Books

Compact discs are generally the gift of choice for the jazz enthusiast, but books and videos on jazz can be provocative and informative alternatives. Here are some of the year’s top books and videos, as selected by members of The Times’ jazz staff:

“Reading Jazz,” edited by David Meltzer, Mercury House ($14.95). Meltzer’s theme in this anthology--that the culture of jazz has largely been defined and “neutralized” by white writers--isn’t new. But his evidence, culled from such writers as Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Norman Mailer and dozens of others, adds new and damning weight to the argument. In his “Pre-ramble” and chapter introductions, Meltzer often stumbles into his own trap, embracing the same kind of myth-making he disparages. But the collection itself is a revealing and, at times, disturbing look at the issue of race and the homogenization of jazz.