Pioneers of jazz : the story of the Creole Band /

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Gushee, Lawrence.
Imprint:New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.
Description:xi, 384 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Original Creole Orchestra.
Original Creole Orchestra.
Jazz musicians -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- Biography.
Jazz musicians.
Louisiana -- New Orleans.
Biography.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/5637245
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0195161319 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-359) and index.
committed to retain 20170930 20421213 HathiTrust
Review by Choice Review

Gushee (emer., Univ. of Illinois) offers the first history of the Creole Band, which was together from 1914 to 1917, when jazz was just emerging as a new musical style. The author first discusses the Louisiana background of the band members, but he soon moves on to other territory. The Creole Band had its commercial start in California, and Gushee is most interested in musical developments in the West, where the Creole Band spent most of its time, and in the Midwest. The author devotes considerable space to analyzing the nature of vaudeville shows and musical acts at the time and to the differences between ragtime and jazz. Since the Creole Band did no recording, pinning down their musical style is difficult; Gushee calls them a very early jazz band. This book joins other books on early regional developments of jazz--e.g., Charles Sengstock's That Toddlin' Town (CH, May'05, 42-5175), which looks at Chicago's white dance bands, and Philip Pastras's Dead Man Blues (CH, Nov'01, 39-1476), which discusses Jelly Roll Morton's time in the West Coast. Gushee includes numerous illustrations, detailed notes, and explanations of the origins of jazz and other matters. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. D. Cohen emeritus, Indiana University Northwest

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Gushee (music, emeritus, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) persuasively argues that the little-known Creole Band of New Orleans was the first outfit to export jazz to the rest of America during its tours between 1914 and 1918. Little in the way of hard evidence or reliable information survives from this dim and misty era between the birth of jazz and the Jazz Age, so Gushee relies on the judgment of people who actually heard the seven-piece band-that is, music critics and particularly Jelly Roll Morton, often credited as the creator of jazz, and the Creole Band's respective clarinetist and cornetist, Jimmie Noone and Freddie Keppard. Gushee passes lightly through the shoals of detail concerning the band's appearances on the vaudeville circuit, pausing only to call attention to a billing or an excerpt from a markedly favorable review that demonstrates the band's influence. Such meticulous scholarship is enriched by the author's obvious personal passion for the music (he performs ragtime and early jazz on clarinet). Written in a congenial scholarly tone, this book makes an important contribution to jazz history. Essential for academic jazz collections and highly recommended for larger public libraries.-Harold V. Cordry, Tecumseh, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review


Review by Library Journal Review