This is one of a series of short, staple bound books published by Café Royal Books. Café Royal Books is the publishing project of artist and scholar Craig Atkinsion, dedicated to the creation of a “focussed and complete archive of British documentary photography.” Café Royal books are generally printed in black and white in relatively small editions, and focus on works by photographers of any nationality made in the British Isles, as well as works by British photographers made abroad.

This book collects Sefton Samuels’s photographs of jazz musicians between 1954 and 1995. Samuels, who had a brief career as a jazz drummer (and is captured at his instrument in this book’s only image by another photographer) captured the intense artistry and joy of musicians in performance. Musicians depicted include: Roland Kirk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Sun Ra, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Paul Gonsalves, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and more. Samuels is also known for his photographs of daily life in Northern England.