Jass.com: Jazz Books

Books About Early Jazz

I get many e-mails asking about books that explain and explore early Jazz. So here is a place on JASS.COM that features these important books. Find out more about the books by clicking on the link.

My Favorites

From Cakewalks to Concert Halls : An Illustrated History of African American Popular Music, From 1895-1930, by Thomas L Morgan & William Barlow
Black Musical Theatre : From Coontown to Dreamgirls by Allen Woll
Jazz: A History of the New York Scene, by Samuel Charters
Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922 by Tim Brooks
Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, And the Dark Pathway to Blues And Jazz by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff
Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff
Early Jazz : Its Roots and Musical Development by Gunther Schuller
Black Manhattan by James Weldon Johnson
Who's Who of Jazz : Storyville to Swing Street by John Chilton
Black Magic : A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts by Langston Hughes
Great for a younger reader - The First Book of Jazz by Langston Hughes
Chicago Jazz : A Cultural History, 1904-1930 by William Howland Kenney
Storyville, New Orleans, Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District by Al Rose
Black Beauty, White Heat : A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz 1920-1950 The Frank Driggs Collection
Jazz Dance : The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Stearns

Whether you're searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl, find it at Alibris!

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