A HISTORY OF JAZZ IN AMERICA

by Barry Ulanov ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A very detailed account and appraisal of the emergence and evolution of jazz, in terms of its changing styles and its leading stylists and in strict respect of the artistry of the medium -- as against its adulteration by popular entertainment. From its background in Africa, to its origins here in the Negro slave song of the cotton field and levee, jazz had its real beginning in 1895 in the red-light salons and saloons of New Orleans' Storyville, which served as a background for the trumpet tone and gravel throat of Louis Armstrong, one of its greatest performers. Migrating up to Chicago, then east to New York, jazz became alternately ragtime and swing and bop, served as the symbol -- and the symptom-of the '20's, and at the heighth of creative impulse and invention --produced such artists as Bessie Smith, Bix Beiderbecke, Ethel Waters, Billie Holliday, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, etc. etc. The history here of the bands, the instrumentalists, the singers and the recordings is impressively inclusive; the standards applied selective; and the book should serve as a definitive guide for collectors and fanciers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1952

Categories: NONFICTION