The History of Jazz (91 page)

Roberts, John Storm.
Black Music of Two Worlds
. New York: Praeger, 1972.

———.
The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Rockwell, John.
All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century
. New York: Knopf, 1983.

Rosenthal, David H.
Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955–1965
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Russell, Bill.
New Orleans Style
. Compiled and edited by Barry Martyn and Mike Hazeldine. New Orleans: Jazzology Press, 1994.

Russell, Ross.
Bird Lives! The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker
. New York: Charterhouse, 1973.

———.
Jazz in Kansas City and the Southwest
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Sales, Grover.
Jazz: America’s Classical Music
. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

Santoro, Gene.
Dancing in Your Head: Jazz, Blues, Rock and Beyond
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Schuller, Gunther.
Early Jazz
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

———.
The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Shipton, Alyn.
A New History of Jazz
. London: Continuum, 2001.

Simon, George T.
The Big Bands
. New York: Macmillan, 1967.

Southern, Eileen.
The Music of Black Americans: A History
, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Spellman, A. B.
Black Music: Four Lives
. New York: Schocken, 1970.

Sublette, Ned.
The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2008.

Sudhalter, Richard, and Philip R. Evans.
Bix: Man and Legend
. New York: Arlington House, 1974.

Sudhalter, Richard.
Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Taylor, Art.
Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews
. New York: Perigee Books, 1977.

Taylor, Yuval, ed.
The Future of Jazz
. Chicago: A Cappella Books, 2002.

Teachout, Terry.
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

Travis, Dempsey J.
An Autobiography of Black Jazz
. Chicago: Urban Research Institute, 1983.

Tucker, Mark, ed.
A Duke Ellington Reader
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Ward, Geoffrey C.
Jazz: A History of America’s Music
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Wilder, Alec.
American Popular Song: The Great Innovators
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Williams, Martin.
Jazz Masters of New Orleans
. New York: Macmillan, 1967.

———.
The Jazz Tradition
, rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Wilmer, Valerie.
As Serious as Your Life
. London: Quartet, 1977.

Woideck, Carl.
Charlie Parker: His Music and Life
. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.

Recommended Listening

Unlike most lists of recommended recordings, this one focuses on specific tracks rather than on complete albums. This approach is, I believe, preferable for two reasons. First, by narrowing the focus, it aims to increase the intensity of the listening process. In almost every case, the careful study of a few performances is more illuminating than the casual apprehension of lengthy recordings. The second reason for listing only individual performances is a practical one. In recent years, the number of reissues, compilations, and repackagings of old material has grown at an extraordinary rate, as has the range of options for purchasing music online. While these changes have increased the availability of many previously rare or little-known works, they have also made it increasingly difficult for a newcomer to track down specific albums. A compilation available one year may be out of print the next. At the same time, music buyers have increasingly opted to purchase individual songs rather than entire compact discs. In such an environment, a listing of tracks offers a more convenient guide for the listener as well as a more permanent one, unaffected by the decisions of record companies to make cosmetic changes to their catalogs, to repackage, rename, and render obsolete their various releases.

I have provided recording dates, in most cases, to assist in identifying the performance in question, rather than refer to the name of a compact disc. However, in instances in which a piece is closely identified with a specific album (e.g., Miles Davis’s “So What” with
Kind of Blue
), I have provided the title of the original project to help readers locate the music. Also, in some instances I have taken liberties in listing titles under the artist most closely associated with a performance instead of under the original group leader—for instance, “Singin’ the Blues” is included under Bix Beiderbecke, although Frank Trumbauer was the ostensible bandleader of the date. I have occasionally (but not exhaustively) added cross-references to indicate other recordings where a specific artist appears.

I should say, in conclusion, that this list is intended to be a mere starting point, an indicative selection of the tremendous scope of jazz music. Listeners are encouraged to explore widely, moving beyond its boundaries, although retaining (I would hope) the careful listening habits encouraged above.