David A. Jasen & Gene Jones
Routledge, 2002
Hardback. 272pp. b&w illustrations
£19.99

Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz tells the compelling stories of the lives and times of eight seminal figures in American music, including Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. By focusing on these life stories, the authors shed new light on how individuals played such important roles in shaping the development of jazz music. The stories told range from the frustrations Scott Joplin faced trying to be taken 'seriously' as a composer to the many protean changes that Jelly Roll Morton made in his life to adapt to new musical times and tastes. The human side of being a musician is explored, with all the sacrifices that were necessary to making it as black entertainers in a predominantly white world.

When ragtime was first popular, it intermingled with other popular forms of music, from dance crazes like the tango to vaudeville songs. All of this material was part of the standard piano and band repertoire of the day. So, when jazz began to develop, it naturally drew on these many traditions. This book reveals how these traditions intermingled and influenced each other, at a time when musical styles were not as rigidly defined as today. The story is one of interaction and change; the lines are fluid; and the many individual nooks and crannies that each musician made in this musical stream are the focus of these entertaining and important lives.

Black Bottom Stomp brings to life an entire generation of important composers and performers. It sheds new light on their achievements while unflinchingly reporting their weaknesses. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from newspapers, sheet music, and other hard-to-find sources, the work will appeal to the reader interested in popular music, ragtime, and early jazz.

CONTENTS:
Tom Turpin & the Birth of Ragtime
Scott Joplin
Eubie Blake
Luckey Roberts
James P. Johnson
Willie The Lion Smith
Fats Waller
Jelly Roll Morton
Louis Armstrong

DAVID JASEN is a world-renowned authority on ragtime and popular song. A Professor of Communications at C.W. Post College, he is the author of numerous books, including Rags and Ragtime, with Trebor J. Tichenor, and Tin Pan Alley.

GENE JONES is an actor and ragtime historian.

Jasen and Jones together have written two previous books, Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters 18 80-1930, a winner of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for best music book, and That American Rag: The Story of Ragtime from Coast to Coast.

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FURTHER READING

Rags & Ragtime: A Musical History by David Jasen & T. Jay Tichenor Mister Jelly Roll by Alan Lomax Dead Man Blues Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West by Phil Pastras Satchmo by Gary Giddins Classic Jazz by Scott Yanow Classic Jazz by Floyd Levin Black Beauty, White Heat a pictorial history of the early jazz years

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