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:

“Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life,” John Litweiler, Morrow, ($23). The first full-length biography of the saxophonist whose free-form innovation set the jazz world on its ear, Litweiler’s book is an important and thorough investigation of the incidents of Coleman’s career. Despite its drawbacks--Litweiler’s prose often stands in dull contrast to the energy of Coleman’s music and he gives only the tiniest sense of his subject’s motivation--this is a necessary cornerstone in the understanding of Coleman’s ongoing revolution.