Swingin' on Central Avenue

African American Jazz in Los Angeles

Peter Vacher (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

374 Seiten

2015
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Verlag)
978-0-8108-8832-6 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

The development of jazz and swing in the African-American community in Los Angeles in the years before the second World War received a boost from the arrival of a significant numbers of musicians from Chicago and the southwestern states. In Swingin’ on Central: African-American Jazz in Los Angeles, a new study of that vibrant jazz community, music historian and jazz journalist Peter Vacher traveled between Los Angeles and London over several years in order to track down key figures and interview them for this oral history of one of the most swinging jazz scenes in the United States.

Vacher recreates the energy and vibrancy of the Central Avenue scene through first-hand accounts from such West Coast notables as trumpeters Andy Blakeney , George Orendorff, and McLure “Red Mack” Morris; pianists Betty Hall Jones, Chester Lane, and Gideon Honore, saxophonists Chuck Thomas, Jack McVea, and Caughey Roberts Jr; drummers Jesse Sailes, Red Minor Robinson, and Nathaniel “Monk” McFay; and others. Throughout, readers learn the story behind the formative years of these musicians, most of whom have never been interviewed until now. While not exactly headliners—nor heavily recorded—this community of jazz musicians was among the most talented in pre-war America. Arriving in Los Angeles at a time when black Americans faced restrictions on where they could live and work, jazz artists of color commonly found themselves limited to the Central Avenue area. This scene, supplemented by road travel, constituted their daily bread as players—with none of them making it to New York. Through their own words, Vacher tells their story in Los Angeles, offering along the way a close look at the role the black musicians union played in their lives while also taking on jazz historiography’s comparative neglect of these West Coast players.

Music historians with a particular interest in pre-bop jazz in California will find much new material here as Vacher paints a world of luxurious white nightclubs with black bands, ghetto clubs and after-hours joints, a world within a world that resulted from the migration of black musicians to the West Coast.

Peter Vacher has been lecturing and writing about jazz for more than fifty years. He has contributed to a wide variety of publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Guardian newspaper. His collaboration with clarinetist Joe Darensbourg on his autobiography inspired his research on African-American jazz in California. He is the author of two books of interviews with American jazz musicians, among them many who performed in Los Angeles.

Epigraphs
Acknowledgments
Snapshot
Introduction
Chapter 1: Andrew ‘Andy’ Blakeney
Chapter 2: Gideon Joseph ‘Gid’ Honore, Jr
Chapter 3: George Robert Orendorff
Chapter 4: Nathaniel Jack ‘Monk’ Mcfay
Chapter 5: Floyd Payne Turnham, Jr
Chapter 6: Betty Hall Jones
Chapter 7: Mclure ‘Red Mack’ Morris
Chapter 8: Caughey Wesley Roberts II
Chapter 9: Chester C. Lane
Chapter 10: Isadore Leonidas ‘Monte’ Easter
Chapter 11: William King ‘Billy’ Hadnott
Chapter 12: Norman ‘Norm’ Leland Bowden
Chapter 13: John Richard ‘Streamline’ Ewing
Chapter 14: Charles L. ‘Chuck’ Thomas, Jr.
Chapter 15: Jesse John Sailes
Chapter 16: ‘Red’ Minor W. Robinson
Bibliography

Verlagsort	Lanham, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	162 x 233 mm
Gewicht	689 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Jazz / Blues
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-8108-8832-7 / 0810888327
ISBN-13	978-0-8108-8832-6 / 9780810888326
Zustand	Neuware