As Serious As Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz (Five Star)
Valerie Wilmer is a music historian who has been documenting African-American music since 1959. She has written several books on the subject and documented her life in jazz in her autobiography - Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This.  She is on the advisory panel of the prestigious New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and her photography features in the permanent collections of several museums. She lives in London.