Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (The History of Jazz, Vol. 1)

Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the twenties—Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and others—and the big bands and arrangers—Fletcher Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington—placing their music in the context of the other musical cultu…