JAZZ: A Quick Immersion (Quick Immersions)

Jazz is the foundation of all American music. Starting out as a rhythmic revolution in New Orleans, jazz morphed into big band swing, bebop, and rhythm-and-blues, while its ideas of groove and improvisation became integral to soul and rock, then funk and hip-hop. This book focuses on jazz's development in the African-American communities of five cities - New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and Los Angeles - through a combination of urban studies, historical context, and key profiles of major figures. It is also a listening guide: curated playlists illuminate the dynamic interaction of solo and group, blues and grooves, improvisation and ensemble swinging. Jazz masters taught the planet's musicians how to find their own individual voices and then to risk this in dynamic conversation with others. Jazz is a story of art, culture, race, freedom, aesthetics, politics, struggle, and self-expression.