"Floyd Levin's half-century collection of reportage, reviews and recollections are an irreplaceable and totally enjoyable trove of writing about the vibrancy, past and still-present, of traditional American jazz."—Charles Champlin, author of Back There Where the Past Was "I've known Floyd and his wife Lucille for more than fifty years. Floyd's book is a colorful, intimate account of his lifelong love affair with jazz. I'm especially fascinated when he writes about his personal encounters with some of the jazz legends of the Century. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about jazz - its present, its past, and his evolution."—Milt Hinton "Floyd Levin's dedicated and unselfish life-long work for the cause of jazz has illuminated many a corner that would otherwise have remained in the dark. All who care about the music are in his debt. Classic Jazz, like Floyd himself, is a classic."—Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University "What a rich, passionate and human book this is! Drawing on fifty years of devotion to classic, New Orleans jazz and the artists who performed it, Floyd Levin brilliantly weaves anecdotal material, primary research, intimate personal observations, and analyses to create an historical goldmine of the music's evolution in New Orleans and on the West Coast. In rendering portraits of legendary musicians in such a beautifully moving, honest way, he offers not just standard history, but a strong sense of the emotional core of the music as well."—Steve Isoardi, co-author of Central Avenue Sounds

Includes excerpts from Jazz Archive interviews by Monk Rowe for the Hamilton College Jazz Archive (dedicated as the Fillius Jazz Archive in 2013).

As musicians, listeners, and scholars have sensed for many years, the story of jazz is more than a history of the music. Burton Peretti presents a fascinating account of how the racial and cultural dynamics of American cities created the music, life, and business that was jazz. From its origins in the jook joints of sharecroppers and the streets and dance halls of 1890s New Orleans, through its later metamorphoses in the cities of the North, Peretti charts the life of jazz culture to the eve of bebop and World War II. In the course of those fifty years, jazz was the story of players who made the transition from childhood spasm bands to Carnegie Hall and worldwide touring and fame. It became the music of the Twenties, a decade of Prohibition, of adolescent discontent, of Harlem pride, and of Americans hoping to preserve cultural traditions in an urban, commercial age. And jazz was where black and white musicians performed together, as uneasy partners, in the big bands of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. "Blacks fought back by using jazz", states Peretti, "with its unique cultural and intellectual properties, to prove, assess, and evade the "dynamic of minstrelsy". Drawing on newspaper reports of the times and on the firsthand testimony of more than seventy prominent musicians and singers (among them Benny Carter, Bud Freeman, Kid Ory, and Mary Lou Williams), The Creation of Jazz is the first comprehensive analysis of the role of early jazz in American social history.

John Chilton has gained an international reputation as a jazz biographer, having written acclaimed books on Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Bob Crosby, Louis Jordan, Henry 'Red' Allen and Roy Eldridge. His lively autobiography not only reveals the fascinating background to his jazz researches but also shines a bright light on his many years as a professional jazz musician. For thirty years he led the Feetwarmers backing singer George Melly, sharing escapades that took them all over the world. Before working with George, he was in Bruce Turner's Jump Band and also led the Swing Kings which backed many visiting American jazz stars. He has dedicated his life to jazz, both as a player and as an author - in 2000 he was voted 'Jazz Writer of the Year' - and his story is full of anecdotes and revelations about the many British and American musicians he has known. George Melly has described him as 'an anecdotalist of genius'.

The most comprehensive guide to jazz and blues recordings in print, including reviews of more than ten thousand albums. An essential book for any music fan's library.

In this marvelous oral history, the words of such legends as Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Billy Holiday trace the birth, growth, and changes in jazz over the years.

Up-close and revealing interviews with 47 musicians and jazz advocates that can only broaden a jazz fan's understanding and appreciation of what is happening on the bandstand.