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:

“Notes and Tones,” Arthur Taylor, Da Capo ($13.95). The drummer conducts interviews, done mostly in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, with 30 or so of his compatriots, from Art Blakey and Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Taylor asks unusual questions: He queries the rarely interviewed Monk and Blakey about the Black Power movement, asks Max Roach if boxing is comparable to music. The answers are equally unexpected.