[Dixielandjazz] Come in and Hear The Truth

[Bill Haesler]

Stephen G Barbone wrote:
> Sounds 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.

> 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
>
> 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.
> ............ 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.

Dear Steve,
And for those of us who have the recordings of those bands, made at  
the time.
Well now, I might not have too many of the 'bop-influenced' groups,  
but have all the others.
I'll get the book when our current US/AUD$ exchange rate improves.
King regards,
Bill