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Most
of what we think we know about jazz comes from a small body of information,
passed on from one generation of historians to another, which is accepted
without question. In this fascinating new history of the major musical
art form of the twentieth century, Alyn Shipton sets out to challenge
those assumptions. Using new source material, Shipton investigates how
jazz first started. How was it that it took off all over the United States
early in the twentieth century, despite the accepted wisdom that everything
began in New Orleans? Shipton also re-evaluates the transition from swing
to bebop, asking just how political this supposed modern jazz revolution
actually was. He makes the case for jazz as a truly international music
from its earliest days, charting significant developments outside the
USA from the 1920s onwards. All the great names in jazz history are here,
from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis and from Sidney Bechet to Charlie
Parker and John Coltrane. But, unlike those historians who call a halt
with the death of Coltrane in 1967, Shipton continues the story with the
major trends in jazz of the last thirty years of the twentieth century:
free jazz, jazz rock, world music influences, the new historicism of the
repertory movement and the continuing internationalism of the genre.