The late 1990s marks the centenary of jazz music, dating from the earliest reference to the New Orleans band fronted by legendary trumpeter Buddy Bolden, recognized as the first group to play the type of music subsequently labelled "jazz". This text provides a chronicle of what has turned out to be the major influence in Western music throughout the 20th century. Richly illustrated with a wealth of rare photographs and graphic material set in the context of popular music generally, "A Century of Jazz" is a celebration of jazz history, people and style.
Way down yonder in New Orleans - the first years of jazz; the Windy City
and the Big Apple - jazz in the `20s, Chicago and New York; "call me Mr Big"
- when swing was king; the bebop revolution - modern jazz is born; jazz at
the Phil - the jam session ethic; cool on the coast - West Coast jazz; the
harder they come - East Coast hard bop; so far Soho - bebop in Britain, the
French connection; the new thing - free jazz, Charles Mingus, Soul-to-Soul;
jazz on the jukebox - early `60s jazz boom, the charts; the Blues Brothers -
Caribbean cool, jazz in Jamaica; jazz plugs in - jazz-rock fusion,
Blaxploitation, electric miles, the crossover; the young lions - the 1980s;
future funk - acid jazz, hip-hop, Quincy Jones; still Blues - the new blood;
jazz festivals - from Newport to Montreux; African jazz - jazz stamps, jazz
ads; Satchmo - the great Louis Armstrong; boxing clever - CD box sets;
western swing - country meets jazz; jazz movies - 60 years on the silver
screen.
