Ain't Misbehavin'
Taproot Theatre Company presents "AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'," the Fats Waller Musical Show by Richard Maltby, Jr., from March 18th to April 25th, 2026. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this resource list of books, films, music, and websites to enhance your experience of the show.
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Jazz
Over six CDs, 111 tracks and 200 pages of earnest annotation, Washington’s august establishment aims to summarise the music’s evolution, from ragtime to the 21st century. (BBC Music Magazine)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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Prelinger Archives
Watch Fats Waller perform "Your Feet's Too Big" at the 2 minute and 43 second mark of this Prelinger Archives compilation film. - Decades before there were music videos, there were soundies. In the 1940s, you could not only listen to your favorite bands and vocalists on records or the radio, but you could also watch musical numbers on a soundie. (NPR's Fresh Air)
Format: Streaming Video
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The Rough Guide to The Roots of Jazz
From humble origins in New Orleans to its journey upriver to Chicago, this Rough Guide charts the 1920s “golden age” of jazz with classic tracks by legends such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington & Jelly Roll Morton as well as many other pioneering artists. (Publisher copy)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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Jazz
This book is a time machine and little window of illumination on this era when jazz music and the accompanying lifestyle rose to power for the first time. (All About Jazz)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Visual Blues
The Visual Blues explores the enormous impact that blues and jazz music emanating from the Deep South and moving north had on artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Art of Jazz
Musician Shipton gathers over 300 colorful images of jazz paintings, studio photos, record covers, and posters in this vibrant illustrated history. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Dead Dead Girls
Set in 1926 Harlem, Afia's atmospheric debut and series launch introduces Louise Lloyd, a 26-year-old Black waitress who lives for nights spent drinking and dancing. After Louise punches a white patrolman to prevent a racially motivated arrest, she fears she's facing a prison sentence. Then Det. Theodore Gilbert extends an offer: help him catch the serial killer preying upon neighborhood Black girls, and he'll expunge her record. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Harlem
[Bascom] makes convincing arguments that Harlem during those years was a relatively safe haven (and a "heaven") for not only writers and artists but intellectuals, political activists, religious leaders, and common folk as well. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Harlem Renaissance
Brief chapters address the rise of Harlem as an enclave of African-American culture; the lives and talents of the various artists who lived and created there; patrons of the Harlem Renaissance; the special role women played in it; the differing social, artistic, and political philosophies of the artists; and the eventual demise of the movement. (School Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Harlem Renaissance
With stirring contemporary photos and prints on thick paper, the handsome, spacious design draws you into the history and collective biography of the great African American artistic renaissance. (Booklist)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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