A New History Of Jazz

Much of what we think we know about jazz is the result of a small body of information being 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 20th 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 20th 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 1920 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 of jazz in the last thirty years of the 20th century: free jazz, jazz rock, world music influences, the new historicism of the repertory movement and the continuing internationalism of the genre.