[Dixielandjazz] Come in and Hear The Truth

[Stephen G Barbone]

Sound like an interesting read. Especially for us old boys who managed  
to visit 52nd Street while it was still a jazz mecca. For the kids on  
the list, this is where it was happening.

It is available on Amazon for about $25.

Cheers,

Steve Barbone

www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband



Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street Review By Tom  
Greenland - All About Jazz

Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street  by Patrick  
Burke
Hardcover; 314 pages  ISBN: 987-0-22608071-0
University of Chicago Press  2008

The section of Manhattan's 52nd Street between 5th and 7th Avenues,  
fondly referred to as “The Street,” holds iconic status as a major  
epicenter of jazz from Prohibition through World War II. Partrick  
Burke's book is a critical reexamination of 52nd Street's history with  
particular focus on racial relations, the social ethos of “bachelor”  
culture, the development and popularity of jazz genres and the  
aesthetic tension between jazz viewed as a “high” art form of  
spontaneous individual expression versus jazz as standardized popular  
(read: “low”) entertainment.

Burke is especially interested in how the various stylistic  
representations of jazz--dixieland, swing and bop--influence and are  
influenced by racial stereotyping and in how black entertainers  
adopted individual, even contrary, strategies to undermine such  
perceptions. He suggests, for example, that violinist Stuff Smith  
combined improvisational prowess with showman's shtick in his early  
performances at the Onyx Club, while his successor, singer Maxine  
Sullivan, relied on John Kirby's classicized arrangements, European  
repertory and a gracious, cultivated stage demeanor.
Thoroughly researched using archives, newspapers, trade magazines,  
interviews, supplemented with period photos and a timeline of key  
clubs, the book is laid out in a series of case studies: the origins  
of the Onyx club (once a speakeasy and insider hangout for white  
“legit” musicians); the Spirits of Rhythm at the Onyx; singers and  
trumpeters Louis Prima and Wingy Manone (white musicians who  
appropriated and popularized black music) at the Famous Door; Smith  
then Sullivan at the Onyx; Count Basie at the Famous Door; clarinetist  
Joe Marsala at the Hickory House; the rise of bebop and the Dixieland  
Revival at Jimmy Ryan's.

More than a historical retread, Burke's treatment of the  
aforementioned themes makes for stimulating and informative reading.