HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA

Yes, this is The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It, but add the ladies and the people who are making it right now and you have a fuller picture. This is recollection of the journey of jazz from New Orleans' Storyville to the San Francisco school. By interview and article or book, a dazzling roster of contributors talk out — about jazz, their fellow jazzmen and the progress. First there is New Orleans with a marvelous picture of the breakup of Storyville — but music carried on; then upriver via Fate Marable and others to Chicago — Mezz Mezzrow talks on "jam session", Hoagy Carmichael and others give Bix Beiderbecke's story unforgettably. On to Harlem — Duke Ellington and his band, the joybringing Fats Waller, as Count Basie and others remember him, Ethel Water's account of a set-to with Bessie Smith. Mary Lou Williams tells of her Kaycee, Kansas City, where Basie became Count on a radio spot, and heralded in the Era of Swing. The experimenters in bop speak up for themselves and recall their meetings at Minton's and playing at Fifty-Second Street. New ideas and sounds are put forth by Kenton, Herman, Gillespie; Dave Brubeck talks of jazz' relationship with Milhaud, Stravinsky and others. You'll want to meet these jazzmen in their music after reading this and to help you there is a list of long playing records selected by chapter groupings. There is a look at problems such as narcotics and race troubles on the road. A candid shot of the jazz world with the pull of its most magnetic names and personalities.