The Story of Jazz

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 1970 - Music - 367 pages
The effect of jazz upon American culture and the American character has been all-pervasive. This superlative history is the first and the most renowned systematic outline of the evolution of this unique American musical phenomenon. Stearns begins with the joining of the African Negro's musical heritage with European forms and the birth of jazz in New Orleans then follows its course through the era of swing and bop to the beginnings of rock in the 50s, vividly depicting the great innovators, and covering such technical elements as the music's form and structure.
 

Contents

Jazz and West African Music
3
From Africa to the New World
16
The West Indies and the United States
23
New Orleans
35
The New Orleans Background
37
The Transition to Jaz
44
Jazz Begins
55
Buddy Bolden and the Growth of Jazz
67
Jazz Yesterday and Today
195
The Swing Era and the Revivalists
197
Bop and After
218
AfroCuban Music
243
The Nature of Jazz
257
The European Tradition Harmony
259
Melody and Rhythm
267
Expressiveness in Jazz A Definition
275

The American Background
77
The Great Awakening
79
The Work Song
90
The Blues
99
Minstrelsy
109
The Spiritual
123
Ragtime
140
The Jazz Age
151
The Jazz Age Begins
153
The Jazz Age Flourishes
165
The Jazz Age Ends
179
Jazz Tommorrow
283
The Conquest of Jazz
285
The Appeal of Jazz
297
Jazz and the Role of the Negro
308
The Future of Jazz
322
Notes
329
Bibliography
343
A Syllabus of Fifteen Lectures on the History of Jazz
359
Index
369
Copyright

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About the author (1970)

Marshall W. Stearns is at The Institute of Jazz Studies.

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