JAZZ MASTERS OF NEW ORLEANS

by Martin Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1967

This is the best writing about New Orleans jazz we are likely to get for some time and it's about the old days, so old nobody even talks about them on record jackets. The first figure Williams can conclusively identify as representative of the essential New Orleans jazz style is cornettist Buddy Bolden. Armstrong said you could hear him clear across town. What's wonderful about Williams' book is how he goes back over a hundred years and coalesces three main styles into what became ""New Orleans""--Protestant hymas, the blues, and later John Philip Sousa (!). And what musicians--Papa Joe King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Bunk Johnson, and a good many minor figures. The chapter on Louis Armstrong is fairly perfunctory since he is covered more thoroughly in two later Jazz Master -- volumes.

Pub Date: March 1, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION