Charleston Jazz
by Jack McCray

Charleston Jazz (Arcadia Publishing)

Arcadia Publishing (2007). 127pp. 6.5 x 9.25 inches. Paperback. ISBN-10: 0-7385-4350-0. ISBN-13: 978-0-7385-4350-5.


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From the Book Cover

About the Book

Charleston Jazz sets out to reveal the rich, untold story of the evolution of American jazz in one of its major cradles: Charleston, South Carolina. The text and images show that what happened on the Gullah coast of South Carolina in terms of history, culture, and entertainment had a huge impact on jazz as we know it today. By all accounts, jazz is America's classical music. It now stands at the dawn of its second century and is poised to take its place as one of the more meaningful cultural phenomena ever to come along. Since Charleston was the gateway for enslaved Africans into the United States, it is no wonder that this uniquely beautiful place produced key creators of what many believe to be the country's most important influence on world culture. An international Charleston diaspora of jazz musicians attests to the fact that the likes of Freddie Green, William “Cat” Anderson, and Edmund Thornton Jenkins spread the Charleston style everywhere. Charleston jazz is one of the last great unknown stories in American history.

About the Author

Author Jack McCray has dedicated three decades to examining and preserving the Charleston tradition through the prism of its jazz legacy. He has written about jazz as a longtime reported and editor at the Post and Courier. McCray also is a lead researcher and cofounder of the Charleston Jazz Initiative, a multi-year research project that documents the African American jazz tradition in Charleston and its movement throughout the United States and Europe from the late 19th century through today.


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