The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

A year by year history of the people and events that comprise jazz history.
Charts the evolution of jazz from its origins in Africa and the southern United States to the myriad urban styles heard around the world today.
Features a substantial reference section including a glossary of musical terms, biographies of musicians, and an extensive discography.
Features hundreds of rare images from record cover artwork to pictures of live performances.

The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

Description

A year-by-year history of people and events, this lively multi-layered account tells the whole story of jazz music and its personalities. The Chronicle of Jazz charts the evolution of jazz from its roots in Africa and the southern United States to the myriad urban styles heard around the world today, Mervyn Cooke gives us a narrative rich with innovation, experimentation, controversy, and emotion. The book is completely up to date, exploring the exciting recent developments in the world of jazz, from the rise of modern Big Bands and the renaissance of the piano trio to the popular appeal of Jamie Cullum and HBO's Treme. Featuring hundreds of rare images, from record-cover artwork to pictures of live performances, each chronologically arranged section contains special box features on such topics as the unique tonal qualities of the bass clarinet, jazz clubs in Paris, personality sketches, and seminal gigs and albums. A substantial reference section features information on international jazz festivals, a glossary of musical terms, biographies of musicians, and extensive discography, and further reading. A celebration of the most imaginative and enduring music of the last 120 years, The Chronicle of Jazz is an essential work of reference for all music lovers.

The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

Introduction A Century of Jazz 8
1895-1916 Origins 14
1895-1905 The Ragtime Era Begins 16
1906-9 New Orleans: The Musical Melting Pot 22
1910-13 The Impact of the Blues 26
1914-16 On the Verge of Jazz 30
1917-1929 From New Orleans to 34
the East Coast
1917 All That Jazz 36
1918 Ragtime Goes Abroad 40
1919 Jazz on Tour 42
1920 Branching Out from Dixie 44
1921 Striding Ahead 46
1922 King Oliver in Chicago 48
1923 First Flowering 50
1924 Jazz in the Concert Hall 54
1925 Satchmo 56
1926 The New Virtuosity 60
1927-28 Harlem, Chicago and Kansas City 62
1929 Empress of the Blues 66
1930-1945 Swing 68
1930-31 Dance Bands 70
1932 Paris 74
1933 Satchmo and the Duke in Europe 76
1934 Stompin' at the Savoy 78
1935 Kings of Swing 82
1936 Billie and Ella 86
1937 Piano Trio 88
1938 New Respectability 90
1939 War 92
1940 Seeds of Revolution 96
1941 Enter Bird 98
1942 Industrial Action 100
1943 Black, Brown and Beige 104
1944 All-American All-Stars 106
1945 Restless Peace 108
1946-1958 Style and Idea 110
1946-47 The Latin Tinge 112
1948 The First Jazz Festival 118
1949 Migration to France 120
1950 Parker in Scandinavia 124
1951 Modern Jazz 126
1952 West Coast Travels East 128
1953 Reviving the Big Bands 130
1954 East and West 132
1955 Disaster at Birdland 136
1956 Ellington at Newport 138
1957 Cinema and Third Stream 140
1958 Jazz Messengers 142
1959-1969 The Birth of Modern Jazz 144
1959 Giant Steps 146
1960 The Freedom Principle 148
1961 The Duke Meets the Count 152
1962 Through the Iron Curtain 154
1963-64 Technology and Spirituality 156
1965 'Trane Ascendant 162
1966 Greenwich Village 164
1967 Ends and Beginnings 166
1968 New Talents 168
1969 New Horizons 170
1970-1999 Innovation and Reaction 172
1970 Forecast Unsettled 174
1971 Death of a Legend 176
1972 The Old and the New 178
1973-74 Headhunters 180
1975 Davis Bows Out 184
1976-78 Consolidation 186
1979 The Mingus Legacy 192
1980 Complementary Pathways 194
1981 Japan Moves Center Stage 196
1982 After Monk 198
1983-85 Prodigies 200
1986-88 Envoi to the Last of the Great Leaders 206
1989-90 Messengers Retrospective 212
1991 Farewell, Prince of Darkness 216
1992-95 Diversity 218
1996 Women in Jazz 224
1997-98 Coleman Honored 226
1999 Ellington's Century 228
2000- Millennium Blues 230
2000-1 Jazz in America 232
2002 Appreciating Jazz 236
2003 A World Treasure 238
2004 Farewell, Artie 240
2005 The Way Up 242
2006 Rebuilding the Cradle 244
2007 Losses 246
2008 Returning to Forever 248
2009- Henceforward EL 250
Reference Section
Biographical Index of Musicians 254
Glossary of Musical Terms 261
International Jazz Festivals: A Select List 263
Recommended Listening 264
Suggested Further Reading 266
List of Illustrations 267
Index 268

The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

Author Information

Dr. Mervyn Cooke is Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham and has published extensively on the history of jazz, film music, and the music of Benjamin Britten. His most recent books include The Cambridge Companion to Jazz, The Hollywood Film Music Reader, The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera and Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten.

The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

Reviews and Awards

"A year-by-year account of the origins and the many styles of jazz up to 2009. In each brief, yearly outline, Cooke lists a few major jazz and world events and includes an inset, which explains an element of jazz such as ragtime, stride, and swing. He punctuates the text with hundreds of eye-popping photos, many of them in color, that capture jazz artists in their prime." --Library Journal

"The Chronicle of Jazz is so comprehensive in its coverage of the music, personalities, events, influences, and artifacts of jazz over more than a century that one might consider it the only primer needed to discern or rediscover the intricacies of this distinctly American art form... This is a book worthy of any jazz fan's bookshelf." --Michael Cala, New York Journal of Books

"The Chronicle of Jazz has got to be one of the best books on jazz...It goes everywhere, the author knows his stuff cold, and the layout is tremendous."--Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

The Chronicle of Jazz

Mervyn Cooke

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