"Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan is the complete biography of the first female jazz vocalist to record on the prestigious Blue Note record label. In this book, biographer Ellen Johnson reveals the challenges Jordan confronted to become an influential recording artist and performer, working with many famous jazz luminaries of the era."--

"Millie danced to jazz in her Italian neighborhood. Pedro danced to Latin songs in his Puerto Rican neighborhood. It was the 1940s in New York City, and they were forbidden to dance together . . . until first a band and then a ballroom broke the rules. Machito and His Afro-Cubans hit the scene with a brand-new sound, blending jazz trumpets and saxophones with Latin maracas and congas creating Latin jazz, music for the head, the heart, and the hips....