The Roots of jazz

Entertaining remembrances of a jazz and songwriting great. The parts of the book about his early days in Bloomington, New York, and Hollywood are particularly evocative. Falls apart a bit as the story gets to the stage of his life when he's quite successful, having "made it" as a public personality. The tales of the Book Nook are amazing though. Well worth a read for anyone interested in his music, Bloomington history, the early days of jazz, or songwriting.

"From one of England's leading historians, a classic work on jazz history. Eric Hobsbawm has turned his keen eye and sharp wit to this uniquely American form of music to give the reader a completely original point of view. Widely praised when it was first published in England, this book sweeps the reader along from the steamy sidewalks of New Orleans to the smoke-filled clubs of New York, an odyssey that along the way discusses the prehistory of jazz, its expansion, its most celebrated musicians, and their instruments. This edition also includes twenty-three pieces that have never appeared in book form - concert reviews, record reviews, and essays from The New Statesman and The New York Review of Books on such legendary jazz figures as Ray Charles, Thelonius Monk, Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. As Hobsbawm has put it, The Jazz Scene is "one person's reaction to sixty years' experience of jazz" - an invaluable guide to this extra-ordinary music."--BOOK JACKET.

An introduction to jazz, discussing what it is, how it originated and developed, its importance as an art form, the different styles, and prominent jazz musicians.