The 1920s were not called the Jazz Age for nothing. Celebrated by writers from Langston Hughes to Gertrude Stein, jazz was the dominant influence on American popular music, despite resistance from whites who distrusted its vibrant expression of black culture and by those opposed to the overt sexuality and raw emotion of the `devil's music'. As Kathy Ogren shows, the breathless pace and syncopated rhythms were as much a part of twenties America as Prohibition and the economic boom, which enabled millions throughout the states to enjoy the latest sounds on radios and phonographs.

Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from its beginnings until 1933.

The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's finest work...how Duke Ellington used the highly individualistic trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten John Nesbitt helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, and Joe Mooney.

Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time, which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory bands"--and popular white bands like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.

Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing their music in the context of the other musical cultures of the twentieth century and offering analyses of many great jazz recordings.
Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz world. A classic study, it is both a splendid introduction for students and an insightful guide for scholars, musicians, and jazz aficionados.

Other people locked themselves away and hid from their demons. Townes flung open his door and said 'Come on in.' So writes Harold Eggers Townes Van Zandt's longtime road manager and producer in EMy Years with Townes Van Zandt: Music Genius and RageE a a gripping memoir revealing the inner core of an enigmatic troubadour whose deeply poetic music was a source of inspiration and healing for millions but was for himself a torment struggling for dominance among myriad personal demons.THTownes Van Zandt often stated that his main musical mission was to write the perfect song that would save someone's life. However his life was a work in progress he was constantly struggling to shape and comprehend. Eggers says of his close friend and business partner that like the master song craftsman he was he was never truly satisfied with the final product but always kept giving it one more shot one extra tweak one last effort. THA vivid firsthand account exploring the source of the singer's prodigious talent widespread influence and relentless path toward self-destruction EMy Years with Townes Van ZandtE presents the truth of that all-consuming artistic journey told by a close friend watching it unfold.

"From Buddy Collette's brilliant ruminations on Paul Robeson to Horace Tapscott's extraordinary insights about artistic production and community life . . . this collection of oral testimony presents a unique and memorable portrait of the 'Avenue' and of the artists whose creativity nurtured and sustained its golden age."--George Lipsitz, author of "Dangerous Crossroads

"If ever the West Coast enjoyed its own equivalent of the Harlem Renaissance, it was here on Central Avenue. This too-often forgotten setting was nothing less than a center of cultural ferment and a showplace for artistic achievement. Finally its story has been told, with a richness of detail and vitality of expression, by those who helped make it happen."--Ted Gioia, author of "West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California

"What a wonderful, comprehensive volume, full of knowledge and insight about an important time and place in jazz history. This book is a needed and welcomed addition on the rich African-American musical heritage of Los Angeles. It is well written and edited by people who were actually involved in the creation of the music, along with others who have a deep concern for preserving that legacy. This work gives the reader a truly in-depth look at the musicians, the music, and the social and political climate during that important development in American culture."--Kenny Burrell, jazz guitarist and Director of the Jazz Studies Program and Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles

Beginning with the African musical heritage and its fusion with European forms in the New World, Marshall Stearns's history of jazz guides the reader through work songs, spirituls, ragtime, and the blues, to the birth of jazz in New Orleans and its adoption by St Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and New York. From swing and bop to the early days of rock, this lively book introduces us to the great musicians and singers and examines jazz's cultural effects on American and the world.

Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries traces the evolution of Black women's literacy practices from 1892 to 1934. A dynamic chronological study, the book explores how Black women public intellectuals, creative writers, and classic blues singers sometimes utilize singular but other times overlapping forms of literacies to engage in debates on race. The book begins with Anna J. Cooper's philosophy on race literature as one method for social advancement. From there, author Coretta M. Pittman discusses women from the Woman's and New Negro Eras, including but not limited to Angelina Weld Grimke, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Zora Neale Hurston. The volume closes with an exploration of Victoria Spivey's blues philosophy. The women examined in this book employ forms of transformational, transactional, or specular literacy to challenge systems of racial oppression. However, Literacy in a Long Blues Note argues against prevalent myths that a singular vision for racial uplift dominated the public sphere in the latter decade of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. Instead, by including Black women from various social classes and ideological positions, Pittman reveals alternative visions. Contrary to more moderate predecessors of the Woman's Era and contemporaries in the New Negro Era, classic blues singers like Mamie Smith advanced new solutions against racism. Early twentieth-century writer Angelina Weld Grimke criticized traditional methods for racial advancement as Jim Crow laws tightened restrictions against Black progress. Ultimately, the volume details the agency and literacy practices of these influential women.

Wasn't That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks, explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time, revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped African American society from 1879 to 1955.

'Ghost notes' is a musical term for sounds barely audible, a wisp lingering around the beat, yet somehow driving the groove. The Texas musicians profiled here, ranging from 1920s gospel performers to the first psychedelic band, are generally not well known, but the impact of their early contributions on popular music is unmistakable. This beautiful Tim Kerr-illustrated collection provides more background on the Texas from which these artists sprang, fully formed. Readers will learn about the black gay couple from Houston who inspired the creation of rock 'n' roll, as well as the true story of the origin of Western Swing. They will learn about - the first family of Texas music - and the birth of boogie-woogie, the dirt-poor singers and the ballad collectors who saved folk songs during the Depression, and the accordeonista whose musical legacy was never contained on recordings but was passed on by his protEgE. The pioneers of modern times include the Dallas rapper who became the wordsmith of gangsta rap, the sheriff's son from Dumas who produced the signature tunes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and the blind lounge singer Kenny Rogers called the greatest musician he's ever known.

As Louis Armstrong forever tethered jazz to New Orleans and Clifton Chenier fixed Lafayette as home to zydeco, Slim Harpo established Baton Rouge as a base for the blues. In the only complete biography of this internationally renowned blues singer and musician, Martin Hawkins traces Harpo's rural upbringing near Louisiana's capital, his professional development fostered by the local music scene, and his national success with R&B hits like Rainin' in My Heart, Baby Scratch My Back, and I'm A King Bee, among others. Hawkins follows Harpo's global musical impact from the early 1960s to today and offers a detailed look at the nature of the independent recording business that enabled his remarkable legacy. With new research and interviews, Hawkins fills in previous biographical gaps and redresses misinformation about Harpo's life. In addition to weaving the musician's career into the lives of other Louisiana blues players-including Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, and Silas Hogan-the author discusses the pioneering role of Crowley, Louisiana, record producer J. D. Miller and illustrates how Excello Records in Nashville brought national attention to Harpo's music recorded in Louisiana. This engaging narrative examines Harpo's various recording sessions and provides a detailed discography, as well as a list of blues-related records by fellow Baton Rouge artists. Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge will stand as the ultimate resource on the musician's life and the rich history of Baton Rouge's blues heritage.