Sam Stephenson, The Jazz Loft Project (Knopf). In the late 1950s and early ’60s, a loft on New York’s Sixth Avenue was headquarters for master photographer W. Eugene Smith and hangout for dozens of musicians including companions as various as Zoot Sims, Pee Wee Russell, Thelonious Monk and Bud Freeman. Stephenson’s narrative links transcriptions of conversations taped in the loft and pages of photographs Smith made of jam sessions and of the street life he saw from his windows. The book captures an important slice of jazz and New York history.