Jazz Giants

This handsome oversize volume is an assemblage of 359 relatively unknown photographs (52 in color), compiled by a Japanese designer, mainly from the work of 14 photographers but including nearly 40 of his own pictures as well. Jazz instrumentalists, singers, composers and some unidentified people are shown in formal and relaxed poses. The images, spanning more than 60 years and focusing on the mainstream period from 1940 to 1960, are in no particular order, but they capture what Hentoff refers to as ``the spontaneity and individuality that are the essence of the music and those who make it.'' Some of the captions, near the margins, are hard to locate and decipher, but the pictures make up perhaps the best single compilation of jazz photos in print. (October)