Jazz and Justice - by Gerald Horne (Paperback)

About the Book

Original jelly roll blues -- What did I do to be so black and blue? -- One o'clock jump -- Hothouse -- We speak African! -- Lullabye of birdland -- Haitian fight song -- Kind of blue -- I wish I knew how it would feel to be free -- Song for Che -- The blues and the abstract truth.

Book Synopsis

A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation

The music we call "jazz" arose in late nineteenth century North America--most likely in New Orleans--based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the "blues," which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US--and Black American--contribution to global arts and culture.

Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era's most virulent economic--and racist--exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration.

Review Quotes

"[A]n exhaustive examination of archives, oral history interviews, autobiographies, and secondary literature that presents a devastating picture of what has been termed 'cockroach capitalism'--the jazz business that ruthlessly exploits and degrades [not just] African American musicians."-Douglas Daniels, author of Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young