LP album art.

—Jazz Icons: From the printing press to the television tubes — well, sort of. The latest set of Jazz Icons videos will hit the street Oct. 27 (many retailers are offering pre-orders). I talked to researcher Hal Miller here before, and series 4 does not disappoint. In a nutshell: researchers like Miller travel to Europe and comb various state-run media vaults for previously unearthed concerts of American jazz musicians. The series concentrates on the early '60s through the '70s; so far each block of releases has been stellar. This time out: Jimmy Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Art Farmer, Erroll Garner, Woody Herman, Art Blakey and Anita O'Day.

—Latin Music USA: PBS is presenting a multimedia documentary series called Latin Music USA. Parts one and two of four ran last week, featuring Latin jazz and the influence of mambo and cha-cha-cha on American popular music. Some of us will no doubt raise an eyebrow when we hear the words "jazz" and "PBS" used in the same sentence because of the controversy Ken Burns' Jazz series created a decade ago. So far the series seems to be getting things mostly right, though if you check the posts on the Yahoo latin jazz list serve you'll get an eye- and earful of the complete story. Stay tuned for parts three and four and decide for yourself.

—Voces: PBS is also running a series called Voces. It's is a production of Latino Public Broadcasting, and is not strictly about music. However, there are segments devoted to both Celia Cruz ("Celia The Queen") and Tito Puente ("Tito Puente: The King of Latin Music"). Celia and Tito were obviously major contributors to Latin musical expression here in the U.S.; we know that. But will our children's children know it too? Programs such as these two documentaries help keep their legacies intact.

Ok, back to your Web browsing, Tweeting and mp3 listening. The old media dump is done for now.