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Sunday, February 24, 2002

By Tara Bradley-Steck

February is Black History Month, and audiobook publishers have produced both light and heavy listening for the occasion. What follows are some of my favorites, ranging from autobiographies and biographies of famous black men and women to classic and modern novels. Some are for adults, some for children and teen-agers. But in all cases, they are above-average productions read by excellent narrators.

"Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones" by Quincy Jones (Simon & Schuster Audio, $26, 7 hours on four cassettes or six CDs, unabridged)

Musician and producer Quincy Jones has a great voice, a deep baritone enhanced by a sense of humor and zest for life. That voice provides a soothing, if not incongruous, backdrop to Jones' personal anecdotes involving some of the foremost entertainers and events of the 20th century -- from the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate to the quirky antics of Michael Jackson.

Jones, known to friends as "Q," has won 26 Grammys and received more Grammy nominations -- 78 -- than any other artist. "Q" may net him another; it has been nominated for a Grammy this year in the Best Spoken Word Album category.

Jones takes the listener on a magic-carpet ride through his life, recounting his childhood growing up poor in Chicago, haunted by a deranged mother, and his teen-age years in Seattle, where his father never had enough time for him.

Jones recalls how, still in his teens, he joined a jazz band as a trumpet player and music arranger, traveling the United States and Europe with the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

Laced throughout are comments and stories by his friends and family, including ex-wife and actress Peggy Lipton, Ray Charles and rapper Melle Mel. Although some of the narrators are less adept at reading aloud than others, their lack of skill lends an air of authenticity.

What is noticeably absent, though, is music. Indeed, this audiobook cries for excerpts of Jones' famous hits, if only so those who aren't familiar with his work -- or those who simply need a memory jog -- can appreciate his talent and accomplishments.

"Q" is not a "Mommie Dearest" tell-all. Jones gives oh-so-gentle treatment to entertainment icons such as Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey and Sidney Poitier.

Instead, "Q" is best viewed as a fascinating diary of a black musician who worked on both sides of the racial divide before, during and after civil rights.

"Miracle's Boys" by Jacqueline Woodson (Random House, $18, 3 1/2 hours on two cassettes, unabridged)

"Miracle's Boys" is a beautifully told story about the relationship between three half-black, half-Puerto Rican brothers living in Harlem, and narrator Dule Hill ("The West Wing") does an outstanding job conveying their anger, fears and false bravado.

Winner of the 2001 Coretta Scott King award, "Miracle's Boys" examines a teen-ager's place within his family, his peers and his culture. Thanks to Hill's performance, I can almost feel the heat rising from the asphalt and see the boys as they sit on the stoop of their apartment building and debate the prowess of various racial gangs.

Ty'ree, Charlie and Lafayette are raising themselves after the deaths of their parents. Each boy copes in his own way: Ty'ree, 21, gives up a scholarship to MIT to work fulltime to support the others. Lafayette, 12, undergoes a year of counseling to handle his grief over his mother's death, for which he feels responsible. And 15-year-old Charlie slips into a life of crime.

The book takes place within a day or two, just after Charlie returns home -- bitter and mean -- from his two-year sentence in a juvenile correctional facility. Whether the three boys will be able to stay together depends on Charlie's decision to join a gang.

While not heavy on plot, "Miracle's Boys' " magic is in the dialogue, which is best enjoyed with a skilled reader like Hill. This is a good audiobook to introduce to young or novice listeners, who are sure to appreciate its pace, voice and message.

"Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk Tales From the Gulf States" by Zora Neale Hurston (Harper Audio, $34.95, nine hours, unabridged)

Hurston is best known for her seminal novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God." But long before her novel writing, she did anthropological fieldwork in the Deep South, determined to capture the oral history and folk tales of her people.

In 1927, with the support of Franz Boas, the dean of American anthropologists, Hurston traveled through the Gulf States on her own, collecting stories from black laborers, farmers and craftsmen. At the time, she estimated she gathered enough for seven books.

Her notes from this project were misplaced, and Hurston faded from the literary scene, dying in obscurity in a Florida welfare home in 1960.

Fortunately, those original stories were recently rediscovered in the Smithsonian's files and were published last fall in hardcover and audiobook.

More than 500 tales are presented as Hurston left them, in their vernacular with no changes to grammar or spelling. Because of this, the audiobook version is a godsend. Reading a story written in dialect is difficult. Having such great actors as Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee do the heavy lifting and interpret the work is far more satisfying.

Other audiobook suggestions:

"The Land" by Mildred D. Taylor, read by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Random House, $35, 11 hours, unabridged). This is the prequel to "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry."

"Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred Taylor, read by Lynn Thigpen (Random House, $30, eight hours, unabridged; Newbery Medal winner).

"Measure of a Man" by Sidney Poitier, read by the author (Harper Audio, $32.95, eight hours, unabridged).

"Lorraine Hansberry Audio Collection" by Lorraine Hansberry, includes plays, interviews and speeches read by Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones and others (Caedmon Audio, $25, six hours, unabridged).

"Langston Hughes Reads Langston Hughes," unabridged poems read by the author (Caedmon Audio, $12, one hour, unabridged).

"The Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B. Du Bois, read by Walter Covell (Blackstone Audiobooks, $44.95, nine hours, unabridged).

"Cry, The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton, read by Frederick Davidson (Blackstone Audiobooks, $49.95, 10 1/2 hours, unabridged)

"Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" by David J. Garrow, read by Jeff Riggenbach (Blackstone Audiobooks, $76.95 for Part 1, 16 1/2 hours, unabridged, and $85.95 for Part 2, 19 1/2 hours, unabridged; Pulitzer Prize winner).

Tara Bradley-Steck is a former news service reporter who lives in the North Hills.