Frank Kofsky (1935–1997) was an American Marxist historian, author, and Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento, from 1969 until his death.^[1] A musician himself, Kofsky also wrote several books on jazz, mainly concentrating on the avant-garde of the 1960s and the relationship between musicians and the industry on which they depend.^[2]

In the liner notes for the Impulse! release of The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (A(S)-85), Kofsky gives an analysis on the transition from bop to the avant garde as it relates to Coltrane's career.

Works

• Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation (1993: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995). ISBN 978-0-312-12329-1
• Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music (1971); expanded and revised as John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s (Pathfinder Press, 1998). ISBN 978-0-87348-857-0
• Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the History and Political Economy of Jazz (Pathfinder Press, 1998). ISBN 978-0-87348-859-4
• Lenny Bruce: The Comedian as Social Critic and Secular Moralist (Anchor Foundation, 1974). ISBN 978-0-913460-32-0