When Early Jazz appeared over three decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music and since has been universally recognized as the standard work on jazz from its beginnings until 1933. The Swing Era, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental study of jazz, focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history - 1933 to 1945 - when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. Covering immense ground in fascinating detail, and filled with illuminating portraits of jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong. Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman, The Swing Era offers a rich and exciting survey that will fascinate anyone interested in jazz and its roots.

GUNTHER SCHULLER is a leading contemporary American composer and conductor, was associated with the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood for over twenty years, mostly as its Artistic Director, and was President of the New England Conservatory of Music from 1967 to 1977. He has published three previous books, Horn Technique (1962), Musings (Oxford, 1986) and Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (Oxford, 1968). In 1991, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

back to previous page