Jazz is the most colorful and varied art form in the world and it was born in one of the most colorful and varied cities, New Orleans. From the seed first planted by slave dances held in Congo Square and nurtured by early ensembles led by Buddy Belden and Joe "King" Oliver, jazz began its long winding odyssey across America and around the world, giving flower to a thousand different forms--swing, bebop, cool jazz, jazz-rock fusion--and a thousand great musicians. Now, in The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia tells the story of this music as it has never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved.

Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history--Jelly Roll Morton ("the world's greatest hot tune writer"), Louis Armstrong (whose O-keh recordings of the mid-1920s still stand as the most significant body of work that jazz has produced), Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker's surgical precision of attack, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the Knitting Factory. Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. Gioia also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made. And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born. He shows for instance how the development of technology helped promote the growth of jazz--how ragtime blossomed hand-in-hand with the spread of parlor and player pianos, and how jazz rode the growing popularity of the record industry in the 1920s. We also discover how bebop grew out of the racial unrest of the 1940s and '50s, when black players, no longer content with being "entertainers," wanted to be recognized as practitioners of a serious musical form. Jazz is a chameleon art, delighting us with the ease and rapidity with which it changes colors. Now, in Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz, we have at last a book that captures all these colors on one glorious palate. Knowledgeable, vibrant, and comprehensive, it is among the small group of books that can truly be called classics of jazz literature.

Praise for The History of Jazz

“Possibly the best survey to date.” --Ann Douglas in the New York Times

“If you are looking for an introduction to jazz, this is it. If you know and love jazz well, this is your vade mecum. Me, I expect to be reading around in it for the rest of my life . . . [It is] the definitive work: encyclopedic, discriminating, provocative, perceptive and eminently readable. With its publication, it can no longer be said that the literature of jazz falls far short of the music itself.” --Jonathan Yardley in the Washington Post

“In The History of Jazz, Gioia has written an authoritative work of research that does not spare the poetic power of words.” --James Sullivan in the San Francisco Chronicle

"Gioia's History stands a good chance of becoming the standard guide for general readers and academics. . . . Gioia coherently and eruditely compacts into 400-odd pages the work of 30 volumes. Impressive with epic sweep, he details divinely too.” --Greg Tate in the Village Voice

“Ted Gioia’s The History of Jazz is the work of a noted jazz scholar and performer, but is just as plainly aimed at a general audience. . . . Anyone looking for a balanced, well-written popular history of jazz will certainly find it both readable and reliable . . . nor should more experienced readers expect to come away empty-handed.” --Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal

“This is the book you need if you require a grasp of the music’s history, and it is a friendly companion for those who have an overview but will always welcome more details . . .It is the best history in print.” --John Clare in The Australian’s Review of Books

“Powerful and dynamic . . . essential reading for the serious jazz student” --Dr. Lee Bash in Jazz Educator’s Journal

“If you wanted to introduce someone to jazz with a single book, this would be a good choice.” --Kirkus Review