CCDR

"This Dover edition is a reprint of the work originally published by Rinehart and Company, inc., in 1955."

Part One : "Way down yonder in New Orleans" -- It was always a musical town -- especailly The District -- Storyville -- For every occasion -- dances, funerals, parties, and parades -- there was a band and there were some mighty battles -- The kids were poor and they often improvised their instruments as well as their music -- Bunk Johnson, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Freddie Keppard, Buddy Petit, Manuel perez, Clarence Williams, Chris Kelly, Buddy Bolden -- they all called the children home -- Then the Navy closed Storyville down. But jazz went on in New Orleans -- and it's still going on -- Part Two : "Up a lazy river" -- Many of the jazzmen worked their way North in Fate Marable's riverboat bands -- Downtown was the Original Dixieland Jazz band ; and on chicago's South Side you could rock to the music of Keppard, Oliver, Armstrong, Ory, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Preston Jackson, Jimmie Noone, Lil Armstrong, and many more -- Chicago had its "second line" too -- the Austin High Gang, Muggsy Spanier, George Wettling and Benny Goodman. They listened and learned -- Jam sessions, gangsters, speakeasies, recording sessions, more musicians, and then -- the Chicago decline -- "In a mist" -- the legendary Bix -- Part Three : "Travelin' Light" -- . . .to Harlem, which really jumped -- on through the 'twenties to the depression years. Armstrong came to town, and everybody knew the great pianists like James P. Johnson and Willie "the Lion" Smith, and bands like Charlie Johnson's, Cecil Scott's, Sam Wooding's, and the Cotton Pickers. King Oliver and Jelly Roll had their day, and among those coming up were Chick Webb, at the Savoy, and Billie Holiday, singing those depression blues -- . . .and there were Fletcher Henderson and the great musicians who worked for him -- Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Smith, Jimmy Harrison, and the rest -- "Ellingtown plays the piano, but the real instrument is his band" -- Bessie Smith -- "the Empress of the Blues" -- . . .and spreading his special brand of musical joy -- Fats Waller -- New York's "second line" -- the men who played with Whiteman and Goldkette, Red Nichols and Ben Pollack -- From Kansas City, a musician's town, came stories of fabulous jam sessions, good times, and the swinging band of Count Basie -- The Swing Era -- big bands, big money, jitterbugs, one-night stands, commercialism, and the breakdown of some racial barriers -- Part Four "Undecided" -- The experimenters -- Thelonius Monk, Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Kenny Clarke, Mary Lou Williams, Charlie Christian -- made their headquarters uptown, at a place called Minton's -- Downtown, Fifty-second Street was the proving ground for what became known as "bop." Young musicians and veterans were playing the new music on The Street -- About a problem -- narcotics -- New sounds from big bands -- Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, and Dizzie Gillespie -- The present -- where paths cross -- notably those of some of the younger jazzmen and some "serious" composers. The West Coast school develops, and the Dixieland revival takes shape -- Coda

Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Gift 2008