Jazz: A history

Jazz is a democratic music in the best sense of the word, for it is the collective achievement of a people.

This book is not a recounting of ancedotes nor a simple chronology of musical events, but a history. It evaluates the gathered evidence and draws conclusions. Its narrative and summaries are based on repeated careful listenings to thouands of recordings, on the reports of musicians who witnessed and experienced many of the crucial events and created some of the masterworks, and on the fresh research and insightful thought of hundreds of serious scholars who love and respect this music.