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A concise history of early jazz, from its major innovators to its unrecognized heroes.
Early Jazz is an overview of the beginnings of jazz from its nineteenth-century roots through 1929, when elements of the Swing Era began to emerge. It is the first book on early jazz history in over fifty years and fills a compelling need for an update that reflects recent research. With a broad definition of jazz that encompasses the artistic and the commercial, the book's inclusive tone allows for a wide spectrum of musicians, including not only pioneering African American and white musicians but also those who are commonly skipped or skimmed over in jazz history textbooks-lesser-known sidemen, prominent instrumentalists, entertainers or novelty performers, women, vocalists, and American jazz musicians who introduced jazz on their travels around the world. Twenty songs are analyzed in depth, but no musical knowledge is required to understand or to read Early Jazz. The book is written as an introduction for fans, students, musicians, historians, scholars, and anyone who is interested in this fascinating era of jazz history.
"…a fine overview of jazz from its humble beginnings through 1929. Tomita digs in deep, not only covering the major stars of the burgeoning movement, but also many lesser-known, but important, artists along the way." — Downbeat
"Tomita's Early Jazz is relatively short and effectively mixes information about the technical aspects of jazz with some wonderful anecdotes about all the musicians who contributed to its development." — New Jersey Jazz Society
"Countless books have been written about jazz, but the topic of early jazz history has been largely neglected for more 50 years. Grounded in seminal works, such as Gunther Schuller's Jazz History (1968), Early Jazz updates such writings with a detailed study of the genre from its earliest manifestations in the 1870s through 1929 … Meticulously documented, it belongs in academic and public libraries with music collections." — CHOICE
"…Early Jazz is a history of jazz from its nineteenth-century roots through to 1929, when the Swing Era began to emerge. It's the first comprehensive history of early jazz since Gunther Schuller's classic title from the 60s, and Tomita sees his book as in some ways an update of it. Unlike Schuller, Tomita fully embraces entertainment as well as art … The book is overall a very enjoyable read." — UK Jazz News
"Tomita presents a richer concept of early jazz. Instead of looking for a rarefied art form through the lens of hindsight, he hears the popular elements and folk idioms crucial to the music's development (aspects that its contemporaries likely recognized). Far from diluting or compartmentalizing the story, his approach expands the narrative to include a broader range of musicians and factors … Early Jazz is a welcome introduction to a lot of great music." — Vintage Jazz Mart
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Ragtime and Traveling Shows
2. The Blues
3. New Orleans and Early White Bands
4. King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton
5. The New York Scene: The Small Groups
6. Stride Piano
7. The New York Dance Band Sound: From James Reese Europe to Duke Ellington
8. Louis Armstrong
9. The Chicagoans and Bix Beiderbecke
10. Other Pioneering Soloists
11. Territory and Other Bands
12. Vocal Jazz
13. Jazz around the World
Notes
Bibliography
Index