Floyd Levin, an award-winning jazz writer, has personally known many of
the jazz greats who contributed to the music's colorful history. In this
collection of his articles, published mostly in jazz magazines over a
fifty-year period, Levin takes us into the nightclubs, the recording
studios, the record companies, and, most compellingly, into the lives of
the musicians who made the great moments of the traditional jazz and
swing eras. Brilliantly weaving anecdotal material, primary research,
and music analysis into every chapter, Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians is a gold mine of information on a rich segment of American popular music.
This
collection of articles begins with Levin's first published piece and
includes several new articles that were inspired by his work on this
compilation. The articles are organized thematically, beginning with a
piece on Kid Ory's early recordings and ending with a newly written
article about the campaign to put up a monument to Louis Armstrong in
New Orleans. Along the way, Levin gives in-depth profiles of many
well-known jazz legends, such as Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and
Louis Armstrong, and many lesser-known figures who contributed greatly
to the development of jazz.
Extensively illustrated with
previously unpublished photographs from Levin's personal collection,
this wonderfully readable and extremely personal book is full of
information that is not available elsewhere. Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians
will be celebrated by jazz scholars and fans everywhere for the
overview it provides of the music's evolution, and for the love of jazz
it inspires on every page.
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