STORY JAZZ:
A History of Chicago Jazz Styles
Free River Press
160 pages
$11.95
Based on five years of interviews with Chicago jazz musicians,
Story Jazz is a record of a changing music. It is also a social history of turbulent Chicago. For the city changed in moods just as the nation did, and the changes are in the music.
Those who made that music tell us the story of Chicago jazz. This is their book, told through their stories. About working in gangster-owned clubs of the 1920s. Playing for Depression era rent parties in the 30s. Touring in the big bands of the 1940s. Navigating new waters in the 50s with bebop and its response— the Dixieland revival. Breaking all the rules with free jazz in the 60s.
Story Jazz gives us first-hand accounts of jazz legends King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Bix Beiderbecke, Roy Eldridge, Sun Ra, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, Lennie Tristano and many. others.
Story Jazz contains anecdotes and yarns by some of the greats, including Bud Freeman, Ikey Robinson, Jimmy McPartland, Franz Jackson, Truck Parham, and Art Hodes.
Story Jazz concludes in the 1990s when a great proliferation of styles that makes Chicago a home to a smorgasbord of jazz styles.
Excerpts: https://freeriverpress.org/bop-and-cool/